Dr Steven Phillipson: Sleep… the hostage of anxiety (#342)

In episode 342 I chat with Dr Steven Phillipson. Steven is a licensed clinical psychologist who specialises in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for OCD. Steven is the Clinical Director at the Center for Cognitive Behavioral Psychotherapy in New York.

We discuss why sleep is the hostage of anxiety, desperation around sleep, what is sleep and the stages of sleep, how sleep medication, alcohol, and benzodiazepines can affect sleep quality, using sleep as avoidance, insomnia, sleep as an independent system, how trying to sleep may be causing a lack of it, what Steve doesn’t like about the CBT sleep hygiene approach, Steve’s approach to helping his clients sleep, why sleep shouldn’t be the goal, getting an OCD spike at night, OCD in our dreams, and much more. Hope it helps. 

Show notes: https://theocdstories.com/episode/steve-phillipson-sleep-342 

This episode is supported by Cambridge University Press and Dr Lynne Drummond’s new book “Everything you need to know about OCD”. Get 20% off Lynne’s new book at cambridge.org/EverythingOCD. Simply use discount code OCDStories20 at checkout. 

The podcast is made possible by NOCD. NOCD offers affordable, effective, convenient therapy available in the US and outside the US. To find out more about NOCD, their therapy plans, if they currently take your insurance, or to download their free app, head over to https://go.treatmyocd.com/theocdstories