Insomnia Myths a Sleep Specialist Would Correct: Weekend Catch-Up Sleep, Naps and Screens

It is 3:12 a.m. and the ceiling has become very familiar. You have already tried the breathing exercise, the podcast, the cool side of the pillow. The plan forming in your head is a reasonable one: get through Thursday and Friday on coffee, then sleep until noon on Saturday and put the whole week right. It feels like arithmetic. Unfortunately, the body does not keep accounts that way.

Almost everyone who struggles to sleep collects a set of rules along the way. No naps, ever. Phones off an hour before bed or all is lost. Eight hours or you are failing. Some of these rules contain a grain of truth. Several are insomnia myths that quietly make the problem worse, because they turn sleep into a performance to be monitored rather than a state to be allowed.

What follows is the version a sleep specialist would give you if there were time in the appointment: what the evidence supports, what it does not, and where the honest answer is still uncertain.

What insomnia actually is, and what it is not

A bad night is not insomnia. A bad fortnight after a bereavement or a new baby is usually not insomnia either, at least not in the sense a clinician means. The term describes a pattern: trouble falling asleep, staying asleep or waking too early, happening on several nights a week, and leaving you impaired during the day. Both the NHS and Mayo Clinic describe two broad forms. Short-term insomnia lasts days or weeks and often follows stress or a change in routine. Long-term, or chronic, insomnia is present three nights a week or more for three months or longer.

Two features matter more than the clock. The first is opportunity: insomnia means you cannot sleep despite having enough time and a reasonable place to do it. A parent woken by a toddler is sleep deprived, not insomniac. The second is daytime consequence. If you sleep six hours, wake refreshed and function well, the numbers alone do not make a diagnosis.

Insomnia also travels with company. Mayo Clinic notes that it frequently coexists with anxiety, depression, chronic pain, reflux, restless legs and sleep apnea, a condition in which breathing repeatedly stops during sleep. Sometimes insomnia is the visible tip of one of these. Sometimes it began that way and then took on a life of its own, kept going by habits and worry long after the original trigger passed. That second pattern is the one most of the myths in this article feed. Only a clinician who takes a proper history can tell which applies to you, which is why the diagnosis, and every treatment decision that follows, belongs with your care team.

Is the 8-hour sleep myth true?

Eight hours is a convenient number, not a biological law. What guidelines actually say is a range. The CDC advises that adults need seven or more hours per night, and the NHS puts the typical adult requirement at seven to nine hours. Within that band, individual needs differ in the same way that shoe sizes do, and they shift with age, illness, pregnancy and physical demand.

The myth does harm in two directions. People who naturally need closer to seven hours lie awake trying to manufacture an eighth, and the effort itself keeps them alert. People who genuinely need nine hear “eight is plenty” and quietly run short for years. Neither group is served by a single figure.

Sleep specialists tend to ask a different question: how do you feel by mid-afternoon on an ordinary day? Persistent sleepiness while sitting quietly, dozing in meetings or needing caffeine to stay upright suggests you are not getting enough, whatever the number. Feeling alert most of the day on a schedule that is stable suggests your amount is roughly right, even if it is shorter than a friend’s.

There is one honest caveat. Chronic short sleep, meaning well under the recommended range over years, is associated in population studies with higher rates of high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and obesity, as the CDC summarizes. Association is not the same as proof that a bad month causes lasting harm, and the anxiety generated by health headlines can itself be a potent cause of wakefulness. The sensible reading is that sleep is worth protecting, not that a missed hour is a medical emergency.

Weekend catch-up sleep: does it repay the debt?

Partly, and at a price. Sleep is governed by two systems working at once. One is homeostatic sleep pressure, the accumulating drive to sleep that builds the longer you are awake. The other is the circadian clock, the roughly 24-hour internal timer that tells the body when to feel alert and when to wind down. Sleeping in on Saturday does relieve some of the pressure. It also slides your clock later, so by Sunday night the body has not begun its wind-down at the usual hour, and Monday morning arrives like a flight across time zones.

Researchers call this pattern social jet lag, and it is one of the more consistent findings in sleep science: irregular timing tends to worsen how people feel, independent of total hours. This is why the NHS advice for insomnia includes going to bed and getting up at the same times every day, weekends included, rather than banking hours when convenient.

