is now sold as a dietery supplement which aids in sleep. It is still in the process of being tested as an accepted treatment for insomnia. Many results of these tests are coming back favorably, but there are still many questions about it’s safety to be answered. (Cupp ?)An alternative to sleeping pills, cognitive-behavior therapy can sometimes be used effectively as a treatment. This therapy focuses on encouraging the patient to “eliminate behavior incompatible with sleep (Rajput 1431).” This treatment has many components, which include stimulus control, sleep restriction, relaxation techniques, and cognitive therapy (GN 103). According to _____, “all of these therapies are known to be effective in the treatment of insomnia. (103). Unlike pahrmacotherapy, these techniques do not have side effects. They do however have drawbacks. Results from using behavioral therapy techniques may not be substantially noticed for four to six weeks, and in today’s “now” society it is difficult for many patients to stick with the program that their doctor suggests. People trying this treatment are encouraged to keep a sleep log in order to better monitor their progress. The first aspect of behavioral treatment is stimulus control. According to Macintosh (?):If a change in a particular stimulus is always followed by the probability, amplitude, latency, or rater of a particular response, we may say that this stimulus exercised some control over tat response. The term stimulus control has come to be used as the convenient shorthand expression for describing such an observed relationship between changes in external stimuli and changes in recorded behavior. When applying this to insomnia, these are probably stimuli that are detrimental the ideal sleep environment. For a good sleeper, laying in bed is associated with falling asleep, but for an insomniac, the bed represents a place of frustration. (Espie 158). Stimu...
