Sleep problems

Sleep problems can present as difficulty initiating sleep, where a person may lie awake for prolonged periods before falling asleep, and difficulty maintaining sleep, where they awaken during the night and cannot easily return to sleep. Individuals may also experience fragmented or restless sleep, waking after short periods and repeating the cycle through the night, leading to severely reduced total sleep time—sometimes only a few hours. These disturbances can be accompanied by feelings of not being tired at bedtime, early-morning awakening with ruminative thoughts, nightmares, or a sense of being “conscious during sleep,” as well as physical agitation or restlessness. Chronic sleep disruption often results in daytime fatigue, mood instability, irritability, reduced cognitive performance, and in some cases heightened anxiety or depressive symptoms.

Neurofeedback significantly improves sleep difficulties by training self-regulation of brain activity associated with healthy sleep onset and maintenance. Brain maps identify abnormalities in brain networks responsible for transitions between wakefulness and sleep. Protocols like alpha-theta training, sensorimotor rhythm enhancement, and individualized Default Network Training promote brain states conducive to falling asleep and staying asleep. Neurofeedback can normalize sleep architecture. Clinical cases report restoration of the ability to fall asleep within minutes, maintain uninterrupted sleep for many hours, and eliminate reliance on sedative and sleep medications, with benefits persisting for years after training completion.