Use it in a CBT-I session, sleep clinic appointment or at home to map how worries about poor sleep can feed insomnia, sleep anxiety and unhelpful bedtime habits. The handout is especially relevant for adults who have trouble falling asleep, wake during the night, wake too early, or feel stuck in a cycle of sleeplessness and daytime worry.
The Insomnia and Thinking PDF CBT Sleep Information Sheet helps readers explore how thoughts, predictions and worries can affect sleep. When someone lies awake thinking they will not cope without eight hours of sleep, or that one bad night means tomorrow will be ruined, this handout offers a clear way to examine those beliefs. It explains primary insomnia, including difficulty falling asleep, waking during the night, early morning waking and poor sleep quality.
The PDF includes a simple vicious cycle of insomnia, showing how initial poor sleep can lead to anxious thoughts, emotional and physical tension, changes in habits such as napping or spending too long in bed, and then continued sleep difficulty. It also describes common thinking traps, including assuming the worst, blaming everything on sleep, unrealistic expectations about sleep duration, catastrophising, black and white thinking, overgeneralisation and selective attention.
This printable CBT sleep worksheet can be used by adults experiencing insomnia, counsellors, psychologists, CBT-I practitioners and mental health professionals. It may be useful for psychoeducation, guided discussion, therapy planning, sleep clinic resources, home reflection or revision between appointments.
Use the information sheet to support conversations about unhelpful sleep-related thoughts and to introduce more balanced thinking. It can also be paired with a Thought Diary to help identify negative predictions about sleep and develop more helpful responses.
