Put a Finger Down if…
You feel constantly “tired but wired,” like your mind just won’t switch off at night.
You wake up still exhausted, no matter how many hours of sleep you get.
You fall asleep on the couch, but the second your head hits the pillow in bed, you’re suddenly wide awake.
You’ve tried every sleep hygiene strategy, but nothing seems to work.
You spend hours lying in bed trying to fall asleep, wake up multiple times during the night, or experience both.
You feel moody, anxious, or irritable throughout the day because of poor sleep.
You say things like “I’m a bad sleeper” or “I slept terribly last night, it’s going to be a long day.”
You can’t remember the last time you actually had a good, restorative night’s sleep.
If this sounds familiar, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia or CBT-I may be able to help. CBT-I is a highly effective, evidence-based approach designed to help you fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer, and finally feel rested during the day.
Chronic Insomnia
Chronic insomnia is a persistent difficulty with falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking too early, even when there is adequate opportunity for rest. When sleep problems occur at least three nights per week for three months or longer, they are considered chronic. Insomnia can affect energy, mood, concentration, and overall quality of life.
Chronic insomnia is often maintained by a combination of factors, including stress, anxiety, disrupted sleep routines, and learned patterns that develop over time. Many people notice that worry about sleep itself can make insomnia worse, creating a frustrating cycle of poor sleep and increased nighttime alertness.
While insomnia is common, it is also highly treatable. Evidence-based approaches such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) address both the mental and behavioral factors that interfere with sleep, helping individuals rebuild healthy sleep patterns and restore confidence in their ability to sleep naturally.
What is CBT-I?
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) is an evidence-based, short-term treatment that helps address the thoughts and behaviors that interfere with healthy sleep. Rather than relying on medication, CBT-I focuses on improving sleep habits, reducing nighttime worry, and strengthening your body’s natural sleep-wake rhythm.
CBT-I is typically offered over 4 structured sessions across an 8-week period, with sessions spaced to allow time to practice skills and track sleep patterns between appointments. Treatment is collaborative and practical, with a strong emphasis on education, skill-building, and measurable progress.
Treatment may include strategies such as sleep scheduling, stimulus control, cognitive techniques to reduce sleep-related anxiety, and relaxation skills. CBT-I is considered the gold-standard treatment for chronic insomnia and can be effective even when sleep difficulties have been present for years.
If you want better sleep, you have to stop trying.
What to Expect
The Process
CBT-I is typically 4 sessions spread out across 8 weeks. However, your therapist may recommend additional sessions in situations where you may need more support in understanding the foundational knowledge of CBT concepts, addressing cognitions, or increasing coping strategies.
Intake & Assessment
In the first appointment, your therapist will conduct a thorough assessment on your sleep history and determine whether CBT-I is the right course of action. Your therapist will ask you about your daily activities, mental health history, medical history, satisfaction with sleep, and more. The goal is to identify the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors contributing to your insomnia symptoms.
Key Components
Cognitive Interventions
Your mindset about sleep makes a difference. Through cognitive restructuring, you will examine your thinking patterns in efforts to reframe or “restructure” inaccurate or unhelpful thoughts about sleep.
Behavioral Interventions
Your habits matter. You will take a deep dive into the things you do before bed or what you do to TRY to sleep (aka sleep effort) that are ultimately prevent you from being a “good sleeper”. This could look like changing your sleep environment, controlling the amount of time you spend in bed, and/or implementing relaxation strategies to promote healthy pre-sleep habits.
Psychoeducational Interventions
Let’s assume that everything you once knew about sleep is wrong. With CBT-I, you will build a foundational knowledge of CBT concepts, gain understanding of your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors around sleep and how they contribute to insomnia, and learn relaxation techniques.
CBT-I Techniques
STIMULUS CONTROL THERAPY
Address the unhelpful associations that you have with your bedroom such as feelings of frustration or dread, poor habits that make sleeping more difficult like watching TV, eating, or scrolling on their phone. During CBT-I, the bed is used only for sleep and sex. The golden rule is "if you’re trying to sleep, stop trying.” You will be asked to get out of bed when you can’t fall asleep or when lying awake for more than 10 mins, only to return when feeling sleepy again. Alarms are set for the same time every morning (including weekends, vacations, etc.) and daytime naps are not recommended.
SLEEP RESTRICTION & COMPRESSION (SRT)
Limit the amount of time you’re spending in bed in order to increase your “sleep drive” and temporarily increase daytime fatigue. Think of sleep drive as building up enough “momentum” to actually fall asleep. SRT uses a sleep diary to calculate your total time spent asleep on an average night. Your time in bed will then be adjusted to reflect this amount adding 30 mins. Once you’re able to spend the majority of your time in bed actually sleeping, you can begin slowly increasing your time in bed. Sleep Compression is a gentler approach, gradually reducing your time in bed until it’s close to the time you actually spend sleeping.
HOMEWORK
Since CBT-I is a short term treatment and collaborative process, practicing the skills learned during sessions is super important. Homework is a crucial element of treatment. Your therapist will give you “experiments” to try in between sessions. This might look like using a sleep diary, practicing thought-challenging strategies, and implementing changes in your environment or behavior.
PSYCHOEDUCATION
Teaching you the importance of good sleep habits means expanding practices that boost and help sleep while reducing or getting rid of those that inhibit sleep. Topics may include the impacts of nutrition, movement, and environment have on your ability to fall or stay asleep.
RELAXATION TRAINING
Learn techniques that you can easily build into your current routine to promote your body’s natural relaxation response and reduce the racing thoughts and tension that frequently come with lying in bed awake.
Improve your sleep quality & feel more rested during the day.