A workbook based on cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia, for four weeks at home. For people whose bad sleep is no longer a one-off. If you have had several bad nights in most weeks for about three months, this is written for you.
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Why this approach. The German S3 guideline on insomnia in adults (2025) and the European Insomnia Guideline put cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia first, ahead of medication. It works best with a therapist. This workbook is the form you can start on Monday instead of after months on a waiting list.
What to expect. At first the approach hardly makes your sleep longer. It turns your time in bed into sleep. Anyone hoping for eight hours instead of five tends to give up disappointed after two weeks, so this comes first.
How it works:
–Week 1: record seven nights and change nothing. Half a minute each morning, one calculation at the end
–Week 2: less time in bed, and linking the bed with sleep again. This is the uncomfortable week
–Week 3: the thoughts that get louder at night. The part that contributes most to the approach working
–Week 4: what to do when it comes back. Coffee, exercise and light only appear here, because they carry less than everything before. This is also where you learn why alcohol is not a sleeping aid
What you get
01A workbook with 47 content pages + info page
02A sleep record for seven nights, also as its own file so you can reprint it without printing the whole workbook
03One calculation a week: work out your sleep efficiency and adjust your time-in-bed window, step by step
04Up front, a page on what a doctor should look at first, such as snoring with pauses in breathing, restless legs or a new medication
05A plan for the next bad night, written while you are doing well
06A sheet for your doctor's appointment, in case the workbook is not enough
07A page of phone lines staffed around the clock: an international directory first, then Switzerland, the UK and Ireland
08A sources page: the guidelines and studies by chapter, with sample sizes
09Every file also as an ink-saving edition: identical text, far less colour. It carries “sparsam” in the file name
