Sleep
Are you having problems sleeping night after night, feeling tired, stressed and anxious? Get positive results with a therapy that’s established as the leading first-line treatment for insomnia.
Sleep Services Menu
Sleep Assessment
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Find out more about the root of your insomnia with a comprehensive history and assessment of your sleep problems. Includes screening for sleep disorders and treatment recommendations. Required before starting Sleep Counselling.
Insomnia Treatment
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Beat sleep problems and sleep anxiety with Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I), the gold standard treatment for insomnia! CBT-I can be used along with other therapies for trauma, depression, chronic pain, acquired brain injury, sleep apnea, ADHD, and anxiety.
Nightmare Treatment
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Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Nightmares (CBT-N) is designed to decrease nightmares and enhance sleep quality by instilling healthy habits and relaxation techniques. This short-term therapy (typically 6 sessions) tackles nightmares by delving into their content and fosters positive dream experiences through visualization exercises. Research shows that CBT-N can decrease nightmare frequency and intensity while helping PTSD and depression symptoms during the day.
Custom Solutions
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A personalized treatment for those with a wide range of sleep problems, such as insomnia, bedtime procrastination, daytime sleepiness, poor sleep quality, and irregular sleep-wake schedules. The treatment is appropriate for most individuals with sleep problems, including those with mental health concerns.
CPAP Mask Help
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Untreated sleep apnea can impact your health. Move forward with your sleep apnea treatment with CPAP Mask Desensitization. CPAP Mask Desensitization is a simple, effective treatment to deal with mask-related claustrophobia and improve your comfort level with your CPAP mask.
Sleep Groups
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Group series. If you’re having trouble with sleep and your efforts are not helping, this group was designed for you! Get the help and support you need to start sleeping better.
Thinking about getting help for nightmares?
Nightmares aren’t just bad dreams; they can deeply impact your body, thoughts, and actions. By addressing these issues, you can reclaim restful sleep and improve your overall well-being.
How Nightmares Affect Your Body
Nightmares and sleep problems can leave your body feeling out of sync:
Daytime Fatigue: Poor sleep can make you feel confused, forgetful, and easily frustrated.
High Alert Before Bedtime: You might feel wired and restless when you should be winding down.
Panic Upon Waking: Nightmares can trigger intense physical reactions like a racing heart, sweating, or even a sense of choking.
Ongoing Physical Symptoms: You may experience shakiness, dizziness, or numbness that linger throughout the day.
How Nightmares Impact Your Thoughts
The mental toll of nightmares can be just as significant:
Fear of Sleep: The anticipation of another nightmare may make you dread going to bed.
Negative Beliefs About Sleep: You might convince yourself that restful sleep is impossible, or that nightmares are inevitable.
Feeling Hopeless: It’s easy to think there’s nothing you can do to improve your sleep or that you’ve already tried everything.
How Nightmares Change Your Actions
Your behaviour, both at night and during the day, can start to revolve around avoiding sleep or the effects of nightmares:
Avoidance: You may start avoiding anything that reminds you of the nightmares, including sleep itself.
Turning to Substances: You might use medications, cannabis, or alcohol to help you sleep.
Engaging in Unhealthy Sleep Habits: Watching TV in bed, taking frequent naps, or relying on energy drinks and coffee can all disrupt your sleep patterns.
How Treatment Can Help
Targeting these areas through treatment can make a significant difference:
Improve Sleep Quality: Better sleep can lead to reduced daytime symptoms of depression, anxiety, and PTSD.
Reduce Nightmares: Treatment aims to decrease both the frequency and intensity of your nightmares.
What to Expect in Treatment
This active treatment process requires your full participation:
Hands-On Practice: Assignments between sessions help reinforce new skills.
Daily Tracking: You’ll monitor your sleep and nightmares each day.
Behavioural Changes: Identifying and altering unhelpful sleep behaviours is key.
Skill Development: You’ll learn techniques to improve sleep and reduce nightmares, including reimagining and altering disturbing dreams.
Proven Results
While outcomes can vary, research shows that this treatment can be as effective as medications for reducing nightmare frequency and improving sleep quality. Some studies even suggest that up to 70% of participants experience less than one nightmare per week after completing treatment.
By actively participating in this treatment, you have a strong chance of reducing nightmares and reclaiming the restful sleep you deserve.
Nightmares Explained
History and Cultural Significance
Nightmares have long captured the imagination of humanity, permeating our collective consciousness and leaving an indelible mark on folklore, literature, and cultural beliefs. (click for more)
Across different civilizations and historical periods, nightmares have been interpreted and understood in diverse ways, reflecting the complex interplay between psychology, spirituality, and societal norms.
