Behavior Therapy Helps Seniors Sleep

A study at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine has found behavioral therapy to be highly effective in treating senior citizens with insomnia.

Twenty-five patients who reported persistent problems sleeping were brought in for the experiment. Seventeen received behavior therapy while the remaining eight were given information on insomnia. All were asked to keep a diary of their sleep patterns and to complete self- and doctor-led tests of sleep quality.

After four weeks, 71 percent of patients who had received behavioral therapy showed significant improvements in sleep quality along with improvement in depression and anxiety symptoms, compared to 39 percent in the other group. Additionally 53 percent of the patients from the therapy group could be classified as being in insomnia remission, compared with just 17 percent of the information group.

Read more: Behavioral therapy gets sleepless seniors snoozing