Insomnia almost never starts at night — it starts during the day. It is not a problem of “being unable to sleep” but a problem of over-arousal: the nervous system stays switched on long after it is time to rest. CBT-I, the first-line treatment recommended by NICE and the NHS, works by dismantling the things […]
Night terrors in children are a common, harmless event that happens during deep sleep — not a nightmare. The child may scream, look frightened, thrash about or even get up and walk, yet they are fully asleep, unaware of what is happening, and will remember nothing in the morning. Most children grow out of them […]
Insomnia almost never comes from a single cause. It is usually a combination of factors — physical, psychological and behavioural — that lock together into a self-feeding cycle. To understand how to get out of insomnia, you first need to understand how it started, and above all what is keeping it going now. That is […]
Insomnia is very common during the menopause and perimenopause — but it is not your fate. Although the trigger is often physical (falling oestrogen, hot flushes, night sweats), the insomnia itself is usually held in place by behavioural and cognitive patterns that respond very well to CBT-I, the treatment recommended by NICE and the NHS […]
Regular exercise genuinely helps sleep — it strengthens your natural sleep drive, reduces stress and anxiety, and supports your body clock. But exercise is not a sleeping pill, and it shouldn’t be used to “force” sleep. Done in the right way, as part of a wider approach such as CBT-I, physical activity supports better sleep […]
If you are working hard to fall asleep — checking the clock, going to bed early, cancelling plans to “protect” your sleep — you are probably trying too hard. Sleep is not something you can achieve by effort; it is a process that happens when you let go. The very behaviours we use to guarantee […]
One bad night — or even a difficult week of poor sleep — does not mean you have insomnia. The difference between a bad night and an insomnia disorder comes down to three things: frequency, duration and daytime consequences. A bad night is a normal, passing event; insomnia is a persistent pattern that feeds itself […]
A sleep diary is the simplest yet most powerful tool in CBT-I (cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia). It is a short table you fill in each morning about the night before — and it lets us see how your sleep actually behaves, night after night, rather than how it feels. Before we try to change […]
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