Frequently Asked Questions

Insomnia is a relatively common sleep disorder which involves difficulties with falling asleep, staying asleep and/or quality of sleep despite adequate opportunity and circumstances and results in impaired daytime functioning (see NICE.org.uk).

These difficulties are persistent, occurring on 3 or more nights a week for at least one month (short term/acute) or over 3 months (long term/chronic).

Insomnia can happen on it’s own or combined with other health conditions and concerns such as anxiety, stress, depression, pain, chronic physical health conditions. Either way, the insomnia can be treated with a personalised approach using CBTi based strategies.

CBTi is an evidence based treatment recognised by NICE as the first line treatment for both short and long term insomnia.

It is designed to support you to improve your sleep through learning and understanding how sleep works and adjusting thoughts, feelings and behaviours that are contributing to your sleep challenges.

As it is tailored to your individual sleep needs and challenges and aimed at targeting the route cause(s) of your sleep issues, it has been shown to be highly effective in improving sleep in the long term in comparison to other treatments for insomnia, including medication.

I ask that you are ready to commit to making the shift towards better sleep. Engaging in any type of therpeutic programme is never the easy option - I commend anyone who takes this step. I invite you to be open to building trust in me and allowing me to support you and your needs. I ask that you commit to the actions identified in our sessions and giving this a real try. If you do, I can assure you, things will change with time and dedication.

You are unique and that’s wonderful. How quickly you see results depends on the number and complexity of the factors underlying your sleep challenges and how consistently you apply the strategies suggested. I’m here to make sure you get the most out of our work together so will ensure a personalised plan to support your chances of success.

My approach is simple - get to know you, your life, your goals and your challenges around sleep, identify the barriers to your sleep, work on making small shifts in thinking, feelings, behaviours and routines to reduce these barriers, and get you sleeping the way you need and want to.

You do NOT have to make huge changes to everything you’re doing or sacrifice the things you love (YES you can still drink coffee and socialise, NO you don’t need strict routines).

I will spend time explaining to you how the brain and body and sleep all work and what can get in the way of that. This means you’ll be able to understand what you need to do and how to do it to improve your sleep, with support from me along that way.

No person is the same so my guarentee to you is that I will offer you a personalised approach and plan regarding your sleep.

I support adults 18+ who have any questions or concerns about their sleep. You may be curious to learn more about sleep and keen to ensure you prevent any significant issues occurring. You may be concerned about some minor changes in your sleep and want to ensure things don’t get worse. You may have or suspect you have insomnia and want to get your sleep back. Whatever it is, I can help.

I work on a 1:1 basis as well as offering group talks and workshops to charities, community groups and companies looking to support their adult members to sleep well.

I work predominantly online so although I’m based in the UK I work with people worldwide and can accommodate different time zones where practicable.

If you would like to discuss us working together in person then please contact me via the contact page or email me at laura@thesleepshift.co.uk

Absolutely not! I work with many people who have lost hope when it comes to their sleep. Although you may feel you have tried everything, I guarentee there will be some shift we can make. I offer education around sleep so you can really understand what’s going on and with that, some people recognise there’s a small shift in behaviour they’ve missed, for others it’s a shift in mindset and thinking that really changes everything. And if after one session you really feel I can’t help, then I promise I will go away and find a way to help!

Absolutely! You don’t have to have insomnia to benefit from learning more about sleep and the routines and behaviours that support sleep. There’s a lot on the internet now about sleep however not much of that information is accurate, so if you have questions or want to fact check anything then get in touch.

When working together, you are not only getting the time we spend talking, you are getting the knowledge and skills I have built over more than 15 years as an OT in mental health and sleep. And my learning and development never stops. In the background I am reading and researching to ensure I support you with the most up-to-date advancements not just in sleep but in health and wellbeing.