Therapist Insights / Conditions We Treat
Sleep anxiety: when trying to sleep keeps you awake.
Sleep is not under voluntary control, which is why effort is the one input that makes sleep anxiety worse. Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia holds a strong recommendation from both the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the American College of Physicians, and sleep hygiene on its own does not.
Clinically reviewed August 2026 · 12 min read
THE QUICK TAKEAWAY
Sleep anxiety is worry about sleep itself, and the effort to fall asleep produces the arousal that prevents it. Sleep anxiety is not a diagnosis; chronic insomnia disorder is, and the National Library of Medicine reference chapter sets its threshold at symptoms on 3 nights or more a week for more than 3 months, with adequate sleep opportunity present and daytime dysfunction resulting. Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia is first-line: the American College of Physicians recommends CBT-I as the initial treatment for all adults with chronic insomnia disorder, a strong recommendation on moderate-quality evidence. If distress becomes acute, call or text 988, or text HOME to 741741.
§01 / 09 / Definition
What sleep anxiety is.
Sleep anxiety describes worry directed at sleep itself rather than at the problems of the day, and high performers who cannot switch off at night usually arrive with the two fused together. Sleep anxiety is a clinical description rather than a diagnostic category. Chronic insomnia disorder is the diagnosis, and it requires symptoms on 3 nights or more a week for more than 3 months.
Sleep anxiety describes worry aimed at sleep itself: the fear of not sleeping, and the effort to make sleep happen, both of which raise the arousal that prevents it. Sleep anxiety is not a diagnosis. Chronic insomnia disorder is one, and the National Library of Medicine reference chapter on chronic insomnia sets its threshold at symptoms occurring 3 nights or more a week for more than 3 months despite the presence of adequate opportunities for sleep, resulting in daytime dysfunction. That same chapter reports that about one-third of adults, 30% to 36%, report at least one symptom of insomnia, while 6% to 10% meet strict ICSD-3 or DSM-5-TR criteria. CEREVITY is a nationwide network of independent licensed clinicians working with executives, physicians, founders and attorneys who lie awake rehearsing tomorrow and then rehearsing the fact that they are not asleep. Work is private-pay, so no insurance claim is submitted and nothing is routed through an employer. Sessions run 50-minute, 90-minute or 3-hour. If distress becomes acute, call or text 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, or text HOME to 741741.
Five pressures that turn bedtime into work
Tomorrow already has a price on it
Sleep anxiety concentrates in people whose next day carries a board vote, a trial date, an operating list or a diligence deadline. The cost of a bad night is not vague for them, it is itemised, and the itemising happens at 1am. Each hour that passes gets converted into a projected deficit in tomorrow's performance, which raises arousal further, which is the mechanism by which the projection makes itself more likely.
The clock becomes an adversary
Checking the time converts an unpleasant night into a running scoreboard. High performers are unusually good at arithmetic under pressure, which here works against them: four hours and eleven minutes left, then three hours and forty, each figure a fresh verdict. Clock watching is one of the first behaviors CBT-I removes, because the calculation is itself an arousing task performed in the dark.
Compensating entrenches the problem
The rational response to a bad night is more opportunity for sleep, so people go to bed earlier, stay in bed later and reserve the weekend for catching up. Time in bed rises while sleep stays flat, which weakens the association between the bed and sleeping. Sleep restriction therapy, which limits sleep opportunity to match a person's baseline sleep ability, exists because this correction runs the wrong way.
The bedroom stops meaning sleep
Stimulus control therapy rests on conditioning: stimuli associated with sleep, such as the bed and the bedroom, are meant to be paired with sleep rather than with television, screen time or reading. After enough bad nights the pairing inverts, and the bedroom becomes a reliable cue for vigilance. Walking into the room produces alertness before anything has been thought about, which people experience as their body betraying them.
