Field of work
Sleep disorders
Sleep can break down in many different ways, and each one calls for a different intervention. The first step is always to work out what we are actually dealing with.
Sleep-onset insomnia
You lie down and sleep does not come. The time it takes you to fall asleep is consistently over 20–30 minutes.
Read more →Sleep-maintenance insomnia
You fall asleep, but you wake during the night and struggle to get back to sleep.
Read more →Chronic insomnia
Difficulty at least three nights a week, for at least three months, with a clear impact on your day.
Read more →Parasomnias
Sleepwalking, night terrors, sleep talking, behaviours during the night.
Read more →Nightmares
Intensely distressing dreams that wake you and leave you afraid to go back to sleep.
Read more →Circadian disorders
Your body clock is out of step with your schedule — delayed phase, shift work, jet lag.
Read more →Insomnia & anxiety
When insomnia coexists with anxiety or depressive symptoms.
Read more →Coming off sleeping pills
Sleep that depends on the pill, with tolerance to the dose and fear of stopping.
Read more →
When a sleep study is needed
When insomnia is not insomnia
Loud snoring, breathing pauses described by a partner, morning headache, heavy daytime sleepiness, restless legs in the evening: these are not treated with psychotherapy. They point to organic sleep disorders that need a sleep study.
That is why the assessment sits within a hospital framework, in collaboration with the Sleep Laboratory of Errikos Dynan Hospital Center. Where a suspicion arises, a referral is made for polysomnography or home recording before any behavioural intervention begins.
The right treatment for the wrong diagnosis is not treatment.
Sleep hygiene
The basics — and why they are not enough
- A fixed wake time every day — weekends included.
- A bedroom that is quiet, dark and cool.
- No vigorous exercise, alcohol or heavy meals in the two hours before bed.
- Caffeine until early afternoon and no later.
- Screens and social media out of the bed.
- If sleep does not come, get up — do not lie there awake.
Necessary, but on their own they rarely resolve chronic insomnia. They are the ground CBT-I works on — not a substitute for it.