What are Sleep Disorders and How Can Neurofeedback Help?

Many of us have experienced trouble sleeping at some point in our lives, but once it starts to affect our daily activities, it becomes more serious. Poor sleep regulation can be serious enough to disrupt normal physical, mental, and emotional functioning every day. Some sleep disorders are disruptions in sleep which can be caused by many different things, such as insomnia, difficulty waking up, nightmares, night terrors, sleeping too long, not feeling rested after sleep, sleepwalking, narcolepsy, teeth grinding, and snoring.

At least 40 million Americans each year suffer from chronic, long-term sleep disorders, while another 20 million experience occasional sleep problems.

TMS or Neurofeedback to Treat Sleeping Disorders

At least 40 million Americans each year suffer from chronic, long-term sleep disorders, while another 20 million experience occasional sleep problems. As anyone who has struggled to fall asleep or stay asleep all night can testify, many of these issues that disrupt sleep seem difficult to change. Many people do not respond to sleep medications. Others experience being foggy and sleepy the following day. Neurofeedback and TMS are tools that can help the brain to better manage its states, including inducing and maintaining sleep cycles.

Neurofeedback, which is also known as EEG (electroencephalogram) Biofeedback, is a brain training system that trains the brain to perform more efficiently with the individual’s active participation. Our brain regulates our sleep and wake cycles, so if we strengthen the brain and teach it to self regulate, we will have a better quality of sleep. TMS therapy can help to regulate sleep cycles by inducing gentle magnetic waves which are targeting particular networks in the brain, causing them to change their neuron firing rates and patterns. Neurofeedback is done at the comfort of your home, TMS is offered only at our offices.

First, we need to find which areas of the brain are not performing the way they should be. In order to find these abnormalities, we measure the client’s brain waves by recording these activities while they wear a cap that has 21 different sensors on it. This process is called qEEG Brain Mapping which is done in our offices. Then our medical doctors who are board-certified in Neurology analyze the qEEG collected data and compare it to what a normal qEEG Brain Map should look like. This analysis can pin-point abnormalities in the specific brain areas and also give us a road map for customized treatment based on each client's unique qEEG.

Once we have identified the area of the brain to regulate, you can select which method will be best suited to you and your lifestyle. Neurofeedback now can be conducted from anywhere in the world that has an internet connection. You will wear a sensor, much like glasses, but over your forehead which is measuring your brain activity. We might also use a sensor on your head. Where the sensors are placed is specific to the individual, and the issue we are trying to address. We train these areas by giving the brain a reward such as turning the movie you are watching on your Ipad or Tablet to ON when your brain activity has reached the desired goal that we have set based on your qEEG. When your brain activity is not in the parameters we have set, the movie will pause (your Ipad or Tablet is connected to our office computers through the Internet). Our brains want the movie to continue to play, so this reinforces the brain to perform within the parameters which have been set. During this process, the neurons (cells in the brain) change and begin to make new connections and fire differently. Once we have trained the neurons to perform the way we want them to, the brain will learn to match these parameters without being reinforced by Neurofeedback. These issues you may have had during sleep will start to decrease, and you will feel more rested and have more energy throughout the day.

TMS has proven to be an excellent non-medication option to help regulate the sleep cycle. You sit comfortably in a chair in our office for about fifteen minutes while a sensor is placed on your head. Then magnetic waves are delivered causing the neurons in the brain to change their pattern and rate of firing to the magnetic pulses. Over time, this becomes a newly learned behavior for the neuron in the brain, learning better sleep regulation.