Insomnia is a highly prevalent sleep disorder characterized by difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep, or having non-restorative sleep for at least one month. Sleep problems are extremely common in people who suffer from mental health problems and there is increasing evidence that disturbed sleep can be a causal factor for many mental health difficulties. Harvey’s (2002) cognitive model of insomnia suggests that excessive worrying about a lack of sleep triggers autonomic arousal and emotional distress. This increased arousal leads to selective attention towards and increased monitoring of sleep-related threat cues, culminating in a biased perception of the sleep-related deficit.

The Cognitive Behavioral Model Of Insomnia can be used to conceptualize your client's insomnia. It is a useful framework for identifying safety behaviors and unhelpful beliefs about sleep or worry, both of which Harvey highlights as key exacerbating factors. This model proposes that cognitive processes contribute to the maintenance of insomnia, irrespective of whether the original cause was psychiatric, circadian, medical, or drug-induced.