Nobody senior says it out loud
Sleeplessness reads in professional settings as either weakness or a badge, and neither reading permits an accurate account. Executives, physicians and attorneys therefore run the problem privately for years, arriving at treatment having already tried every consumer remedy and concluded that they are the exception. Sleep anxiety survives on that privacy, because the belief that the problem is uniquely intractable is itself part of the arousal.
▶ Research
Two guideline bodies have said the same thing and the message has not reached most of the people who need it. The American College of Physicians recommends that all adult patients receive cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia as the initial treatment for chronic insomnia disorder, graded a strong recommendation on moderate-quality evidence, in its 2016 clinical practice guideline in Annals of Internal Medicine. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine issued one strong recommendation in its 2021 clinical practice guideline in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, and it was for multicomponent cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, with brief therapies, stimulus control, sleep restriction and relaxation carrying conditional recommendations. The same guideline suggests that sleep hygiene should not be used as a single-component treatment for chronic insomnia disorder in adults. Sleep hygiene is what most people with sleep anxiety have already tried.1
What the guidelines actually say, and what they rule out
CBT-I carries the only strong recommendation
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine 2021 clinical practice guideline on behavioral and psychological treatments issued one strong recommendation, for multicomponent cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia in adults with chronic insomnia disorder. Brief therapies, stimulus control, sleep restriction and relaxation received conditional recommendations. Nothing else in that guideline was graded strong.
The American College of Physicians calls it initial treatment
The 2016 guideline in Annals of Internal Medicine states that all adult patients should receive cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia as the initial treatment for chronic insomnia disorder, graded a strong recommendation on moderate-quality evidence. Initial is the operative word: CBT-I is not the fallback after other options are exhausted.
Sleep hygiene alone is specifically discouraged
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine suggests that sleep hygiene should not be used as a single-component treatment for chronic insomnia disorder in adults, noting that sleep hygiene recommendations do not constitute an effective stand-alone therapy. Most people presenting with sleep anxiety have tried exactly that and concluded the failure was theirs.
Who carries this with you
Sleep anxiety is carried in a shared bed and covered up in a shared office, and the people on either side of it are usually working from a wrong account of what is happening.
The partner in the same bed
Partners notice the pattern before the person does and usually respond with encouragement to relax, which lands as one more instruction to perform. Partners also absorb the schedule changes that sleep restriction requires in its early weeks. Bringing a partner into a session removes the guesswork and stops well meant reassurance from reinforcing the effort that treatment is trying to withdraw.
Colleagues who see the following day
High performers who cannot switch off at night compensate visibly: more caffeine, tighter scheduling, fewer discretionary conversations. Colleagues read the result as intensity rather than as a sleep problem, so no one asks. Clinical work separates the sleep problem from the professional persona built to cover it, which is usually the first time the two have been described apart.
The employer, kept outside
Employers hold no role here. CEREVITY operates private-pay, so no insurance claim is submitted and nothing is routed through an employer benefits administrator. For clients in regulated roles or under succession review, that separation is the condition on which sleep anxiety gets described accurately rather than minimised.
§02 / 09 / Telehealth
The performance trap at bedtime.
Bedtime becomes a performance the moment sleep turns into something to achieve rather than something that happens. Sleep anxiety converts the bed into a cue for vigilance, which is why stimulus control, a component of CBT-I based on behavioral principles linked to conditioning, works by pairing the bed and bedroom with sleep rather than with television, screen time or reading.
Effort withdrawn on purpose
Treatment starts by naming sleep effort as the active ingredient in the problem rather than as a virtue. Sleep anxiety is maintained by trying, and every intervention that follows is a structured way of trying less while doing more of something specific. Clients who understand the logic stop reading a shorter sleep window as a punishment.
The bed re-paired with sleep
Stimulus control rebuilds the association between the bedroom and sleeping rather than between the bedroom and problem solving. The change is behavioral and it is measurable within weeks. CEREVITY clinicians run it as a protocol with review points, not as a list of tips handed over at the end of a session.
