Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I): The Treatment That Isn’t Sleep Hygiene Advice

There’s a particular way people talk about their sleep once they’ve been struggling with it for a long time, and I can usually recognize it within the first few minutes of a consultation. It’s apologetic. Someone will list everything they’ve already tried, the blackout curtains and the magnesium and the app with the rain sounds and the rule about no screens after nine that they kept faithfully for eleven days, and then they’ll land on some version of “so I know I’m probably just not being consistent enough.” They say it the way you’d confess to skipping the gym.