Barry Krakow, MD Sleep Dr and Trauma Part 3

For people with conditioned responses that are so powerful, what do you do about it?You slowly work on the desensitization program. - Insomnia is caused by problematic behaviors, and if you want to get more sleep, you need to change your behavior. : Sleep doctors can be educated about other approaches to treating sleep problems, such as devices and sleep studies, if they're open to hearing about them. - Rachel shared her experience of working with individuals who have PTSD and said that working with them has enriched her faith. She also recommended self care measures including getting good sleep, exercising, and eating healthy.: Nightmares can be reduced or eliminated with IRT, which is an easy to learn technique. Sleep apnea is often a co-occurring problem, and CPAP therapy can help reduce the number and intensity of nightmares. People can benefit from therapy to improve their sleep, and some people can help others learn how to better use a PAP machine. Insurance may not cover some forms of therapy, but there are providers who accept insurance. Psychosomatic medicine is the understanding that how the emotion is process can impact the health of the body. Faith has been impacted by witnessing the healing power of trauma recovery.

 

Barry Krakow, MD is a board certified sleep medicine specialist practicing in Savannah, Georgia following a 30 year career in conducting research in psychiatric patients with sleep disorders and treating these individuals with evidence-based pioneering techniques to optimize care. His new practice involves an innovative sleep health coaching program. Dr. Krakow’s career in sleep medicine started in 1988 when he joined the Department of Psychiatry at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and collaborated on the first randomized controlled trial on the innovative nightmare treatment protocol, Imagery Rehearsal Therapy (IRT). His subsequent research team at the Sleep & Human Health Institute has published extensively on IRT in the form of peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and landmark training manual, Turning Nightmares into Dreams, the most widely used resource for patients and providers to learn the IRT methodology. Dr. Krakow’s additional research and clinical practice on sleep disorders has again led to extensive peer-reviewed publications demonstrating the independent co-morbid nature of sleep disorders in mental health patients in general and PTSD patients in particular. His pioneering efforts in evaluating and treating PTSD patients led the way in the recognition of the unexpectedly high prevalence of sleep apnea in PTSD patients. As a result, his research team and clinical practice models have established various techniques and technologies to effectively treat these disorders in ways not customarily applied at traditional sleep medical centers. Finally, since 2008 Dr. Krakow has conducted numerous training workshops on IRT as well as on sleep disorders practice models for mental health patients. Programs have been conducted at more than 25 military bases and Veteran’s medical centers as well as 25 civilian mental health institutions. The most extensive program effort occurred through AMEDD C&S in 2012-2014 at 10 different military bases. Last, Dr. Krakow helped to initiate the first Nightmare Treatment Symposium in July, 2016 involving the world’s leading nightmare treatment researchers and specialists. His latest book on sleep and mental health published this year is Life Saving Sleep: New Horizons in Mental Health Treatment.