Does that mean a Saturday lie-in is forbidden? No. If you slept badly for a few nights and sleep an extra hour, you will likely feel better and little is lost. The trouble comes when the catch-up becomes the strategy. Someone with chronic insomnia who sleeps five hours on weeknights and ten on weekends is training two different clocks and getting neither.

The alternative that specialists recommend is duller and more effective: keep your rise time within roughly the same hour every day, let sleep pressure build naturally, and allow bedtime to drift earlier only when you are genuinely sleepy. Extra sleep, if the body wants it, tends to come at the front of the night rather than through a delayed alarm.

Is napping bad for insomnia? A more careful answer

Napping has a bad reputation among people who cannot sleep, and the reasoning is half right. A long or late nap spends some of the sleep pressure you were relying on to fall asleep at night. That is why the NHS advises people with insomnia to avoid napping during the day, and why most behavioral programs ask you to stop naps at least while treatment is under way.

Outside an active insomnia problem, the picture is more relaxed. Mayo Clinic’s guidance on napping suggests keeping naps short, in the range of 10 to 20 minutes, and taking them early in the afternoon rather than after about 3 p.m., so they do not interfere with night-time sleep. A brief early nap can improve alertness without stealing from the night. A 90-minute nap at 5 p.m. usually does the opposite.

Two groups deserve special mention. Shift workers, whose schedules make a full consolidated night impossible, often use planned naps deliberately, and this is a legitimate strategy rather than a failing. Older adults, whose sleep naturally becomes lighter and more fragmented, sometimes find they doze in the afternoon and then lie awake at night. Here the nap is often a symptom of a shifted rhythm rather than the cause, and simply banning it without addressing daytime light and activity rarely helps.

One more point specialists watch for. A sudden new need to nap, especially with loud snoring, morning headaches or dozing off while driving, is not an insomnia habit to correct at home. It is a reason to be assessed for sleep apnea or another medical cause, and the decision about testing belongs with your doctor.

Screens before bed: what the evidence really shows

The claim that phones destroy sleep has two components, and they deserve separate treatment. The first is light. Bright light, and blue-wavelength light in particular, suppresses melatonin, the hormone the brain releases in the evening to signal that night has begun. Harvard Health summarizes an experiment in which blue light suppressed melatonin for roughly twice as long as green light of equal brightness and shifted the internal clock by about twice as much, three hours versus one and a half. That is a real effect, and it is why Harvard suggests avoiding bright screens for two to three hours before bed where possible.

The second component is content, and it may matter as much. A screen that delivers a work email, an argument, or an endlessly refreshing feed keeps the mind in problem-solving mode. That state of arousal, rather than the glow itself, is what many people with insomnia are fighting at midnight. A dim e-reader showing a familiar novel is a very different stimulus from a bright phone showing the news.

What the evidence does not support is the idea that screens alone cause chronic insomnia, or that removing them will reliably resolve it. Plenty of people scroll in bed and sleep fine; plenty of insomniacs banished devices years ago and still lie awake. Screens are best understood as one adjustable factor among several.

Practical middle ground, consistent with mainstream guidance: dim the display and the room in the evening, favor calm content, and keep the device out of reach once you are trying to sleep. The most useful part of that last step is not the light. It is that a phone on the nightstand invites you to check the time, and clock-watching is one of the more reliable ways to stay awake.

Myth: if you cannot sleep, stay in bed and try harder

This is the instinct that keeps insomnia alive. When sleep will not come, the natural response is to stay put, close your eyes firmly and wait. Over weeks and months the brain learns an unhelpful association: bed is where I lie awake and worry. The bedroom becomes a cue for alertness, which is the precise opposite of what you want.

Sleep clinicians address this with a technique called stimulus control, and the NHS gives a plain version of it. If you cannot sleep, do not force it. Get up, go to another room, and do something quiet and dim until you feel sleepy, then return to bed. Repeat as needed. The aim is to re-teach the brain that bed means sleep, and to stop rewarding wakefulness with hours of frustrated rest.

People often resist this because it seems counterproductive to lose more time. In the short run it can be, and the first nights of getting up feel worse. Over a couple of weeks, the association weakens and sleep tends to arrive faster once you lie down. Mayo Clinic lists stimulus control among the core components of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, alongside sleep restriction and relaxation training.

