According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, those who suffer from depression or anxiety claim an increase in their anxiety due to lack of sleep with 52 percent of men and 42 percent of women stating it directly affected their ability to remain focused the following day.

Your social life can also suffer which can lead to depression or increased depression signs. Without quality sleep, the body cannot repair and becomes a state of sleep deprivation that stacks nightly. This leads to a rapid decline of behavioral response including moodiness and irritability.

How to tackle anxiety depends on the underlying event. One therapy is cognitive behavioral theory (CBT) and can benefit adults in treating anxiety. Learn more about CBT in a blog featuring Dr. Angie Randazzo.

Practices most common with CBT are with the following methods:

• 1. Wind Down Time
• 2. Simple Meditation
• 3. Stimulus Control
• 4. Sleep restriction is another common though sometimes controversial practice that has proven to be an effective treatment step in CBT for insomnia patients. Sleep restriction works by causing mild sleep deprivation to make your assigned bedtimes allow you to achieve better quality sleep. Each patient’s reaction to sleep restriction differs and is adjusted by the patient’s needs.
•    5. Cognitive reframing (used at night): restating irrational or threatening thoughts in rational terms to diffuse fear or worry.
•    6. Thought stopping (used during the daytime): learning to replace negative thoughts about sleep with positive or productive thoughts.
•    7. Process time (used in the evening): journaling thoughts/feelings and coming to a proactive step to take the next day. The following day the practice entails letting go what was written.
•    8. Addressing worries and anxieties such as the need to constantly check the time on the clock at night.Impaired sleep can seriously affect your quality of life and productivity. Behavioral changes implemented under the guidance of an experienced clinician can improve sleep quality and help you feel more alert and functional on a regular basis. Sleep is a third of your life – make it count!

Alaska Sleep Clinic is the most comprehensive mult-isite sleep lab in Alaska with clinics in Anchorage, Wasilla, Fairbanks, and Soldotna and we continue to expand our services to those with sleep disorders. No other CBT sleep specialist provides care in the state of Alaska with Dr. Randazzo available to Alaska Sleep Clinic patients via telemedicine, through SleepTM.

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