Insomnia and Sleep Disturbance: How Online Therapy Can Help You Sleep Again
Lying awake at night while your mind races, clock-watching as sleep slips further away — insomnia can feel like a vicious cycle. The more you try to sleep, the harder it becomes. And over time, poor sleep affects everything: your mood, concentration, relationships, and physical health.
If you’re struggling with falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking too early, you’re not alone — and it’s not something you have to just “put up with.” At The Online Psychologists, we offer evidence-based therapy for insomnia and sleep difficulties, delivered by Clinical Psychologists in a flexible, online format. We offer Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) online — the most evidence-based treatment for chronic sleep difficulties, recommended by NICE and the NHS.
Why CBT-I, Not Just Sleep Hygiene?
Most people with long-standing sleep issues have already tried improving their “sleep hygiene” — things like cutting screen time, winding down, or keeping a regular bedtime. But CBT-I goes far deeper, targeting the patterns that maintain insomnia, even after the original trigger (e.g., stress, illness, parenthood) has passed.
CBT-I works because it combines psychological insight with practical behavioural strategies — breaking the cycle of overthinking, worry, and broken sleep. According to Trauer et al. (2015), CBT-I leads to significant improvements in sleep quality, latency, and efficiency, with effects that are often more sustained than medication.
What You Can Expect in Online Therapy for Insomnia
When you work with one of our Clinical Psychologists trained in CBT-I your therapy may include:
1. Sleep Restriction Therapy
Although it sounds counterintuitive, sleep restriction is one of the most powerful CBT-I techniques. It involves temporarily limiting your time in bed to match the actual amount of sleep you’re getting — helping to build “sleep pressure” and reset your body clock.
For example, if you currently sleep only 5 hours (despite spending 8 hours in bed), we’ll start by reducing time in bed to match that 5 hours. Then, as your sleep becomes more efficient, we gradually increase your time in bed. This strengthens the link between bed and sleep, reducing frustration and nighttime wakefulness.
Your psychologist will work closely with you to monitor fatigue and adapt the plan to your life and safety needs — particularly important if you're working or caring for others.
2. Stimulus Control Techniques
Stimulus control aims to reassociate the bed with sleep — not wakefulness, frustration, or thinking. You’ll learn how to:
Get out of bed if you’ve been awake for more than 20 minutes
Use the bed only for sleep (and sex), not for scrolling, reading, or worrying
Establish a consistent wake-up time (even after a poor night)
These strategies retrain your brain to see bed as a place of rest, not stress.
3. Addressing the Cognitive Side of Insomnia
Chronic insomnia is often fuelled by a cycle of anxious thoughts — “What if I don’t sleep again tonight?”, “I won’t cope tomorrow,” or “My body is broken.”
We use CBT to help you:
Identify and challenge unhelpful sleep-related beliefs
Reduce catastrophic thinking around tiredness
Build a more compassionate internal narrative
Work with perfectionism, anxiety, or trauma if these are contributing
In some cases, we also draw on ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) to support people in letting go of the struggle to control sleep, and CFT (Compassion Focused Therapy) to work gently with shame and self-criticism that often accompany long-term insomnia.
Why Online Therapy Is Ideal for Insomnia Work
Online therapy is not only convenient — it’s often the ideal setting for treating sleep problems. You’ll be able to:
Track sleep habits in real time with your psychologist
Apply strategies in your natural sleep environment
Avoid extra disruption, stress, or travel when already tired
Work flexibly around your body clock and daily energy levels
And because we’re an experienced clinician-led service — not an app or generic sleep coaching platform — your support is tailored, evidence-based, and psychologically grounded.
Personalised Therapy, Not a Sleep Script
Insomnia rarely exists in isolation. It’s often tangled up with anxiety, trauma, menopause, parenting stress, chronic pain, or the demands of a high-pressure job. That’s why all therapy at The Online Psychologists is formulation-led — not one-size-fits-all.
Every client starts with a free consultation with Dr Rachel Whatmough, Clinical Psychologist and Director of the service. She’ll talk with you in depth, understand your context, and personally match you with a psychologist who specialises in sleep and the issues that matter to you.
Final Thoughts
You don’t have to spend another night wide awake and alone with your thoughts. Sleep is not a luxury — it’s a foundation for wellbeing, and it’s something we can help you rebuild.
CBT-I, delivered by an experienced Clinical Psychologist online, offers a powerful, practical, and personalised route back to restorative sleep — one step at a time.
