If you know me professionally, you know I am a tremendous advocate for good quality sleep. It should be a priority for all of us. This fall I had the pleasure of meeting Kasryn Kapp, LPC who specializes in therapy designed to help people sleep better (CBT-I).
When she causally dropped “after a client is sleeping well, they sometimes see more breakthroughs in therapy, and that clients can feel more energized to dive deeper into the work they’re doing in other areas of their life (like their relationships or their trauma).” I immediately thought “I NEED to learn more and promote her type of therapy. Too many of us are walking zombies.”
What follows in this blog post is a brief video she and I filmed followed by an outline of the questions and answers from the interview. In my correspondence with her, I learned about more than sleep. She is incredibly warm, competent, patient, and well versed in accessibility.
I hope you enjoy this post and give yourself the gift of rest this holiday season and into the Spring. If you are struggling to sleep or know a sleep deprived teen, consider reaching out to her for therapy proven to help people sleep better and live life more fully.
How about you introduce yourself?
I’m a licensed professional counselor. I’ve been in the field for about 9 years and I love helping people rest well and achieve their personal and professional goals.
What is CBT-I?
CBT-I stands for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia. It is a science-based approach to insomnia that resets your sleep — allowing you to heal and support your body’s own natural ability to sleep.
When you’ve had trouble sleeping for a while, it becomes a learned cycle or pattern that your body gets stuck in — like a bad habit.
As with most bad habits, it sticks around for a long time. CBT-I is a set of structured techniques and strategies to break that pattern, and establish a new healthy pattern of sleep. Allowing your body to repair its natural sleep mechanism in 6-8 weeks.
This is more than basic skills like limiting screen time and winding down (those things on their own often aren’t enough). I give a full session-by-session breakdown on my website on the CBT-I page.
Could it be used if someone is already seeing a therapist?
CBT-I works well as an add on to other mental health therapies. Sleeping well can help support therapeutic work and processing.
When should people seek out therapy for sleep?
CBT-I is a great fit for anyone struggling with insomnia.
I particularly enjoy working with adults who have tried everything and still feel stuck with racing, ping ponging thoughts when they really just want to sleep.
Many people wonder “Is my sleep normal” or “how bad does my sleep need to be to get support?”
The criteria for insomnia (put succinctly) is having dissatisfaction with sleep three nights a week or more, for three months or longer. This could be one or a combination of the following: waking up too early and not being able to fall back asleep, wake time in the middle of the night or difficulty falling asleep. You do not need to have all three types.
However, most of my colleagues agree that clients with subclinical sleep issues (that don’t meet the criteria for insomnia) benefit from sleep-focused support.
As my instructor puts it: If someone has been having trouble with sleep for a month, we don’t need to tell people to go suffer for another two months before they can get help. That said, not all providers are on board with or able to help with subclinical sleep issues. For example, if insurance requires medical necessity, not meeting criteria would be a barrier to treatment.
Some people then wonder, “well, I have difficulty, and I’m dissatisfied with sleep but how do I know if it is bad enough?”
The level of dissatisfaction is subjective and not well defined in the DSM. If you’re dissatisfied, it is enough.
It can be helpful to know that it is considered normal to take some time to fall asleep (less than 30 minutes) and it is also considered normal to have some brief time awaken in the night or awaken early (less than 30 minutes). If you aren’t sure, you can always schedule an assessment to get a full thorough review of your sleep.
How about teens and sleep? I run into many sleep deprived adolescents
Teens are particularly prone to sleep deprivation. Teens tend to have a delayed sleep schedule (be more of a night owl) and school usually begins quite early in the morning. Many sleep providers are advocating for school to start later because of teen’s biological inclination to do better with a later schedule. In the meantime, there are things that can help improve their sleep so don’t be deterred from treatment.
The benefits of improved sleep are huge. In particular for teens with depression, treating insomnia can improve depression remission rates. Here’s a research article for more detail: NCBI