Insomnia is a very common and costly condition. At least 10% of Americans suffer from insomnia, and it costs the US workforce $63.2 billion a year in lost productivity. Furthermore, insomnia increases the risks of depressive, inflammatory, metabolic, cardiovascular, and neurocognitive disorders. Unfortunately, insomnia often remains untreated or inappropriately treated only with hypnotics.
The UCLA Insomnia Clinic was established in 2019 to fill this important gap in healthcare. Based on the decade-long research and delivery of insomnia treatments by clinician scientists at the UCLA Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, we envisioned a new clinic providing behavioral treatments of insomnia, which are safe and effective. Among these treatments, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) is the first-line treatment as recommended by the American College of Physicians with proven short- and long-term efficacy. Research at UCLA has demonstrated that (Mindfulness-Based Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (MBBT-I) is also effective in the treatment of insomnia with a greater patient acceptability. Thus, with the support of the UCLA Cousins Center and the UCLA Mindfulness Awareness Research Center (MARC), we developed the blueprint of an insomnia clinic solely dedicated to the provision of effective behavioral treatments. Among the sleep clinics in academic and community settings in the Greater Los Angeles area, the UCLA Insomnia Clinic is unique in providing behavioral insomnia treatments such as CBT-I and MBBT-I.
After a thorough clinical assessment by a physician with expertise in insomnia and psychiatric disorders, the therapy will be delivered in groups by our experienced doctoral-level board-certified clinical psychologists. Our research at the Cousins Center has repeatedly demonstrated the efficacy and the user-friendliness of the group format of both CBT-I and MBBT-I. Furthermore, if the patients find CBT-I difficult to adhere to or CBT-I does not lead to a sufficient improvement, MBBT-I will be offered as an alternative modality of treatment—and vice versa.
Our professionals at the UCLA Insomnia Clinic strive to deliver high-quality and evidence-based behavioral treatments for insomnia using not only the knowledge accumulated by the scientific community but also making the most of the expertise derived from our own longstanding clinical research.