A related idea is called paradoxical intention, or remaining passively awake: giving up the effort to sleep, on the reasoning that trying is itself arousing. Athletes know the principle from a different angle. You cannot force a muscle to relax by straining at it.

What you do when you get up matters less than the fact of getting up. Reading something undemanding by a low lamp, folding laundry or sitting with a warm non-caffeinated drink are all typical suggestions. The one thing clinicians consistently advise against is checking the clock, which converts a vague sense of wakefulness into a precise and alarming figure.

How insomnia treatment actually works: CBT-I in plain language

Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, usually shortened to CBT-I, is a structured program that changes the habits and thoughts keeping insomnia going. The NHS names it as the treatment usually offered first for long-term insomnia, and Mayo Clinic describes it as generally recommended ahead of sleeping medicines. It is not counseling about your day, and it is not a lecture on sleep hygiene. It is closer to physical therapy for the sleep system.

The program typically has several parts, and Mayo Clinic lists the main ones. Stimulus control rebuilds the link between bed and sleep. Sleep restriction, despite the name, does not aim to make you sleep less; it temporarily matches the time you spend in bed to the time you actually sleep, so sleep becomes deeper and more efficient, then gradually widens the window. Relaxation training lowers physical arousal. Cognitive work targets the beliefs that fuel the 3 a.m. spiral, such as “if I do not sleep now, tomorrow is ruined.” Light exposure and sleep hygiene adjustments support the body clock.

A sleep diary anchors the whole process. For a week or two you record when you got into bed, roughly when you fell asleep, how often you woke and when you got up. The clinician uses this, not your worst night’s impression, to set a schedule.

Delivery varies. Some people see a trained therapist face to face, others use group programs or structured digital versions, and some primary care teams run brief versions. The evidence base for the core components is well established, but the right format for you depends on how severe the problem is, what else is going on medically, and what is available locally. That judgment sits with your treating team.

Who insomnia treatment is usually for, and who is asked to wait

CBT-I is generally suitable for adults with chronic insomnia, including many older adults and people whose insomnia sits alongside depression, anxiety or chronic pain. Coexisting conditions are not a barrier; in many cases treating the sleep problem helps the other condition too, and clinicians often address them in parallel.

Some people are usually asked to wait, or to be assessed for something else first. Loud habitual snoring, witnessed pauses in breathing, or heavy daytime sleepiness point toward sleep apnea, which needs its own evaluation before sleep restriction is considered, since compressing sleep in someone whose breathing is already disrupted can worsen daytime function. Untreated bipolar disorder, a seizure disorder, or a job where a temporary increase in sleepiness would be dangerous are all reasons a clinician may modify or postpone the sleep-restriction component. Restless legs, thyroid disease, reflux and certain medicines can each mimic or drive insomnia and are worth ruling out.

Short-term insomnia after a clear stressor is often managed with reassurance and the basic habits described in this article, because it frequently settles as the stress does. Chronic insomnia rarely resolves by waiting, which is one reason the NHS and Mayo Clinic point toward structured treatment rather than indefinite patience once the three-month mark has passed.

Children and teenagers are a separate case. Adolescents naturally run on a later clock, and what looks like insomnia may be a mismatch between biology and a 7 a.m. school bell. Pediatric sleep problems are assessed differently and should go to a doctor who knows the age group. In every case the question of who is suitable, who waits, and what to investigate first is a clinical judgment, not something a checklist can settle.

Sleeping pills: what they do, what they cannot do

Many people arrive at a sleep appointment expecting a prescription and leave with a diary. That is not stinginess. The NHS notes that sleeping pills are now rarely offered first for insomnia and, when used, are usually for a few days or weeks at most, because they can cause daytime drowsiness, unsteadiness, and dependence, and the underlying pattern returns when they stop.

It helps to understand the main classes by mechanism. Benzodiazepines and the related “Z-drug” hypnotics enhance the action of GABA, the brain’s main calming neurotransmitter, producing sedation. Orexin receptor antagonists block a wakefulness-promoting signal rather than adding sedation. Melatonin preparations mimic the body’s own darkness hormone and act more on timing than on depth of sleep. Some antidepressants and antihistamines are used for their sedating side effects. Each works on a different part of the system, and each carries its own trade-offs, including next-day impairment, interactions with alcohol and other medicines, and, for some classes, a raised risk of falls in older adults.

