Sleep Disorders

At least 40 million Americans each year suffer from chronic, long-term sleep disorders, and an additional 20 million experience occasional sleep problems. Neurofeedback is a powerful tool for regulating sleep. Health professionals around the world report significant improvement in a large percentage of their clients using neurofeedback to treat chronic, long term sleep problems.

What are the most commonly reported sleep issues that improve with neurofeedback training?

  1. Insomnia - Difficulty falling asleep; difficulty maintaining sleep during the night
  2. Difficulty waking from sleep
  3. Difficulty getting to bed
  4. Not feeling rested after sleep
  5. Sleeping too long (over 10 hours)
  6. Physically restless sleep
  7. Nightmares
  8. Bedwetting (Nocturnal enuresis)
  9. Sleepwalking
  10. Restless leg syndrome - Leg discomfort or sleep causing movement & arousal
  11. Bruxism - teeth grinding during sleep
  12. Sleep terrors - Abrupt arousal with intense fear, difficult to awaken, no dream recall or memory of event
  13. Narcolepsy
  14. Dysregulated sleep patterns/cycles (circadian rhythms)

Neurofeedback training often helps these problems as it improves brain regulation. These are common reports: A 75 year-old reported recently that she "slept like a baby for the first time in 25 years" after neurofeedback training. Parents of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) often say it's easier to get their kids to sleep. Depressed clients remark they have a much easier time getting going in the morning.

The role of the brain and sleep

The brain regulates sleep. Neuroscience has established the role of neuromodulator systems in the brainstem that play a role in maintaining awake states and, conversely, help the brain sleep. The EEG (brainwaves) clearly reflects changes in sleep stages.Training brainwaves using neurofeedback to decrease or increase slow brainwave activity, or to increase specific EEG activation patterns appears to help the brain normalize sleep. Based on reports from a large number of licensed health professionals the evidence shows that training the EEG impacts sleep regulatory mechanisms and people sleep better. Since sleep is complex and involves many systems, it is not possible to suggest that sleep problems always improve as a result of neurofeedback. But clinicians say that they routinely expect changes to occur in sleep patterns after appropriate training for a large percentage of their patients. As with any program, a complete sleep assessment is helpful. Sleep hygiene issues (including caffeine, alcohol and other behavioral factors) and other potential contributory factors such as possible sleep apnea also need to be carefully reviewed and corrected in combination with neurofeedback training.

What research exists?

Sleep is a good example of the research challenge of neurofeedback. There are good neurofeedback studies in ADHD, epilepsy and addiction. The fact that no significant studies exist on sleep and neurofeedback is remarkable. In virtually every study related to neurofeedback outcomes, changes to sleep are noted, but not always highlighted or even reported.

Sleep researchers are primarily unaware of neurofeedback and its implications for insomnia and other sleep disorders. Hopefully, cross-fertilization between clinically-oriented therapists and sleep researchers can occur. As in many academic areas, this kind of cross fertilization can take significant time and funding. Because of the vast amount of literature about brain regulation, sleep and the EEG, there is a solid basis for using neurofeedback with sleep problems. Hundreds of experienced licensed professionals have used this modality successfully to improve sleep for over 25 years.

For general information on sleep issues see:

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/find_people/ninds/organization.htm

About the Author: Michael Cohen is Director of Education for Center for Brain Training in Florida. He has taught courses in EEG biofeedback to professionals around the world for the last eight years, including courses for psychiatrists at the annual American Psychiatric Conference.