Insomnia
Written by Bonnie Gifford (Read) - Counselling Directory
Reviewed by Kaz Hazelwood
Last updated 1st September 2025 | Next update due August 2028
Sleep plays a vital role in our health and well-being. Around one in three adults in the UK experiences sleep problems, with nearly one in five not getting enough sleep. How can you beat insomnia, and get a happier, healthier night’s sleep? We explain more about common sleep problems and how therapy can help.
Insomnia and sleep problems
Ensuring you get a good night’s sleep isn’t just about preparing you for the day ahead; it’s crucial in looking after yourself, physically and mentally. Our body clock is regulated by routine, as well as light and darkness. This is why when it's out of sync, we can feel alert later at night or sleepy at unusual times during the day. However, there are ways to gently reset it when we need to.
Sleep allows your body and brain to rest, repair, and rejuvenate. When we get enough sleep, we are more likely to get sick less often, are at lower risk of serious health problems, and are able to think more clearly. Sleep helps to reduce our feelings of stress, improve mood, and support our health and well-being.
While many people feel tired from time to time, ongoing exhaustion isn’t something to ignore. If you’re noticing new or worsening fatigue, it might be worth exploring what’s affecting your sleep and overall health with your GP. If tiredness is interfering with your daily life, it could be a sign to look more closely at your sleep and well-being. Ongoing fatigue can have many causes, and sleep problems are one of them, so getting support early can help. If you find yourself struggling to get to sleep or having difficulty staying asleep, it may be a sign of insomnia.
Symptoms of insomnia
How much sleep we need varies from person to person, depending on a number of different things, including age and lifestyle. On average, adults need around seven to nine hours a night. While we all feel tired from time to time, it isn’t normal to feel exhausted a lot or all of the time. Tiredness shouldn't regularly distract from your day-to-day life and health. If you find yourself struggling to get to sleep or having difficulty staying asleep, it can be a sign of insomnia.
Symptoms can include:
trouble falling asleep
lying awake at night or waking up multiple times during the night
waking up early and being unable to get back to sleep
still feeling tired when you get up
feeling tired and irritable throughout the day
trouble focusing as you feel tired
You might find that symptoms come and go. However, for some people, insomnia can last for months or years at a time. Persistent insomnia can affect your mood, what you are able to do in your daily life, and can negatively affect your quality of life. Over time, insomnia can impact your relationships with friends, family, and colleagues. If you find that you are feeling tired throughout the day or think that your tiredness is affecting your life, it could be time to seek help.
Should I speak with my GP about insomnia?
If you are worried about your sleep, you may want to see your GP if improving your sleep hygiene hasn’t helped. If poor sleep affects your daily life, you are having trouble managing responsibilities or looking after yourself, talk to your GP. Your GP can help explore possible underlying health conditions that might be causing sleep problems, and to talk through next steps such as further investigations or treatment options.
What is the main reason for insomnia?
Many different things can cause insomnia. While specific triggers aren’t always clear, common causes of insomnia include:
anxiety
depression
stress
environment (uncomfortable bed, temperature being too hot or cold, noise)
work (shift work, work-related stress or anxiety)
caffeine, alcohol, or drugs
Some medical conditions can also cause insomnia. These include physical conditions like menopause or an overactive thyroid. They can also include mental health conditions such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Sleep problems can also be a side effect caused by some medications. If you are worried that you may be experiencing side effects from a prescription, speak with your GP or pharmacist.
How to prevent insomnia
Having a consistent sleep schedule is crucial. Create a relaxing bedtime routine, optimise your sleep environment, and have a consistent bedtime. Practising healthy sleep hygiene can help you to fall (and stay) asleep. Try and:
Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day. Having an established, consistent schedule helps regulate your body’s natural sleep-wake cycle.
Limit (or avoid) caffeine, alcohol, and large meals before bed. The NHS recommends avoiding smoking, tea, coffee, and alcohol for at least six hours before bedtime. Caffeine and alcohol are stimulants that can make it difficult to fall and stay asleep. Eating a large meal can cause digestive discomfort, which, in turn, can disrupt sleep.
Optimise your environment. Ensure your room is comfortable, dark, quiet, and cool to promote restful sleep.
Switch off from screens at least an hour before bed. Blue light from phones, tablets, and computers can interfere with melatonin production. This can disrupt your natural sleep-wake cycle. While scrolling might feel like switching your brain off to relax, it can make it harder to fall asleep and reduce the quality of your sleep.
Avoid (or limit) daytime naps. This can throw off your schedule and push back when you start to feel sleepy, creating an unhelpful cycle.
Try to manage stress and anxiety levels. Feeling stressed or anxious can disrupt your ability to fall asleep.
Avoid using your phone to set alarms. Blue light can interfere with your sleep by suppressing melatonin and delaying your internal body clock. Instead, invest in a cheap alarm clock or try keeping your phone outside of the bedroom but still within listening distance so you can hear it without being tempted to scroll.
