Word: insomnia
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...despite our best efforts, about 10% of Americans still suffer from persistent insomnia (defined as difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep) - namely, falling asleep or being functionally impaired by sleepiness during the day - and researchers continue to search for its causes and cure. Now a new study in the journal Sleep suggests a surprising treatment for the sleepless: the Internet. Web-based treatments have emerged for all kinds of bad habits and disorders, such as overeating, smoking, depression - and insomnia. (Read "Can a Sleep Disorder Predict Parkinson...
Compared with face-to-face counseling or medical treatments, online therapies are typically simpler and less expensive. Major health insurers like Blue Cross and Aetna even offer Web-based anti-insomnia programs for free (you can check out the retail versions at cbtforinsomnia.com or myselfhelp.com for as little as $20). And there's growing evidence that online therapy really works: in the new Sleep study, 81% of participants who completed a five-week, online program for insomnia reported improvement in sleep...
While prior studies have shown that online therapy can help alleviate insomnia, little research has compared it directly with other approaches. Vincent's study, on the other hand, found that 35% of those who received online treatment reported that they were "much" or "very much" improved, compared with 50% of those who received in-person group therapy using the same behavioral-cognitive approach at Vincent's sleep clinic at the University of Manitoba in Canada. The benefit of the online strategy, of course, is that it can work for people who don't have access to face-to-face therapy...
Some proponents of online therapy say it may actually be more effective than in-person counseling. "You don't have to worry about personalities, and you can go over the material over and over," notes Gregg Jacobs, an insomnia specialist at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, who has offered a self-guided online program for the past two years. Since patients don't have to make time for in-office appointments and can proceed at their own pace, Web-based programs have the potential to reach a much broader audience...
...served as a sleep "guru" for the popular weight-loss reality show The Biggest Loser. Online therapy can be helpful as an educational tool, says Mostafavi, but he cautions, "You don't have the benefit of talking to a professional and finding out what is causing the insomnia." (Insomnia may be a side effect of an underlying condition, such as anxiety, Alzheimer's, arthritis or asthma, or it can result simply from poor sleep habits, like failing to keep a regular bedtime.) Vincent concedes that patients who have deeper problems - those who are depressed or suicidal - or have trouble concentrating...