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Clinical psychology training in sleep and sleep disorders
Author(s) -
Meltzer Lisa J.,
Phillips Cindy,
Mindell Jodi A.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/jclp.20545
Subject(s) - sleep (system call) , internship , psychology , sleep medicine , curriculum , session (web analytics) , sleep hygiene , multidisciplinary approach , medical education , sleep disorder , clinical psychology , psychiatry , insomnia , medicine , pedagogy , social science , sociology , world wide web , computer science , sleep quality , operating system
There is growing evidence to suggest that clinical psychologists would benefit from more training in sleep and sleep disorders. Sleep disturbances are commonly comorbid with mental health disorders and this relationship is often bidirectional. In addition, psychologists have become integral members of multidisciplinary sleep medicine teams and there are not enough qualified psychologists to meet the clinical demand. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the current education on sleep and sleep disorders provided to clinical psychology predoctoral students and interns. Directors of graduate programs and internships ( N =212) completed a brief online survey on sleep education in their program. Only 6% of programs offers formal didactic courses in sleep, with 31% of programs offering training in the treatment of sleep disorders. There are few programs with sleep faculty (16%), and most reported that their institutions were ineffective in providing sleep education. Thirty‐nine percent of training directors reported they would implement a standard curriculum on sleep, if available. The findings from this study suggest that more opportunities are needed for trainees in clinical psychology to gain didactic and clinical experience with sleep and sleep disorders. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol: In Session 65:1–14, 2009.