In ancient civilizations, such as Mesopotamia and Egypt, nightmares were often attributed to malevolent spirits or demons. These malevolent entities were believed to visit individuals during sleep, causing distressing dreams and terrorizing the dreamer. Protective amulets and rituals were employed to ward off these malevolent forces and safeguard against nightmares.
In medieval Europe, nightmares were viewed through a lens of superstition and religious fervour. The night was considered a time of heightened vulnerability, where demonic forces roamed freely, preying on unsuspecting souls. Nightmares were often interpreted as manifestations of sin or spiritual affliction, with individuals seeking solace through prayers, religious rituals, and talismans.
During the Renaissance period, nightmares became a subject of fascination for artists and scholars alike. Influenced by the burgeoning field of psychology and philosophy, thinkers such as Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung delved into the symbolic meaning of dreams, including nightmares. Freud, in particular, explored the subconscious mind and its role in shaping dream imagery, proposing that nightmares often reflected repressed desires or unresolved conflicts.
Across various cultures, myths and legends abound surrounding the origins and significance of nightmares. In some Indigenous traditions, nightmares are seen as messages from the spirit world, conveying warnings or insights to the dreamer. In Chinese folklore, nightmares are believed to be caused by the roaming spirits of the deceased, seeking to communicate with the living.
Today, while our understanding of nightmares has evolved with advances in psychology and neuroscience, cultural interpretations continue to influence how we perceive and respond to these nocturnal disturbances. From ancient rituals to modern therapies, the quest to understand and alleviate nightmares persists, reminding us of the enduring fascination and mystery surrounding the realm of dreams. As we navigate the rich tapestry of historic and cultural ideas about nightmares, we gain a deeper appreciation for the profound impact they have had on human experience throughout the ages.
Understanding Nightmares
Nightmares are unsettling experiences that disrupt our sleep and leave us feeling distressed upon waking. They can stem from various sources, including trauma, stress, and even everyday worries. (click for more)
Exploring the nature of nightmares involves delving into two key theories.
One theory suggests that nightmares serve as a mechanism for the mind to process traumatic events. Known as emotional processing or trauma processing, this perspective purposes that nightmares are manifestations of unresolved psychological distress. For individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), nightmares often represent intrusive symptoms, replaying distressing events or emotions related to past traumas. Through the lens of this theory, nightmares can be seen as the mind’s attempt to grapple with and integrate overwhelming or distressing experiences.
The second theory, known as mood matching, proposes that nightmares may arise as a result of our emotional state during sleep. According to this perspective, the content of nightmares reflects the mood or emotional themes present in our waking life. For example, if we experience heightened anxiety or fear during the day, we may be more likely to have nightmares characterized by similar emotions during the night. Mood matching suggests that our subconscious mind may amplify or mirror our prevailing emotional state through the imagery and themes of our dreams.
Understanding these theories provides insight into the complex nature of nightmares and underscores the importance of addressing underlying psychological factors. Whether stemming from unresolved trauma or reflecting current emotional states, nightmares can significantly impact our well-being and quality of sleep. Seeking support from a qualified therapist can help individuals navigate the emotional challenges associated with nightmares and work towards achieving restful, peaceful sleep.
Insomnia Explained
Acute Insomnia
Most people experience a bout of insomnia at some point in their lives. Most of the time, insomnia resolves in a reasonable amount of time. This type of insomnia is called acute (short-term). (click for more)
Acute Insomnia is often due to temporary life stressors like a job change, relationship problems, or other life circumstances. When the stress lessens, normal sleep usually returns.
Situational factors like travel, an important event, a physical health problem, pain, a psychological condition (such as anxiety, depression, PTSD, or ADHD), or some types of medication may also contribute to insomnia.
Sometimes our attempts to deal with Acute Insomnia, such as going to bed much earlier, staying in bed longer, or trying to nap during the day, can create “the perfect storm” for Chronic Insomnia to take hold. more…
Chronic Insomnia
For about 1 in 10 adults, acute insomnia doesn’t resolve and may continue for months or years. Insomnia is usually considered chronic (long-term) when it lasts for more than 3 months. (click for more)
It may start as a reaction to a stressor, but it continues even though the stressor or event is no longer occurring. Once it becomes chronic, insomnia usually doesn’t resolve on its own.
