Simple App May Help Ease Insomnia

Treating insomnia becomes feasible without the use of medications as scientists design a new therapeutic app.

Insomnia is a common and debilitating sleep disorder that can impact a person’s physical and mental health and wellbeing. Symptoms include taking a long time to fall asleep, frequently waking up throughout the night and not feeling rested the following day.

Insomnia — Overview
Difficulty in initiating and maintaining sleep is known as insomnia. It is a symptom that occurs due to other disorders and can cause daytime sleepiness.

‘Insomnia (sleep disorder) can now be managed efficiently by referring the suffering patients to a sleep therapy program designed through an app — Sleepio.’

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The app has received an official recommendation from the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE — provides national guidance and advice to improve health and social care in England); however, at present, it is only available in Australia via a Flinders University clinical trial.

Sleepio — the Therapeutic App

Sleepio — the new app is deemed to be a safe and effective treatment for people suffering from insomnia and could reduce the number of prescriptions for medications such as zolpidem and zopiclone, which can become addictive as per the NICE report.

This calls for all the general practitioners (GPs) and people with insomnia in Australia to learn the accessibility of the app.

“Our previous research has shown that Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for insomnia (or ‘CBTi’) is the most effective treatment for insomnia and Sleepio is a self-administered version of that,” says Dr. Alexander Sweetman from Flinders University’s Adelaide Institute for Sleep Health.

Insomnia | Sleeping Difficulty - Symptom Evaluation
Insomnia may be due to physiological, psychological, physical or environmental factors. Insomnia should be treated promptly in order to improve the quality of life and prevent other health problems.

Cognitive behavioral therapy targets the underlying psychological, physiological, and behavioral causes of insomnia, in contrast to medications, which simply treat the symptoms.

Need for Better Counterparts

Almost 45 GPs are reported to have participated in the Australian Sleepio trial currently with 200 patients being to Sleepio.

The team aims to continue the trial throughout 2022 and further develop the pathway within the doctors’ central software program which may help the GPs in identifying and referring the patients to the specialized digital cognitive behavioral therapy program for insomnia.

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“So far, patients have reported improved insomnia symptoms and around a 40% reduction in sleeping pill use,” says Dr. Sweetman.

Source-Medindia

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