Quality sleep is essential for optimal functioning. Sleep is an incredibly important and restorative stage of daily life. During sleep the body’s metabolism is regulated, the immune system receives a boost, and brain processing kicks into a higher gear, consolidating memories and learning and pruning synaptic connections for optimal physical and cognitive function. Scientists have established important links between sleep deprivation and a large number of physical and emotional disorders, including obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, immune disorders, anxiety and depression, reflecting the extreme importance of sleep to our emotional and physical well-being.
When you’re not sleeping well, your entire life is affected. You may feel unfocused, tired all the time, or just have a lingering sense that you’re not at your best. Sometimes the source of the problem is a medical issue, such as sleep apnea. Many people dealing with anxiety or increased stress in their lives also suffer from a difficulty falling asleep. Since the brain is constantly learning new behaviors, what begins as a temporary bout of insomnia can become a chronic condition after the mind becomes accustomed to lacking sleep.
All too often, conventional approaches seek to resolve these issues with medication alone. Prescription sleep aids often reduce some symptoms without rooting out their underlying cause. Pharmaceuticals are frequently more disruptive than the disorder itself. They can reduce your ability to recall past events, turning what should be a peaceful night’s rest into a gap in your memory. Morning grogginess, headaches and other side effects are also common.
A Drug-free Approach
Neurofeedback uses a different approach to help you get the sleep you need. It’s a non-invasive, drug-free way of training your mind to reduce the hyperarousal that is at the core of many conditions and especially poor sleep. As mentioned earlier, your brain is always learning and adapting to its environment. That means if the brain can learn habits or patterns of processing detrimental to sleep health, it can also learn to activate in a more efficient, balanced manner to help you enjoy a full night of rest. When you undergo a neurofeedback session, your brain is given the information it needs to recognize and self-correct its issues.
Neurofeedback can help reduce or eliminate a wide range of problems that prevent you from sleeping well. If anxiety or stress are keeping you awake at night, neurofeedback is already FDA approved as a relaxation aid. It can also be used in conjunction with traditional medical therapies, including CPAP machines used to treat sleep apnea. When the brain is at its best, the body follows suit.
Don’t let a lack of sleep or poor sleep prevent you from performing at your best. If you’re interested in learning more about how neurofeedback can help you get a peaceful, quality night of rest, contact us today. Our experts will be more than happy to answer any questions or schedule an appointment.
The Importance of Sleep
A good night’s sleep is like a tune-up for your entire body. During a night’s rest, your metabolism is regulated, memories and information are retained, and your immune system receives a boost. Not getting a good, peaceful night of rest keeps you from performing at your best. If you’re struggling with sleep issues, PeakBrain can help you find the solution you need.
Disorders
The most common of these is insomnia, a poorly-treated and understood condition. A large percentage of insomnia cases go undiagnosed or are treated inadequately, leaving patients fatigued and compromising their physical and emotional health. Other common sleep disorders include sleep apnea, a dangerous and sometimes fatal disease.
Solutions
PeakBrain’s training provides your brain the tools it needs to improve its own self-regulation. Among the earliest results that the vast majority of clients notice is the improvement of sleep patterns and restoration of quality sleep. Individuals fall asleep quicker, return to sleep better if awakened at night and feel better rested after sleep. And, because neurofeedback brain training restores more efficient brain processing, clients achieve not only improved sleep quality but better performance during their waking hours also, whether in cognitive function, physical health and emotional resilience.
Staff
PeakBrain’s origins in sleep diagnosis and treatment are a tremendous bonus for clients who are seeking improved sleep quality from their brain training. In addition to the most technologically-advanced neurofeedback solutions, PeakBrain’s team provides coaching and support in integrating healthy sleep habits, sleep hygiene and tools to aid in restoring the healthy sleep that is crucial to overall health.
Conditions
Insomnia
At least 40 million Americans each year suffer from chronic, long-term sleep disorders, and an additional 20 million experience occasional sleep problems. While other disorders such as sleep apnea are better-known, the most common sleep disorder in the population is insomnia.