What no sleeping medicine does is retrain the habits and beliefs that keep chronic insomnia going. That is why guidelines position medicines as a possible adjunct or a bridge rather than the foundation. Mayo Clinic frames the choice as one to make with your doctor after weighing benefits and risks for your circumstances.

If you are already taking a sleep medicine, do not stop or change it on the strength of an article. Some classes cause rebound insomnia or withdrawal symptoms when stopped abruptly, and any tapering plan is something to work out with the prescriber. Bringing a list of everything you take, including over-the-counter and herbal products, to your appointment is more useful than any single question.

Natural remedies for insomnia: the nightcap and other comforting myths

Alcohol is the most widely used sleep aid in the world, and one of the least effective. It does shorten the time to fall asleep, which is why the myth persists. Then, as it is metabolized over the following hours, it fragments sleep, suppresses the deeper stages, worsens snoring and any tendency to sleep apnea, and often produces a 3 a.m. awakening with a racing heart. The NHS lists cutting back on alcohol in the evening among its core advice for insomnia. Anyone whose insomnia coincides with regular nightcaps should mention this to their doctor before trying anything else.

Herbal and dietary products occupy a gray area. Melatonin, valerian, chamomile, magnesium, lavender and a dozen others are sold with confident claims. The honest summary is that for most of them the evidence is limited, studies are small and inconsistent, and product quality varies. Melatonin has the clearest role, and it is mainly for timing problems such as jet lag or a delayed body clock rather than for the racing-mind insomnia most people describe. In some countries it is prescription-only, and it interacts with other medicines.

“Natural” does not mean inert. Valerian can cause morning grogginess; some herbal blends contain undeclared sedatives; magnesium in excess causes diarrhea. Anyone pregnant, breastfeeding, taking other medicines or managing a chronic condition should discuss any supplement with a pharmacist or doctor first.

A more defensible set of low-tech measures is the one the NHS describes: a cool, dark, quiet room; regular exercise, not right before bed; limiting caffeine later in the day; a wind-down routine you actually enjoy. None of these is a treatment for chronic insomnia on its own. They are the ground on which treatment stands.

Sleep myths and facts: a quick reference

The table below gathers the beliefs that come up most often in a sleep clinic and sets them against what mainstream guidance actually says. It is a summary, not a diagnostic tool; how any of these applies to you is a conversation for your care team.

Common belief	What the evidence shows	Source
Everyone needs exactly 8 hours	Adults typically need 7–9 hours; individual needs vary within and around that range	CDC, NHS
Weekend lie-ins repay the week	They relieve some sleep pressure but shift the body clock later, worsening Monday; consistent timing is advised	NHS
Naps are always bad	Short early-afternoon naps (about 10–20 minutes) can help alertness; avoid naps during active insomnia treatment	Mayo Clinic, NHS
Screens are the cause of insomnia	Bright blue-rich light delays melatonin and the clock; content and arousal matter too; screens are one factor, not the cause	Harvard Health
Stay in bed until sleep comes	Getting up briefly when unable to sleep re-links bed with sleep (stimulus control)	NHS, Mayo Clinic
Alcohol helps you sleep	It hastens sleep onset but fragments the night and worsens breathing problems	NHS
Sleeping pills fix insomnia	They can help short-term; CBT-I is the usual first-line treatment for chronic insomnia	NHS, Mayo Clinic
Chronic insomnia goes away on its own	Short-term insomnia often settles; insomnia lasting 3 months or more usually needs structured treatment	NHS, Mayo Clinic

Two threads run through every row. First, timing and regularity tend to matter more than heroic single-night fixes. Second, the effort to control sleep, whether through pills, gadgets or rigid rules, is often what sustains the problem. The most effective approaches reduce that effort rather than adding to it.

What the first weeks of insomnia treatment usually look like

People starting CBT-I are often surprised that it feels worse before it feels better, so it is worth knowing the typical shape. Programs commonly run over several weeks, with a small number of structured sessions; Mayo Clinic describes it as a course of sessions rather than a single consultation. The exact number depends on the format and on how quickly your diary changes.

Week one is usually diary-keeping and education. Nothing changes yet except that you start noticing the gap between how bad the nights feel and what the numbers show. Many people discover they sleep more than they thought, which is itself mildly therapeutic.

