Healthy sleep patterns are a significant component of good physical and mental health. Quality sleep can be affected by such things as stress, age, pregnancy, physical health problems, and shift work. Behaviors related to sleep problems can be one of three types: predisposing, precipitating, and perpetuating. Additionally, cognitive processes related to sleep quality tend to be predominated by sleep thinking or insomnia thinking. Multiple medical organizations promote Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia as a best practice for clinical management of sleep problems and disorders. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia consists of five components aimed at addressing both the behavioral and cognitive impediments to high quality sleep. These components are sleep hygiene, relaxation, sleep restriction, stimulus control, and cognitive therapy. This paper will address each component, as well as provide a patient education pattern well suited for primary care settings.
Keywords: and primary care; cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia; insomnia; relaxation techniques; sleep hygiene.