Use sleep hygiene as the foundation, not the cure

Get the basics right (light, caffeine, temperature, schedule) but do not expect them alone to fix insomnia.

Why it works

Sleep hygiene addresses the environmental and behavioral conditions for sleep; it does not address the conditioned arousal and dysfunctional beliefs that maintain chronic insomnia. Research consistently finds that sleep hygiene alone produces only modest improvement in clinical insomnia, while CBT-I adds the components that target the maintaining causes.

How to do it

1. Establish the basic conditions: consistent schedule, cool dark room, caffeine cutoff, no alcohol close to bed.
2. Treat these as necessary infrastructure — they help CBT-I work — but not the treatment itself.
3. If sleep hygiene alone is not enough after a few weeks, add stimulus control and sleep restriction.

Evidence

Reviews comparing sleep hygiene alone versus CBT-I find that sleep hygiene produces smaller and less durable improvements; it is recommended as an adjunct, not a standalone treatment for chronic insomnia. (rct)

Sleep hygiene is genuinely useful for subclinical poor sleep; the limitation applies specifically to clinical insomnia, where it is insufficient alone.

Sources

• Morin et al. (2006), psychological and behavioral treatments for insomnia, SLEEP

Common mistake

Concluding that behavioral approaches do not work because sleep hygiene tips did not fix insomnia, when the active ingredients of CBT-I (stimulus control, sleep restriction) were never tried.