Can't sleep? This simple therapy session can cure your insomnia

Good news for insomniacs! A simple one-hour therapy session can improve your sleeping patterns.

Northumbria University researchers showed that one cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) session "cured" acute insomnia in 73 per cent of participants, the Independent reported.

Sixty per cent of participants reported improvements in their sleep quality one month after the therapy. The effects were even more pronounced three months after the study, with 73 per cent reporting an improvement in their sleep. Only 15 per cent of the control group did not go on to develop chronic insomnia.

Lead author Jason Ellis said that chronic insomnia is a considerable health burden both on the individual and the economy and has been linked to the development or worsening of a number of physical and psychiatric conditions.

Ellis added that the results clearly showed that a single therapy session had successful results, with an improvement in sleep quality for some 60 per cent of those with acute insomnia within one month.

He noted that the longer-term benefits were even better with almost three quarters of those who received the intervention not developing chronic insomnia.

The study is published in the journal SLEEP.