What a first appointment is like, and what is not here

Nobody watches you sleep in the first appointment. Somebody asks what your nights look like, for how long, and what it is costing you in the day. If apnoea is suspected you may be sent for a study you do at home with a small monitor.

Ask by name for the behavioural treatment for insomnia. It is a talking treatment, usually four to eight sessions, and in some places you can get a version of it online with a clinician behind it.

What is not in this course, and why. Sleep restriction, for the reasons in lesson four. The rule about getting out of bed when you have been awake a while, which is milder but still leaves you up at night and still needs a driving and machinery caution, so it stays with a clinician here. Anything that asks you to lie there and face a frightening thought deliberately, which is not something to run on yourself. And nightmares that come from something that happened to you, which are real and treatable and belong with somebody trained rather than with a course.

If your faith matters to how this is handled, say so in the first meeting. Working alongside somebody religiously knowledgeable is better practice than working around them.