Chronic Insomnia is defined as inadequate or poor-quality sleep characterized by:
- trouble getting to sleep
- hard to stay asleep
- waking up too early in the morning
- non-restorative sleep
- daytime consequences caused by the sleep disturbance (e.g., fatigue, irritability, diminished concentration, etc.)
The Root of Insomnia
Hyperarousal, decreased sleep drive, and altered sleep rhythm are at the root of chronic insomnia. Hyperarousal may feel like the inability to “turn off” your brain. (click for more)
and/or body when it’s time to sleep. Thoughts related to sleep can interfere with sleep, including worry and rumination about falling or staying asleep, focusing on the possible daytime effects of poor sleep, and inaccurate beliefs about sleep.
Any combination of these thoughts may create anxiety and cognitive arousal, which often leads to physical tension, and all of this can lead to insomnia.
Sleep drive is designed to naturally build up over the day while awake and be released when we go to bed (think of a balloon filling and then releasing). We build sleep drive by being awake, active and out of bed. A week sleep drive contributes to insomnia.
The behaviours we use to deal with a bout of acute insomnia may lead to an altered sleep rhythm and to the bed and bedroom becoming paired with frustration, worry and wakefulness. Over time repetitive pairing or simply thinking about sleep can signal the body and the brain to be awake.
Treatment
Work with a skilled therapist who truly gets the night-after-night struggle of tossing and turning.
- Brenda offers one-on-one counselling sessions aimed at conquering insomnia, alleviating nightmare distress, and managing a wide range of sleep problems, ensuring you receive the necessary guidance and support.
- Brenda is also adept at addressing other concerns such as stress, depression, anxiety, relationship issues, grief, self-esteem, and ADHD. Her comprehensive approach to treatment aims for a holistic improvement in both sleep quality and mental health.
Treatment for Nightmares and/or Insomnia
Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I)
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) is considered the gold standard for treating chronic insomnia. Here are some evidence-based benefits:
- May Prevent Relapse: CBT-I can help prevent relapse into insomnia by teaching skills that individuals can continue to use after treatment ends.
- Improved Sleep: CBT-I helps individuals fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer, and improve overall sleep quality.
- Reduced Dependence on Sleep Medications: CBT-I can lead to a decrease in the need for sleep medications, which can have side effects and risks of dependency.
- Long-Term Results: Studies suggest that the benefits of CBT-I are sustained over time, even after treatment ends.
- Addressing Underlying Causes: CBT-I doesn’t just treat the symptoms of insomnia; it also addresses underlying causes and contributors to sleep difficulties.
- Improved Daytime Functioning: Better sleep leads to improved daytime functioning, including better concentration, mood, and overall quality of life.
- Effective for Various Populations: CBT-I has been shown to be effective for different populations, including older adults, individuals with chronic pain, and those with co-occurring mental health conditions.
- Customized Treatment: CBT-I is tailored to the individual, addressing their specific sleep patterns, habits, and challenges.
- Reduced Symptoms of Depression: There is a bidirectional relationship between insomnia and depression. Treating insomnia with CBT-I can lead to a reduction in depressive symptoms, as improved sleep positively impacts mood and overall mental health.
Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Nightmares (CBT-N)
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Nightmares (CBT-N) is an effective treatment for recurring nightmares, particularly those associated with trauma. Here are some evidence-based benefits:
- Can be Combined with Other Therapies: CBT-N can be combined with other therapies, such as trauma-focused therapy, for comprehensive treatment.
- Reduction in Nightmares: CBT-N helps reduce the frequency and intensity of nightmares, leading to improved sleep quality.
- Decreased Distress: By addressing the content and emotional impact of nightmares, CBT-N can reduce the distress caused by these dreams.
- Improved Sleep: Better management of nightmares can lead to improved overall sleep patterns and quality.
- Addressing Trauma: CBT-N often includes techniques to process and cope with trauma, which can lead to a reduction in PTSD symptoms.
- Improved Daytime Functioning: Better sleep quality and reduced distress from nightmares can lead to improved daytime functioning, including mood and cognitive abilities.
- Customized Approach: Like CBT-I, CBT-N is tailored to the individual, addressing their specific nightmare content and triggers.
- Skills for Coping: CBT-N teaches skills for coping with nightmares, which can be applied beyond the therapy sessions.
- May Prevent Nightmares from Becoming Chronic: Early intervention with CBT-N can prevent nightmares from becoming a chronic issue.
“A good laugh and long sleep are the two best cures for anything.“
Irish Proverb