Sleep Issues Disrupting Daily Life?
Sleep impacts every process in the body and is vital to physical and mental health. While sleep needs may vary based on factors such as age, most adults need 7+ hours of sleep per night to maintain health, with children needing more to support healthy development.
Sleep quality is as important as sleep quantity. Frequent interruptions to sleep, such as waking up in the night, difficulty falling asleep, nightmares/night terrors, restless legs, and sleep apnea, can be detrimental to current and long-term health.
In some cases, sleep disruption is also influenced by heightened sensory sensitivity—particularly sound—sometimes referred to as misophonia, which can keep the nervous system in a state of alertness when the brain needs to rest.
Without proper sleep, the body cannot repair itself, the mind cannot appropriately process experiences or store memory properly, and the results can impact every area of life.
Symptoms of Sleep Issues:
- Daytime sleepiness
- Fatigue
- Irritability
- Trouble thinking, focusing, and remembering
- Slowed reaction times
- Headaches
- “Microsleeps”
- Uncontrollable eye movements (nystagmus)
- Trouble speaking clearly
- Drooping eyelids (ptosis)
- Hand tremors
- Visual and tactile (touch-based) hallucinations
- Impaired judgment
- Impulsive (or even reckless) behavior
Neurofeedback for Sleep Issues
A range of factors can contribute to sleep problems. Difficulty staying asleep—and nightmares or vivid, unpleasant dreams—may relate to brain under-arousal, while a “busy mind” that can’t shut off worries may contribute to difficulty falling asleep. Sleep issues can also occur with brain over-arousal.
At Emerald Coast Neurofeedback, a trained professional performs a comprehensive evaluation to better understand the patterns and symptoms contributing to your sleep concerns.
The initial evaluation is used to create a brain training plan to meet your specific needs and goals. That plan is customized to measure improvements in the areas most important to you.
Specific Benefits Observed with Neurofeedback Sessions
Neurofeedback is holistic and can support multiple goals at the same time. This is because the brain is retraining and reorganizing itself through real-time feedback from our software. It is like holding up a mirror to the brain—helping it recognize what is out of balance and adjust more efficiently.
As a result, it is common to address multiple goals and concerns that may occur along with sleep issues, such as depression, anxiety, ADHD, or PTSD.
Personalization and Customization
Our goal is to work on what is most important to you. At ECNF, you will work with professionals with the skill to assess and measure your progress and make adjustments as needed.
Advantages of Neurofeedback
A safe and natural approach
Involves no medication
No risky side effects
Rapid results in children under 13
Reduce or stop prescriptions
Effects are long-lasting
Neurofeedback and Traditional Methods
Neurofeedback Can Complement Traditional Methods or Serve as an Alternative
Neurofeedback may be a stand-alone approach for some sleep concerns, but it is not a replacement for appropriate medical care. It can also complement other treatments by addressing common contributing factors—training the brain to regulate more effectively so you can sleep better and function better.
Common Traditional Methods for Treating Sleep Issues
- Cognitive behavioral therapy
- Lifestyle changes
- Medication
Benefits of a Combined Approach
Neurofeedback is a holistic approach to sleep problems that allows multiple concerns to be addressed at once. Leveraging neuroplasticity, Neurofeedback can support other medical advice and treatments for sleep issues.
Explore Neurofeedback Alongside Other Options Under Professional Guidance
Because sleep is complex and can affect and be affected by many other things, proper diagnosis and treatment from medical professionals may be appropriate. ECNF supports a multidisciplinary approach to the treatment of insomnia and other sleep disorders.
Our Neurofeedback Process
During the initial 90-minute evaluation, our therapist and software system generate a protocol tailor-made for your unique needs, identifying symptoms, goals, and areas for growth.
At ECNF, we generate customized protocols specifically for you, based on comprehensive data collected during your initial evaluation, and design a plan to measure your progress. By focusing on your needs, we work with you to create identifiable, quantifiable growth areas. These may include: how long it takes to fall asleep, how often you wake up in the night, daytime fatigue, nightmares, and other co-occurring symptoms. From here, we evaluate your progress and symptom improvements across sessions, making adjustments as needed.
Getting Started with Emerald Coast NeuroFeedback
Sleep is connected to every aspect of functioning, so sleep issues can severely impact quality of life. NeuroFeedback can help. To get started, give us a call or fill out our online contact form. We start by understanding your specific sleep issues and overall concerns. We will arrange a time to answer any questions and schedule your initial evaluation.
The initial evaluation involves a comprehensive set of questions to identify factors that are impacting sleep and overall functioning. From here, we create measurable growth areas and collect EEG data to customize your protocol further. We will then see you twice a week for sessions and measure your progress across sessions until you have plateaued in growth and improvement, making that learning solid and lasting.
Because Neurofeedback is true brain learning, the improvements in your sleep continue long after your last feedback session, making Neurofeedback a better investment than many other treatments alone.
Contact us today to schedule your initial evaluation with one of our professionals.