Topic
Sleep
Sleep depends on two main mechanisms: the body clock, which sets the times of waking and falling asleep, and sleep pressure, which builds up over the day. When insomnia takes hold, the efforts made to sleep better often end up keeping it going. The resources in this topic draw on cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia, the first recommended treatment in adults, and also cover nightmares and sleep in children and adolescents.
12 resources
For the public
Children's and teenagers' sleep: a guide for parents
The fifth glass of water at ten at night, the wake-ups at two in the morning, the teenager who falls asleep at one and can no longer get up. This guide explains what happens at each age and describes the methods that have proved themselves: the bedtime routine, learning to fall asleep alone step by step, calming evening fears, responding to night terrors, resetting a teenager's clock. It also says plainly what should send you to the doctor.
Nightmares: taking back your nights
Waking with a start, heart pounding, from the same dream for the tenth time, then dreading the next night. This guide explains what a nightmare is and what is not one, why nightmares set in, and how to get rid of them with the method that sleep specialists recommend: rewriting the nightmare, then rehearsing its new version every day, while awake. A whole section helps parents whose children have nightmares.
Getting your sleep back: the Psychotip® programme
Cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia, recommended ahead of any sleeping pill. The principle is explained in the opening pages, then put to work in eight steps: diary, calculation, precautions, sleep window, stimulus control, weekly adjustments, the effort to sleep, stabilisation.
Post-traumatic stress: understanding it and rebuilding
Images that come back without warning, broken nights, places you no longer go near, and the feeling that the danger has never quite passed. This guide explains what distinguishes the normal reactions of the first weeks from post-traumatic stress that has taken hold, what keeps it going, and which treatments have proved themselves. It then offers a concrete method for regaining your footing in daily life, which prepares and supports the work done with a therapist.
Tinnitus: easing the distress when the noise won't go away
A whistling that nobody else can hear, which fills the quiet of the evening and eats into your nights. This guide first sets out which signs mean you should see a doctor quickly, then explains why the distress varies so much from one person to another. It then offers a step-by-step method, drawn from the therapies that have proved themselves, so that a sound that will not go away stops running your days and your sleep.
Menopause: mood, sleep and hot flushes, and what psychology can do
Hot flushes in the middle of a meeting, nights broken by sweats, a mood that wobbles for no obvious reason: the perimenopause can shake up far more than the body. This guide explains what is happening, what the large studies say about mood and sleep, and what cognitive behavioural therapy can change, with a step-by-step method for hot flushes, nights, low spirits, work, self-image and sexuality.
Bedwetting: a guide for parents
Sheets to change in the middle of the night, a child who feels ashamed, a residential school trip coming up. This guide explains why a child wets the bed without meaning to, what makes things worse, and what has proved itself: simple measures, the alarm step by step, and the medicine the doctor can offer. It also says which signs mean you should see a doctor without waiting.
For professionals
These manuals are written for psychologists, psychiatrists and other mental health practitioners. Anyone can read a preview; the full text is reserved for practitioners who have submitted proof of their professional status and who hold a professional plan.
Nightmares: a therapist's manual
A seven-session protocol, individual or in a group, for adolescents from the age of twelve and adults who suffer from chronic nightmares, with no clear cause or after a trauma, with an adaptation for younger children. The reference treatment is imagery rehearsal: rewriting the nightmare while awake, then rehearsing the new version every day, without having to recount the trauma. The manual begins with sorting — sleep terrors, REM sleep behaviour disorder, apnoea, narcolepsy, epilepsy, medications and withdrawal —, looks for suicide risk, links the work with the treatment of post-traumatic stress and of insomnia, states the real state of the evidence on medications, and provides measures, worksheets to hand out and full references.
Sleep disorders in children and adolescents: a therapist's manual
A session-by-session protocol for sleep disorders in children, from six months of age, and in adolescents. A shared assessment that begins by identifying what belongs to the doctor, then a track conducted with the parents of the young child — bedtime and bedtime routine, gradual withdrawal plan, night wakings, bedtime fears — and a track conducted with the adolescent and their parents — adapted cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia, morning light, advancing the clock, negotiated screens. Two modules, for nightmares and for sleepwalking and sleep terrors; ADHD and autism, melatonin, the actual state of the evidence on screens, worksheets to hand out and full references.
Treating chronic insomnia in adults: a therapist's manual
An eight-session protocol, session by session, based on cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia — recommended ahead of any medication. Diagnostic sorting and apnoea screening first, then the sleep diary, calculating the window, sleep restriction, stimulus control, night-time worry, beliefs, and coming off sleeping tablets. Detailed conduct of the two main behavioural components, precautions, worksheets to hand the patient, and full references.
Tinnitus: a therapist's manual
A ten-session protocol, session by session, for adults whose tinnitus causes them suffering, delivered in liaison with the ENT specialist. It begins with the ENT assessment and the signs that call for prompt medical advice, then draws on cognitive behavioural therapy for tinnitus, enriched with acceptance and mindfulness: understanding the sound, relaxing the body, making attention more flexible, re-examining thoughts, giving up unnecessary protection, getting sleep back, stopping the struggle. It does not promise silence: the established effects concern the impact of tinnitus, not its loudness, and the manual says so. It also covers associated hyperacusis, suicide risk, and the place of hearing aids, sound therapy and medication, without any doses, with worksheets to hand over and full references.
Stopping benzodiazepines and sleeping pills: a therapist's manual
A ten-session protocol, followed by three booster sessions, for providing psychological support when a benzodiazepine or a related sleeping pill taken over the long term is stopped, once stopping has been decided and is conducted by the prescribing doctor. The psychologist does not touch the dose: they prepare the decision, put ways of sleeping and of easing anxiety in place before the first step, teach the person to distinguish withdrawal symptoms, rebound and relapse, and prevent a return to the medication during the six months following the last dose. The manual also covers safety, with the emergencies of withdrawal, alcohol, opioids, pregnancy and the older person, as well as those close to the person, and provides worksheets to hand over and full references.
Other topics
- Addictions10
- ADHD6
- Anxiety34
- Attention & focus9
- Autism4
- Children & parents35
- Depression & mood25
- Eating disorders4
- Emotions24
- Gender identity1
- Grief7
- Loneliness5
- Longevity5
- Mindfulness1
- Neurocognitive disorders3
- OCD7
- Personality disorders12
- Psychosis8
- Relationships14
- Self-esteem7
- Stress & burnout10
- Studying3
- Tics & Tourette1
- Trauma10
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