What Is Anticipatory Awakening Therapy?

How does anticipatory awakening therapy work?

Anticipatory awakening therapy is also known as scheduled awakenings. As the name suggests, it involves being awoken before a parasomnia episode occurs.

Parents may use this strategy to wake a child who has several predictable parasomnia episodes each week and around the same time every night.

Since you’re not fully awake during a parasomnia episode, it can be hard to keep track of their occurrence for yourself. If possible, try to involve a friend or family member to help.

You could, however, try to use an alarm clock to wake yourself up.

Here are the American Psychological Association’s (APA) guidelines for anticipatory awakening therapy of a child. The strategy may still be applicable for most adults.

1. Track sleep patterns for 2 weeks, including bedtime, wake time, and when parasomnia episodes occur.
2. After establishing a consistent pattern of episodes, determine the average time spent in each episode and the time it takes to fall asleep again after the episode.
3. Once you’ve established these parameters, schedule awakenings 15 to 30 minutes before the first episode. During this window, gently wake the adult or child with a light touch or verbally cue. Have them confirm they’re awake, and allow them to return to sleep.
4. Consistently follow this procedure for 2 to 4 weeks, or until you notice an improvement in awakenings.

Does anticipatory awakening therapy work?

According to a 2020 research review, anticipatory awakening therapy may effectively treat frequently occurring night terrors in children.

But current clinical trials evaluating the effectiveness of this therapy are lacking, so any evidence is from older studies.

Other research suggests that it may take 1 week to see improvements. The APA, however, suggests that it could take up to 4 weeks of consistent awakenings before episodes subside.

Tips for trying anticipatory awakening therapy

Consider these tips if your doctor suggests that scheduled awakenings could be beneficial for you or a child:

• Avoid scheduled awakenings if parasomnia episodes do not follow a consistent pattern.
• Avoid waking someone up if a sleep episode begins earlier or later than planned. Instead, adjust when you plan to wake them up the following night.
• If you’ve determined when an episode will occur, and if you live alone, you can try setting an alarm to wake yourself up 15 to 30 minutes before it happens.

When to seek professional help

You should only move forward with scheduled awakenings with your doctor’s or a pediatrician’s approval. Doing so without professional guidance may have potentially harmful effects on you or a child.

If you’ve received approval from a health professional and find that scheduled awakenings don’t work, consider connecting with a sleep specialist for more treatment information.

They will discuss your concerns with you and help create a treatment plan that aims to do what anticipatory awakening therapy might not have been able to do alone.

Takeaway

Anticipatory awakening therapy, or scheduled awakenings, involves waking someone 15 to 30 minutes before an episode of sleep talking or sleepwalking, or night terrors. These are known as episodes of parasomnia.

While research suggests this therapy may help prevent parasomnia episodes in children and adults, you should only perform it with the guidance of a professional.