We are currently developing and evaluating this course ...
Sleep Course
Background
We are currently developing a free, internet-delivered sleep improvement program. The Sleep Course is designed to provide helpful information and teach practical skills that are proven to help people improve their sleep-wake patterns.
Research tells us that certain strategies can make a meaningful difference to people’s sleep and their day-to-day functioning. The strategies in this course are based on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), which help us to change our thinking patterns and behaviours in a way that promotes good sleep. The Sleep Course also includes up-to-date information about the science of sleep, and how to take advantage of this to improve our sleep and wake patterns.
Hundreds of research studies show that CBT is an effective treatment approach for improving sleep, and is just as effective as medication for treating sleep problems. These improvements include things like falling asleep faster, waking up fewer times during the night, getting more total sleep time, and feeling better during the day.
Who is the course suitable for?
The course is suitable for:
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Adults aged 18 and older
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Living in Australia
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With a sleep difficulty that is impacting their life and emotional wellbeing.
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Who want to learn information and skills to improve their sleep and daytime functioning.
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Who have at least 4 hours per week to spend working on the course and practicing the skills taught
Unfortunately, we cannot include people who are currently suicidal, do not have access to the Internet or who are not living in Australia. We also strongly recommend people discuss their participation in this course with their GP and other doctors.
What does the course involve?
The course involves:
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An initial sleep assessment to confirm suitability
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Monitoring your sleep with a diary while in the course
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Four online lessons that provide helpful information and teach sleep improvement skills
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DIY Exercises to help you understand and practice those skills
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Brief weekly contact with a clinician via email and telephone
The course aims to provide the information and skills that you would normally receive from a Clinical Psychologist, if you attended a specialist treatment facility. However, because many people cannot access these facilities, we are developing and testing this internet-delivered course - our goal is to make it as helpful as possible and to make it freely and widely available.
What have we found so far?
This is the first time we are offering the Sleep Course. However, it provides all of the information and teaches the same skills you would learn from a psychologist face-to-face. So we expect it will be just as helpful.
What is the current trial or study looking at?
Every time we offer a course we offer it as a part of a trial or study. This means that participants are helping us to answer an important research question while they participate in our courses.
With our first trial of the Sleep Course we are hoping to evaluate how helpful people find the course and get feedback from participants that we can use to further develop the course. You can read more in the Participant Information and Consent Form Statement.
When is the next course being offered?
We are not sure when we will be running the Sleep Course again. However, we expect to offer it again in 2024.
We have had a lot of people complete the course in 2023 and we are now in the process of collecting all their feedback and looking at the results. We will use both to improve the course before offering it again.
You can register your interest for the course below. If you do, we will email you when the course becomes available.