He recommends starting with a two-week sleep diary. If a client answers yes to any of those questions, "then you should do a much more detailed sleep assessment," says Peachey. Therapists in training can start by adding these three questions to their intake evaluations, he says:Īre you excessively sleepy during the day?ĭo others complain about your snoring, tossing and turning, or other sleep behaviors? Peachey's experience in teaching an introductory sleep course shows adding insomnia treatments to your therapy toolbox doesn't require intensive training. Peachey, a clinical psychology student at the California School of Professional Psychology in San Francisco. "Regardless of the diagnosis, if we treat insomnia directly, that results in improvement across the board," says TEPP study author John T. According to a study led by Harvey and published in 2008 in Current Directions in Psychological Science, if you combine insomnia interventions with treatments for mental health problems, the effectiveness of both increases. When psychologists treat patients for sleep disorders, they often treat them separate from other problems, says Allison Harvey, PhD, a psychology professor at the University of California at Berkeley. "But they forget the hidden interest rates." Sleep Interventions "People often think of sleep in compensatory terms, like a credit card," Barber says. Even if they never plan to set foot in a therapy room, science-oriented grad students should know that regular, quality sleep is key for creative thinking and productivity. A case in point: Helping your clients sleep better can reduce marital discord and ease symptoms of depression, researchers have found. That's unfortunate, especially for future therapists who would do well to learn more about the importance of sleep, says Larissa Barber, PhD, a psychology professor at Northern Illinois University who studies sleep. Myers, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. "Psychologists rarely heed their own advice," says study author Shannon B. Meanwhile, another article in TEPP found that psychology students average only about four hours of sleep a night. Most psych students get two hours or less of training and lectures on the topic of sleep, according to an article in February's Training and Education in Professional Psychology. If you haven't heard about these links, you're not alone. Not convinced yet? Poor sleep can take years off your life - with one study finding that men who get fewer than six hours of sleep a night are four times more likely to die within the year ( Then there are the cognitive effects of poor sleep - including a decreased ability to pay attention and solve problems ( The Clinical Neuropsychologist, 2012). But did you know that skimping on your zzz's can trigger major depression ( Journal of Affective Disorders, 2011)? Bouts of insomnia may even predict suicide ( Combat and Operational Stress Research Quarterly (PDF, 35.4KB), 2012) and serve as a more serious harbinger of self-harm than depression or hopelessness ( Journal of Affective Disorders, 2012). As a psychology graduate student, you probably know that sleep is important.
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