Behavioral sleep medicine

Behavioral sleep medicine (BSM) is a field within sleep medicine that encompasses scientific inquiry and clinical treatment of sleep-related disorders, with a focus on the psychological, physiological, behavioral, cognitive, social, and cultural factors that affect sleep, as well as the impact of sleep on those factors.^{[1][2][3][page needed]} The clinical practice of BSM is an evidence-based behavioral health discipline that uses primarily non-pharmacological treatments^[3] (that is, treatments that do not involve medications). BSM interventions are typically problem-focused and oriented towards specific sleep complaints, but can be integrated with other medical or mental health treatments (such as medical treatment of sleep apnea, psychotherapy for mood disorders).^[4] The primary techniques used in BSM interventions involve education and systematic changes to the behaviors, thoughts, and environmental factors that initiate and maintain sleep-related difficulties.^[3][4]

The most common sleep disorders that can benefit from BSM include insomnia,^[5] circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorders,^[6] nightmare disorder,^[7] childhood sleep disorders (for example bedwetting, bedtime difficulties),^[8] parasomnias (such as sleepwalking, sleep eating),^[9] sleep apnea-associated difficulties (such as difficulty using continuous positive airway pressure),^[10] and hypersomnia-associated difficulties (for example daytime fatigue and sleepiness, psychosocial functioning).^[11]