Evidence-Based Insomnia Treatment
CBT-I is the only treatment recommended as first-line by every major guideline body since 2016. Fast Asleep delivers it with clinical precision — an AI coach seeded with your own sleep data, adaptive phase gating, and a structure designed to hold you through week two, when it matters most.
The biology and architecture of sleep — circadian rhythms, sleep stages, the science behind why some nights feel restful and others don't.
20–25% of a typical night is spent in REM sleep.Prevalence, mechanism, and the disorder behind the diagnosis. Spielman's 3P model, the sleep-effort paradox, and what the data says about who develops insomnia and why.
~10% of adults meet criteria for chronic insomnia disorder.CBT-I is the gold standard. The pillar covers the protocol itself, why it works, and the treatment gap that keeps most adults from ever receiving it.
The only treatment recommended as first-line by every major guideline since 2016.Sleep hygiene, supplements, devices, the timing of caffeine and exercise. What the evidence supports, what it doesn't, and where each piece fits as an adjunct to CBT-I — not a substitute.
~7 min average reduction in sleep onset latency from melatonin in adults.A landmark population survey by Morin et al. (2006) asked over 2,000 adults with insomnia symptoms what they did to manage their sleep. The results reveal a profound gap between the burden of the condition and the quality of care received.
Source: Morin et al., Sleep Medicine, 2006
ACP recommends that all adult patients receive cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) as the initial treatment for chronic insomnia disorder.
Multicomponent cognitive behavioral therapy is recommended as the standard first-line treatment for chronic insomnia disorder.
Insomnia, when chronic, tends to be unremitting, disabling, costly, pervasive, and pernicious.
CBT-I is well-studied. The honest part is what makes people quit. Sleep restriction, stimulus control, cognitive restructuring, and relaxation training are not secret. A motivated reader can work through them with a workbook or an app.
The hard part is usually not understanding the protocol. The hard part is staying with it through weeks two and three — when sleep gets worse before it gets better, and the instinct to give up is strongest.
Sleep is not a luxury. It is the foundation of everything else — cognitive performance, emotional regulation, immune function, metabolic health. When you fix sleep, you fix more than sleep.
— Dr. Dana Sinai, PhD
Licensed Clinical Psychologist · 20 years in behavioral sleep medicine