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Sleep Europe 2026 | Bedtime Window: improving access to CBT-I in primary care and reducing sleeping-pill use
Alexander Sweetman, PhD, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia, discusses a randomized controlled trial of Bedtime Window, a digital cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) program, which investigated the feasibility and effectiveness of digital insomnia treatment in Australian primary care. Dr Sweetman explains that the program led to good improvements in insomnia symptoms, mental health and daytime function, with around half of patients using sleeping pills stopping them by the end of treatment, sustained at 6-month follow-up. This interview took place at Sleep Europe 2026 in Maastricht, the Netherlands.
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Transcript
There are lots of different barriers to accessing cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia. Although it’s really widely recognised and promoted as the first-line treatment for insomnia, we know from a lot of surveys that only about 1% of people with insomnia actually access CBT-I. So there’s this huge gap between what’s recommended in the evidence-based guidelines and what actually happens in practice...
There are lots of different barriers to accessing cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia. Although it’s really widely recognised and promoted as the first-line treatment for insomnia, we know from a lot of surveys that only about 1% of people with insomnia actually access CBT-I. So there’s this huge gap between what’s recommended in the evidence-based guidelines and what actually happens in practice. So to try and contribute to improved access to CBT-I in Australia, we’ve developed Bedtime Window, which is one digital CBT-I program. And our way of making that available is through primary care. So any primary care clinician can now refer patients for free access to Bedtime Window in Australia. Our recent clinical trial, about 370 general practitioners signed up and have been referring patients. In our trial that’s just been completed, about 950 patients were referred. Really good improvements in symptoms of insomnia, mental health, daytime function. And what we were pleasantly surprised by is that about 50% of people that were using sleeping pills before treatment, so benzodiazepines, Z drugs, and so on, reported that they ceased those medications by post-treatment and that was sustained up to six-month follow-up, so I guess one of the take-homes is that if we can make CBT-I more available, promote awareness, and encourage primary care clinicians to refer patients, it can actually help a lot of people reduce their dependence on sleeping pills.
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