Laura, 36, had been taking prescription sleeping pills every night for about a year and a half when she decided to end her dependence on medication. "It wasn't easy to get the same prescription month after month, but I went to a few different doctors and always managed," says the marketing executive from Atlanta. "It was incomprehensible to think that I could get to sleep without medication, and that worried me."
Laura is determined to kick her sleeping pill habit and fall asleep naturally.
(HEALTH)
Laura visited a sleep specialist, who started her on a series of cognitive-behavioral therapy modifications aimed at weaning her off medication. Her first step was to switch to a weaker sedative.
"It stopped my mind from racing and I fell asleep easily enough, but it only stayed in my system for two or three hours," she says. "So now I'm up in the middle of the night, aggravated, not able to fall back asleep." That's where her learned behavioral techniques—not watching the clock; getting out of bed if she can't sleep—comes into play.
The last few months without medication have been rough for Laura; she's gotten sick a lot because, she believes, her immunity is down. But she's slowly training her body to adjust and hopes that a year from now she'll be sleeping soundly through the night.
"I think you have to be in the state of mind that you really want to make a change," she says. "For a long time I was very happy just taking a pill and being put into a very deep sleep. But now I have different motivations, and that's what is going to make it work."
