A project that aims to help.people with insomnia by promoting a range of treatment options is being supported by the Health Foundation through its Engaging with Quality in Primary Care award scheme.
Around one in 10 people suffer from chronic insomnia. Insomnia contributes to daytime tiredness, which can lead to accidents, illness and work and relationship problems.
Professor Niroshan Siriwardena of the Lincolnshire Teaching primary care trust.is leading a project to improve treatment for people with insomnia by promoting a range of treatment options beyond sleeping pills, which carry the risk of side effects and addiction. The project is one of nine supported by the Health Foundation through its Engaging with Quality in Primary Care award scheme.
The project aims to discourage GPs from prescribing sleeping pills as a first response and encourage.them to explore other treatment options.
Alternative treatments
Professor Siriwardena says: 'We want to find ways of helping people who have been on sleeping pills for some time but who would prefer not to be.'
Some of the alternative treatment options available include sleep hygiene, which focuses on regulating sleep patterns by avoiding caffeine, exercise and eating late in the day; and sleep restriction, which involves going to sleep later in the day and getting up at the same time each day to ensure sleep is high quality and that the body clock becomes regulated.
The project team, which includes representatives from local mental health trusts and research units and universities, plans to work with patients and primary care practices to test the impact of different approaches.
They will assess how various techniques such as writing to patients, reviewing GP consultations, using self-help booklets and psychological therapies can play a role in improving patients' management of insomnia. Their goal is to find out whether these new approaches change prescribing practices and result in better patient care.
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