Weeks two and three are typically the hardest. If sleep restriction is used, your time in bed is matched to your average actual sleep, which may mean a later bedtime than you are used to. You will probably feel sleepier during the day. This is expected and, in a sense, the point: the extra sleep pressure helps consolidate the night. Stimulus control begins in parallel, so you may be up and out of bed several times in the early nights. Clinicians warn against driving or operating machinery if you become significantly drowsy, and this is one reason the program is supervised rather than self-administered from a pamphlet.

From around the third or fourth week, most people whose sleep efficiency has improved begin extending the window in small steps. Awakenings shorten. The panic around bedtime eases, partly because you now have a plan for wakefulness rather than dread of it.

None of this is a promise. Some people respond quickly, others need a longer course or a different emphasis, and some turn out to have a coexisting condition that needs its own treatment. What can be said honestly is that the discomfort of the early weeks is a known feature, not a sign that it is failing, and that any adjustments to the schedule should be made with the person guiding your program.

What people often get wrong about insomnia

Search engines turn up a few beliefs that deserve a direct answer.

The “forbidden hour” of sleep. Social media circulates the idea that sleeping at a particular hour, often late afternoon or dusk, is uniquely dangerous. There is no such hour in sleep medicine. What is true is that a nap taken close to bedtime borrows from the night, which is why Mayo Clinic suggests napping early rather than after mid-afternoon. The danger is in timing relative to your own bedtime, not in a fixed spot on the clock.

“If you cannot sleep, someone is thinking of you.” This is folklore, and a charming piece of it. The physiology is less romantic: wakefulness at night is driven by arousal, a shifted clock, discomfort or a learned association with the bed. It is not a signal from anyone else, and treating it as one tends to add another layer of rumination.

“I am simply a bad sleeper.” Insomnia often feels like a permanent trait, but chronic insomnia is a maintained pattern, and maintained patterns can be changed. Age-related changes in sleep are real, yet the NHS and Mayo Clinic both describe insomnia as treatable at any age.

“Lying awake is at least resting.” Quiet rest has some value, but it does not perform the memory consolidation, hormonal regulation and tissue repair that sleep does, and hours of it in bed strengthen the wrong association.

“Sleep trackers know better than I do.” Consumer wearables estimate sleep from movement and heart rate, and they misjudge wakefulness in bed often. Specialists have a name for anxiety driven by tracker data, and they routinely ask patients to set the device aside during treatment. Your diary and your daytime function are more reliable guides.

Questions to ask your care team about insomnia

A sleep appointment goes further when you arrive with specific questions rather than a general plea. These are the ones clinicians say they wish more people asked.

• Could something else be driving this? Ask specifically about sleep apnea, restless legs, thyroid function, reflux, pain, mood, and any medicines you take, including over-the-counter and herbal products, since several can disturb sleep.
• Is this short-term or chronic insomnia, and does that change what you would recommend?
• Is cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia available to me, in what format, and how long would a typical course run?
• If a medicine is being considered, what class is it, how does it work, what is the expected duration of use, and what is the plan for stopping?
• Should I keep a sleep diary before our next visit, and what exactly should I record?
• Are there parts of the standard program, such as sleep restriction or daytime nap avoidance, that you would modify for my job, my age or my other conditions?
• Should I stop using my sleep tracker for now?
• What symptoms would you want to hear about before the next appointment?

Bring the diary if you have one, a list of everything you take, and an honest account of caffeine, alcohol and nicotine. Bring your bed partner’s observations too, if you have one; they are often the only witness to snoring, breathing pauses or leg movements you are unaware of.

Notice what is not on the list: asking which pill is strongest, or which clinic is best. The more useful question is what pattern your sleep problem fits and which approach matches it. The answer to that, and every decision that follows, rests with the team examining you.

When to call your doctor about insomnia

Most insomnia is distressing rather than dangerous, and it is reasonable to try the habits described here for a few weeks. Some situations should not wait.

Contact a doctor promptly if you have thoughts of harming yourself, or if sleeplessness comes with a depressed or unusually elevated mood, since insomnia is common in mood disorders and can worsen them. Seek assessment if a bed partner notices you stop breathing during sleep, if you snore loudly and wake gasping, or if you fall asleep while driving or in conversation; these point to sleep apnea or another disorder rather than ordinary insomnia. Do not drive if you are that sleepy.

