Hypnotic Interventions for Sleep in PTSD
2018
Sleep disturbance is quite common in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as a symptom of the underlying disorder; as a part of comorbid anxiety, depression, or chronic
pain disorder; or as an independent sleep disorder diagnosis. Chronic sleep disturbance from any cause is associated with poorer daytime functioning as well as medical comorbidities and thus critical to address.
Insomnia, the most common sleep symptom, is a state of hyperarousal linked to central changes in metabolism and electroencephalographic activity and peripheral mechanisms such as autonomic activation. This physiological state when combined with inadvertent behavioral conditioning (e.g., checking the bedside clock) can become a chronic condition. In patients with PTSD,
insomniacan be even more severely chronic given how the associated heightened
hypervigilanceand
nightmaresfurther disrupt
sleep.
Abnormalitiesin the brain’s
default mode network(DMN) have been implicated in both PTSD, combat trauma (even without PTSD), childhood trauma, and
insomnia. The DMN is a network of interconnected brain regions which is most active during low-demand tasks such as
daydreamingand self-absorbed thinking and when not attending to outside stimuli. One of the under-recognized treatment modalities for
insomniain patients with PTSD is
hypnosis. This chapter will review the empirical evidence on the effectiveness of
hypnosisfor
insomniaand PTSD and summarize the neurobiological substrates underlying the
hypnotic state, including changes in the DMN.
Keywords:
-
Correction
-
Source
-
Cite
-
Save
-
Machine Reading By IdeaReader
67
References
0
Citations
NaN
KQI