The 10-3-2-1-0 rule
A simple way to remember good sleep hygiene habits is with the 10-3-2-1-0 rule. These are the ideal cut-off times for things that can really affect your sleep. By sticking to these, you can help create a steadier, sustainable sleep routine.
10 hours before bed: Avoid caffeine
3 hours before bed: Stop drinking alcohol
2 hours before bed: Finish work or mentally demanding tasks
1 hour before bed: Switch off screens
0 times in the morning: Resist hitting the snooze button and get up with your alarm.
Remember: Tailor what strategies you try to best suit your needs. We all have different situations, underlying causes for insomnia, and different methods may help you more or less than someone else. For example, what works best for someone who needs to be up, awake and alert for an early morning shift may differ from what works best for someone working the night shift, or a carer who may be on call around the clock. If you:
Have a long commute or are tight on time, portable wind-down routines can help you to start relaxing and switching off before you get home. This could include trying meditation apps, audio recordings, or YouTube videos.
Live in a multi-generational or shared home, and controlling how noisy or bright things are isn't always possible. Investing in low-cost aids like sleep masks or using free white noise apps may help.
Have sensory sensitivities or are autistic, you might find that trying a weighted blanket or blackout blinds can help you to create a more relaxing, sleep-friendly space that allows you to switch off and feel grounded.
Work shifts, you may find that trying anchor sleep patterns can help. This means keeping a consistent three or four-hour block of sleep at the same time every day, even if the rest of your sleep schedule shifts. This can help your body clock to stay more stable and can make irregular hours less disruptive.
Can counselling help with insomnia?
Therapy can help with insomnia and problems sleeping. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is sometimes offered by the NHS. Working with a therapist can help you to change thoughts and behaviours that might be keeping you from sleeping. A therapist can help you to identify issues causing you difficulty in sleeping. They can also recommend helpful self-help tools and routines.
What is the best therapy for insomnia?
There is no single best therapy type that works for everyone. Learning more about different kinds of therapy can help you to find what works for you. Therapy, combined with positive lifestyle changes, can help to ease symptoms of insomnia. The NHS recommends keeping a sleep diary to track your sleeping patterns. Having this can be helpful to bring up with your therapist, as you can discuss patterns, things that might have worried you, and identify unhelpful habits.
One of the most common recommended kinds of therapy for insomnia and sleep problems is cognitive behavioural therapy.
Cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I)
CBT-I is a type of cognitive behaviour therapy that focuses on helping you restructure thoughts, feelings, and behaviours that are contributing to your insomnia. Using a variety of different techniques, including relaxation training, sleep restriction, and stimulus control, CBT-I can help those with both short-term and chronic insomnia.
Short, structured, and evidence-based, CBT-I focuses on the connection between how we think, behave, and sleep. A CBT-I practitioner helps support you in identifying thoughts, feelings, and behaviours that contribute to insomnia. This can include examining and testing your thoughts and feelings about sleep, as well as looking at your behaviours to see if they are promoting sleep.
Typically lasting six to eight sessions, the number of sessions you need may vary. CBT-I therapists may use a variety of different cognitive, behavioural, and psychoeducational interventions. These can include:
Challenging inaccurate or unhelpful thoughts about sleep through cognitive restructuring.
Incorporating relaxation techniques and limiting stimulus before bed (behavioural interventions).
Helping you to learn more about the connection between behaviours, thoughts, feelings, and sleep (psychoeducational interventions).
A CBT-I counsellor can help you to recognise unhelpful thoughts or patterns that might be affecting your sleep. For example, if you have had insomnia before, you might find yourself worrying more about falling asleep. This can create a frustrating cycle that can be difficult to break. With help and support, you can learn to recognise, challenge, and alter unhelpful thoughts and beliefs.
Trauma-informed therapy and insomnia
PTSD and other trauma-based experiences can be a big contributor or cause of insomnia. Trauma-informed therapy is a therapeutic approach that recognises the impact that trauma can have on someone's mental and emotional well-being. Built around the core principles of safety, trustworthiness, empowerment, collaboration and choice, a trauma-informed therapist may focus on what happened to you, helping you to better understand your past experiences while focusing on healing and resilience.
Counselling and relaxation techniques for insomnia
Your therapist might recommend some different relaxation techniques to help with insomnia. Relaxation techniques can often be incorporated into your regular routine, and can help your body and mind to relax.
A therapist might suggest:
Breathing exercises to help slow your heart rate, reduce feelings of anxiety, anger, worry, or stress.
Progressive muscle relaxation (PMR). PMR involves tensing and relaxing different muscle groups to help you become more aware of your body and how tense you are. This promotes a state of deep relaxation that can help improve sleep and reduce stress. This may be combined with breathing exercises or guided imagery.
Self-hypnosis or working with a hypnotherapist.
Meditation to help reduce stress and anxiety and promote sleep.
Meditation helps you towards maintaining lower levels of stress and anxiety. A regular daytime meditation practice can help support a more restful night's sleep.
- Claire, Prof.DipPsyC, DipCST, CertHypCs, BA Hons Social Work, explains more in How can meditation reduce stress and anxiety, and promote sleep?
