Stop fighting your sleep.

A different method, built for exactly this

The programme draws on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Insomnia (ACT-I), an evidence-informed approach developed for people whose sleep difficulty is maintained by the struggle to control it. It does not try to force sleep to happen and it does not put you on a sleep-restriction schedule. It works on the patterns underneath: the effort, the monitoring, the worry and the compensating that keep your nervous system switched on at exactly the moment it needs to settle. Change those and sleep has room to arrive on its own.

It is personal, finite and delivered by one named clinician from the first session to the last. Each session builds on the one before, the work between sessions is where most of the change happens, and the programme is designed to end.

The four sessions, and the work in between

• Session one: Understanding your sleep

  Your first session is your assessment. We go through your sleep history, what has been happening lately and what poor sleep has been taking from your life. You complete a short sleep questionnaire, the Insomnia Severity Index, which we repeat at the end so you can see what has changed. Together we draw your own sleep-effort cycle: the things you have been doing to get sleep back, what each one gives you in the short term, and what it costs you over time. By the end of it you have your sleep laid out in front of you, often for the first time.

  Between sessions: you keep a short sleep and response diary, two or three minutes each morning. It is deliberately rough, with no clock-checking in the night. The column that matters is what you did when you were awake, because that is where the pattern lives.

• Session two: Stepping out of the struggle

  You learn how sleep is actually regulated, through your body's sleep drive and its body clock, and why naps, lie-ins and early nights so often backfire. We look honestly at what the struggle has cost you. Then you start practising a different way of meeting a wakeful night: a mindful breathing practice and a progressive muscle relaxation practice, taught not as ways to make yourself sleep but as ways to settle and make room for being awake.

  Between sessions: a short settling practice each day, your diary continues, and you keep a night-time willingness card by the bed. You read it when you wake. It reminds you that being awake is uncomfortable and allowed, that "tomorrow is ruined" is a thought and not a forecast, and that you do not need to win against wakefulness tonight.

• Session three: Working with sleep worries

  Thoughts like "I'll never cope tomorrow" and "I need eight hours or the day is lost" are what turn a wakeful hour into a spiral. You learn to notice them, name the story they belong to, and hold them more lightly rather than arguing with them. We audit the habits that have crept in to protect your sleep, from clock-watching to extra coffee to the plans you have been cancelling, and you choose what to do instead. Then you pick one or two things that matter to you and commit to doing them this week regardless of how you slept.

  Between sessions: you practise unhooking from your sleep thoughts using a worksheet you build in session, and you carry out your one or two committed actions. The rule for the week is simple: measure it by whether you did them, not by how many hours you slept.

• Session four: Moving forward with confidence

  You repeat the sleep questionnaire and we put your two scores side by side. We look at what has changed in how you sleep and, just as importantly, in how you respond when you don't. You name what has made the most difference in your own words, and together we write your setback plan: the early warning signs that you are slipping back into fighting sleep, what to do at night, what to keep doing by day, and when to get in touch.

  After the programme: within three working days you receive a written summary of the whole programme, with your starting and finishing scores, what we understood, what changed, what helped most and your setback plan, so you have everything you need to keep going without us.

Change you can see

The Insomnia Severity Index is a short, widely used questionnaire that measures how much your sleep is affecting you. You complete it at the start of session one and again in session four, and both scores go into your written summary. Alongside the numbers, the change the programme works towards is in the nights themselves: the wake-up at 3am may still happen sometimes; the hour of fighting that used to follow it is what we set out to remove.

Is this right for you?

The programme suits adults whose sleep has been difficult for long enough that they now worry about sleep itself: dreading bedtime, lying awake calculating the hours, planning the day around the night before, or holding everything together on five hours and running tomorrow's list at 2am. It is open to anyone over 18, whatever your age or stage of life, and works equally well online or in person.

It is a psychological approach. If your sleep might be affected by a physical cause, such as loud snoring or pauses in breathing at night, we will suggest you speak to your GP first. If you are not sure whether the programme is right for you, that is exactly what the free chat is for.

One clinician, from first session to last

Your programme is delivered by Albie Mew-Davies, a BACP-registered clinician and Eunoia Health's clinical co-founder. You will not be matched by an algorithm or passed between practitioners. Albie gets to know you and your sleep in session one, designs the work around what is keeping your difficulty going, and plans the ending from the start. If he thinks a different approach would serve you better, he will tell you.#

The programme starts with a conversation

Book a complimentary 15-minute chat with us. We will listen to what has been happening with your sleep, explain how the four sessions work and what the programme costs, and help you decide whether it is the right next step. If it is, we send you everything you need to book your first session. If it isn't, you leave with a clearer picture of your sleep than you arrived with. There is no obligation either way.