Behavioral Approaches
Behavioral methods are aimed to teach the patients the art of sleeping well and the ability to relax. These methods are effective and work much better than drugs including all age groups. Approximately 70-80% of those who are treated with such methods experience improved their sleep a lot. About 75% of those who have been taking sleeping pills are actually able to stop or reduce their use.
Physicians recommend the following methods in order of efficacy for patient with chronic insomnia:
 - Stimulus control. It involves going to bed only when ready to sleep or for sex, avoiding naps, maintaining a regular wake-up time, if you are unable to sleep within twenty minutes, get up and go into another room.
- Progressive muscle relaxation. It is another effective technique for improving sleep. Muscle relaxation takes about 10 minutes a day and includes following:
- Concentrate on a specific group of muscles.
- Breathe in and strain muscle group for about eight second until the muscles begin to shake and mild muscle pain occurs.
- Relax the muscles quickly and let them become limp and loose. Stay in such condition for 15 seconds and then repeat again.
- Focus on the other muscle group and repeat the sequence.
- Biofeedback. It requires being monitoring with an electroencephalogram (EEG), an instrument that measures brain waves. You are given feedback to recognize actual states of tension or sleep stages so that you can either avoid or repeat them voluntary.
- Paradoxical intention. It is a psychological approach that is based on doing the reverse of what one wants or fears and take it to extreme. For example, instead of going through activities leading to sleep, prepare for staying awake and do something energetic.
- Sleep limitation therapy. It may be effective, although evidence is unconvincing. It includes the keeping a sleep diary for two weeks.
 - Multicomponent cognitive behavioral therapy includes sleep hygiene, cognitive imagery training.
- Exercise is one of the most appropriate ways to improve your sleep.
- Psychotherapy. Many people are unwilling to make an appointment with a psychologist or psychiatrist, yet insomnia is commonly caused by emotional disorders. Sleeplessness is often associated with unconscious conflicts, such as those that involve loss of control, self-exposure, aggression, injury, and sexuality.
- Unconventional therapies.
- Some researchers reported that people who chewed gum from midnight until morning reported less sleepiness than those who also stayed up but didn’t chew.
- Low-energy emission therapy (LEET) uses radio waves transmitted through a spoon-like device that inserted into the patient’s mouth before sleep.
- Meditation, hypnosis, guided imagery, and acupuncture may also be helpful for some patients.
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