Four Useful Concepts When Treating Patients With Insomnia: Possibility of Sleep Index-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia

Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is one of the most common treatments for insomnia and is considered as the first-line treatment. People who struggle to fall asleep or stay asleep or those who do not find sleep refreshing can benefit over four to six sessions of CBT-I. Although CBT-I has many benefits, it does have some drawbacks. Therefore, a brief version needs to be developed for use in clinical practice. This study proposes the following concepts that can be readily applied in clinical practice: 1) Concept 1, 17 hours of activity and 7 hours of sleep; 2) Concept 2, discrepancy between desired time in bed and desired total sleep time; 3) Concept 3, time in bed during 24 hours; and 4) Concept 4, taking sleeping pills 7 hours before the waking up time. These concepts based on sleep indices could easily help patients with insomnia and may serve as a foundation for the development of Sleep Index-based CBT-I.