Sleep is an incredibly important process, and when you can’t sleep it can have a huge knock-on effect on the rest of your life. Sometimes insomnia seems to gather momentum, and it can feel like you will never sleep properly again.  However, this is not the case – effective treatments exist for treating insomnia. 

This treatment is called Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia, or CBT-i. This is a form of talking therapy which teaches you techniques for falling asleep quicker and staying asleep.  It explores reasons behind why we don’t sleep well – looking at how our thoughts (or cognitions) and our actions and habits (or behaviours) affect the quality and quantity of the sleep we get. CBT-i also includes elements of education on the science of sleep and relaxation techniques. 

CBT-i is very effective and is recommended as the first-line treatment for insomnia by the NHS, NICE, the British Sleep Society, and the American Association of Sleep Medicine. CBT-i is different from sleep hygiene. Sleep hygiene is more like general good advice for sleep, but is not an effective treatment for insomnia.

Everyone’s sleep is different, and so is their insomnia. In the first session, we look to understand your sleep in as much detail as possible, so that we can offer you the right, personalised treatment. We want to understand your life, sleep, and lack of sleep, as well as any other medical issues you might have, and any medicines that you take.  

We start treatment in the first session and also plan upcoming sessions. Because everyone is different, we don’t all need the same number of sessions, though between 2 and 4 is most common. You don’t have to pay for all of these sessions up front. 

CBT-i is medication-free. If you already take medication for sleep then it is ok to continue this. If you would like to come off your sleeping tablets then CBT-i can be used to help with this.