Other reasons to book an appointment: insomnia lasting more than a few weeks despite reasonable changes in routine, especially past the three-month mark the NHS uses to define long-term insomnia; new insomnia alongside chest pain, breathlessness, palpitations, night sweats or unexplained weight loss; sleep disruption that began when a new medicine was started; a sudden change in sleep in an older adult accompanied by confusion; or any sleep medicine, prescribed or otherwise, that you now find difficult to go without.

Go to emergency care, or call emergency services, for chest pain, severe breathlessness, signs of stroke such as facial drooping, arm weakness or slurred speech, or if you are in immediate danger of harming yourself. If you are in crisis, national helplines exist in most countries and are listed on the MedlinePlus and NHS websites.

Everything in this article is general information drawn from mainstream guidance. It cannot account for your history, your medicines or your examination findings. The diagnosis, the choice of treatment and any change to what you already take belong with the clinicians who know you.

Frequently asked questions

Is the 8-hour sleep myth true?

No. Eight hours is a rough average, not a requirement. The CDC recommends adults get seven or more hours and the NHS gives a typical range of seven to nine, with individual needs varying. Feeling alert through an ordinary afternoon is a better guide than hitting a number, and chasing an exact figure can itself keep people awake.

What is the forbidden hour of sleep?

There is no forbidden hour in sleep medicine; the phrase comes from social media and folklore. The real principle is that sleeping too close to your own bedtime, such as a long late-afternoon nap, reduces the sleep pressure you need at night. Mayo Clinic suggests napping early in the afternoon rather than after about 3 p.m.

What is the myth when you can't sleep?

A popular saying holds that if you cannot sleep, someone is thinking of you. It is folklore, not physiology. Night-time wakefulness is driven by mental or physical arousal, a shifted body clock, discomfort, or a learned association between the bed and being awake. Treating it as a message from elsewhere tends to add another reason to lie there ruminating.

What does God say about insomnia?

That is a question for your own faith tradition rather than for medicine, and many people find prayer, scripture or meditation genuinely calming at night. Sleep specialists would add that a quiet spiritual practice can work well as part of a wind-down routine, while persistent insomnia still deserves medical assessment, since the two approaches are not in competition.

Does weekend catch-up sleep really work?

Only partly. Sleeping late relieves some accumulated sleep pressure, so you feel better on Saturday, but it also pushes your body clock later, making Sunday night harder and Monday morning groggy. The NHS advises keeping the same bed and rise times every day, including weekends, and letting extra sleep come earlier in the night instead.

Is napping bad for insomnia?

During active insomnia, usually yes, which is why the NHS advises against daytime naps and most behavioral programs pause them. For people without insomnia, a short nap of about 10 to 20 minutes taken early in the afternoon can improve alertness, according to Mayo Clinic. Long or late naps are the ones that reliably interfere with night-time sleep.

Do screens before bed cause insomnia?

They can contribute but are rarely the whole cause. Bright, blue-rich light in the evening suppresses melatonin and delays the body clock, an effect Harvard Health documents, and stimulating content keeps the mind in problem-solving mode. Dimming devices, choosing calm content, and keeping the phone out of reach in bed are reasonable steps, not a complete treatment.

What are the most common sleep myths and facts a specialist hears?

The frequent ones are that everyone needs exactly eight hours, that weekend lie-ins repay the week, that all naps are harmful, that alcohol helps sleep, and that staying in bed longer eventually works. Guidance from the NHS, CDC and Mayo Clinic contradicts each, favoring regular timing, short early naps if any, and getting up briefly when sleep will not come.

How long does insomnia treatment usually take to work?

Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia typically runs as a course of several structured sessions over a few weeks, as Mayo Clinic describes. Many people feel sleepier in the first two or three weeks before nights consolidate. Response varies with severity, format and coexisting conditions, so timelines are typical ranges rather than promises, and adjustments belong with your clinician.

Should I ask for sleeping pills for chronic insomnia?

It is a fair question to raise, but the NHS notes sleeping pills are rarely offered first and are usually limited to a few days or weeks because of drowsiness, unsteadiness and dependence. Structured behavioral treatment is the usual starting point for chronic insomnia. Whether a medicine is appropriate for you is a decision for your prescriber after weighing your history.

References

• NHS: Insomnia
• CDC: About Sleep
• MedlinePlus: Insomnia

This article is for general information only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Please consult a qualified doctor about your individual situation.