Managing insomnia: An evaluation of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia in clinical and preventive contexts
Insomnia is not an afterthought: treatment pays off
Insomnia is a common and often long-term condition, but is still insufficiently recognized and treated in practice. This also applies to people with psychological complaints, for whom sleep problems often go hand in hand with, for example, anxiety, depressive symptoms or trauma complaints.
In my dissertation, I investigated the relationship between insomnia and various psychological complaints and evaluated online cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia in people who also experience psychological complaints. In doing so, I investigated not only the effectiveness of this treatment, but also the cost-effectiveness, applicability and experiences of participants and therapists. Finally, I investigated whether sleep interventions can contribute to the prevention of depression in the long term.
Strong and long-lasting improvements
My research shows that insomnia can and should be actively treated, even when there are psychological complaints at the same time. Online cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, with the guidance of a therapist, led to strong and long-term improvements in sleep. The treatment also turned out to be very applicable and probably cost-effective for reducing insomnia.
The effects on psychological complaints were more limited. Although some anxiety and other psychological symptoms decreased after sleep treatment, these improvements were small and not always permanent. Treating insomnia alone is therefore usually not enough to remedy other psychological complaints.
In the long term, we also found that a combination of treatment of insomnia and support of the biological day-night rhythm could reduce the risk of developing a major depressive disorder. However, this effect differed between types of insomnia.
More information on the thesis to follow.