ONLINE WORKSHOP: Insomnia Across the Lifespan: How LM Practitioners Can Help

Workshop Description:We will approach the sleep pillar of lifestyle medicine through the perspective of an internal medicine physician and two sleep subspecialists. We will empower participants to better understand the ‘why’ behind delivering lifestyle medicine to patients with chronic insomnia across their lifespan. This scientific session will include a brief didactic overview, age-stratified cases, and interactive skills practice focused on behavioral and lifestyle approaches to insomnia. Cases will be presented for different age groups to help participants understand how sleep needs change with age; the interplay between sleep, the other 5 pillars and overall health; and the importance of discussing sleep health with patients and families when delivering lifestyle medicine.

Insomnia disorder is characterized by dissatisfaction with sleep at night, either in quality or duration, along with daytime distress or impairment. Insomnia symptoms are extremely common, with 50% or more of the adult population and almost 25% of the pediatric population reporting at least some symptoms of disturbed sleep on recent surveys. Because one of the Pillars of Lifestyle Medicine (LM) is sleep, LM clinicians are highly likely to ask about sleep and become aware of insomnia symptoms in their patients. The goal of this session is to review evidence-based strategies for managing insomnia and provide LM clinicians with a clinical toolkit to effectively help their patients with insomnia obtain better sleep.

In this session, you will learn why Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) is recommended as the first-line treatment for insomnia in adults and school-aged children by all major medical organizations. We will discuss the limitations of sedative hypnotics and why they are no longer considered first-line therapy. We will discuss why sleep hygiene alone is insufficient to manage insomnia and can even worsen it in some cases. We will provide resources to help patients access CBT-I through community providers, app and web-based applications. We will also discuss Brief Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia as an alternative to CBT-I that can be easier for LM clinicians to deliver directly to patients.

Attendees will be introduced to screening and tracking tools (sleep diary, sleep efficiency, Insomnia Severity Index), along with brief behavioral assessments (chronotype, light exposure profile, activity patterns). This will help participants distinguish core features from common differentials.