Insomnia is hard to measure and manifests in variable ways with different individuals. it has also been poorly managed in the general population. Mainstream treatments for insomnia range from no treatment at all, pharmaceutical treatments (sleep aids) which can worsen sleep architecture and leave patients feeling tired or groggy during their waking hours, or blame placed on other causes such as aging and hormonal imbalances or even a gender bias – women are often told that they can blame “womens’ health” patterns for their insomnia complaints.
Our newer understanding of the way the brain works is starting to offer an exciting, modern approach to resolving insomnia. Insomnia may be understood as a problem with excess arousability or “hyperarousal” of the brain.
Sleep is controlled and highly-impacted by the operation and function of the brain. In fact, sleep science codifies sleep stages based primarily on brain activity.
It is clear that our modern lifestyles with constant usage of electronic devices and TV screens, erratic schedules, stress and reduced exercise create an excess of stimulus. Our brains are “wired” to detect and respond to all stimuli in the environment, and when there is insufficient “downtime,” it is unable to shed these stimuli. The result is poor, fragmented and disturbed sleep – insomnia – when we should be sleeping.
There are typically three variations on Insomnia commonly reported by patients:
Difficulty with falling asleep (sleep onset),
Difficulty with maintaining sleep (sleep maintenance) and/or
A combination of the above patterns.
Neurofeedback is a powerful tool for regulating and restoring 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?
Sleep Onset Insomnia
Sleep Maintenance Insomnia
Difficulty returning to sleep once aroused
Not feeling rested after sleep
Physically-restless sleep
Nightmares and parasomnias
Bedwetting (Nocturnal enuresis)
Sleepwalking
Bruxism – teeth grinding during sleep
Sleep terrors – Abrupt arousal with intense fear, difficult to awaken, no dream recall or memory of event
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 saying it’s easier to get their kids to sleep. Depressed clients remarking that they have a much easier time getting going in the morning.
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.
Research on Insomnia
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. PeakBrain also offers other methods of putting a restful night’s sleep within reach including performance testing, brain mapping, nutrition and hemoencephalography.
Restless Leg Syndrome
Do you find it difficult to find a comfortable position to sleep in? Do you frequently adjust your legs or arms, find it hard to be still while relaxing, or have been told that you move in your sleep? If so, you may have restless leg syndrome. Help is available. Let the sleep experts on our staff help you find the best solution to this issue so you can get the essential sleep your body needs.
Sleep Anxiety
Do worries, fearful thoughts or anxiety keep you up at night? This is an extremely common condition. Many people report intrusive thoughts that prevent them from sleeping well. PeakSleep uses innovative, cutting-edge options to help you attain a tranquil mind and better sleep. Contact our experts today to learn how we can help.
Pediatric Sleep
Sleep is positively vital for the young, who need more hours of sleep than adults in order for proper childhood development to take place. Various sleep disorders can affect children and teenagers. It takes an expert to help alleviate the source of these problems. Our PeakSleep specialists can help your child get the sleep they need to be at their best both in school and at home. This can include various techniques to ensure natural, healthy sleep including hemoencephalography, nutrition, performance testing, brain mapping and more.
Start Your Journey
You can also reach a PeakBrain representative by calling 972.449.0441.
Quality sleep is essential for optimal functioning. Sleep is an incredibly important and restorative stage of daily life. During sleep the body’s metabolism is regulated, the immune system receives a boost, and brain processing kicks into a higher gear, consolidating memories and learning and pruning synaptic connections for optimal physical and cognitive function. Scientists have established important links between sleep deprivation and a large number of physical and emotional disorders, including obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, immune disorders, anxiety and depression, reflecting the extreme importance of sleep to our emotional and physical well-being.
A good night’s sleep is like a tune-up for your entire body. During a night’s rest, your metabolism is regulated, memories and information are retained, and your immune system receives a boost. Not getting a good, peaceful night of rest keeps you from performing at your best. If you’re struggling with sleep issues, PeakBrain can help you find the solution you need.