Function protected while the change takes hold
Sleep restriction is uncomfortable early, and high performers need the timing planned around their calendar rather than imposed on it. Work is sequenced so the demanding phase does not land in the same fortnight as a trial, a raise or a launch. The aim is a durable change in sleep, not a heroic fortnight followed by relapse.
§03 / 09 / Mechanism
Why trying harder to sleep backfires.
Sleep effort is the one input that makes sleep anxiety worse the harder it is applied. Hyperarousal sits among the perpetuating factors in the three-factor model of chronic insomnia used by the National Library of Medicine, and effort produces arousal, so high performers who succeed everywhere else by pushing harder are at night applying the thing that keeps them awake.
Sleep is not under voluntary control, and that single fact explains why the standard high-performer method fails here. Effort raises arousal, and hyperarousal is listed among the perpetuating factors in the three-factor model of chronic insomnia set out in the National Library of Medicine reference chapter, alongside behavioral adaptation and ensuing emotional dysregulation. The model separates predisposing factors, including genetically determined dysfunction, neurobiological mechanisms and personality characteristics, from precipitating factors such as psychosocial stressors, and then from the perpetuating factors that keep the problem running once the original stressor has passed. Sleep effort belongs in that third category. A stressful quarter may start the insomnia, but the campaign to fix it is what makes the insomnia chronic.
Compensatory behavior is the second half of the trap and it is entirely reasonable on its face. Somebody sleeping badly protects more time for sleep: earlier to bed, later out of it, weekends reserved for recovery. Time in bed rises, total sleep does not, and the proportion of the night spent lying awake in the bedroom climbs. Stimulus control therapy exists because of what that does. The technique is based on behavioral principles linked to conditioning, in which stimuli associated with sleep, such as the bed and bedroom, are paired with sleep rather than activities such as watching television, screen time or reading. Once the bed reliably precedes an hour of alert problem solving, the bedroom becomes a conditioned cue for exactly the state it is supposed to end.
Sleep restriction therapy is the corrective, and it is the part clients resist hardest. The approach limits sleep opportunity to match the patient's baseline sleep ability, which for somebody currently spending nine hours in bed to obtain five and a half hours of sleep means a shorter window rather than a longer one. Compressing the window raises sleep pressure and cuts the wakeful interval in which sleep anxiety operates, then the window widens as sleep consolidates. Handing that protocol to a high performer without explaining the mechanism reliably fails, because it contradicts every instinct the person has about protecting an important resource. Explaining the mechanism first is not a courtesy, it is the condition on which the protocol gets followed through the uncomfortable fortnight.
► Standard advice vs. CEREVITY's approach
Standard therapy
"Just get your sleep hygiene right and this will resolve."
CEREVITY
"Sleep hygiene is not a standalone treatment. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine suggests that sleep hygiene should not be used as a single-component treatment for chronic insomnia disorder in adults."
Standard therapy
"Treat the anxiety and the sleep will follow."
CEREVITY
"Chronic insomnia is not always a symptom of another disorder. The National Library of Medicine reference chapter describes it as an independent risk factor for certain mental health conditions, which is why it is treated in its own right."
Standard therapy
"You just need to try harder to relax at night."
CEREVITY
"Effort is the mechanism, not the shortfall. CBT-I reduces sleep effort and rebuilds the bed as a cue for sleep rather than adding one more technique to apply at 2am."
| Standard insurance-based therapy | CEREVITY's specialized approach |
|---|---|
| "Just get your sleep hygiene right and this will resolve." | "Sleep hygiene is not a standalone treatment. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine suggests that sleep hygiene should not be used as a single-component treatment for chronic insomnia disorder in adults." |
| "Treat the anxiety and the sleep will follow." | "Chronic insomnia is not always a symptom of another disorder. The National Library of Medicine reference chapter describes it as an independent risk factor for certain mental health conditions, which is why it is treated in its own right." |
| "You just need to try harder to relax at night." | "Effort is the mechanism, not the shortfall. CBT-I reduces sleep effort and rebuilds the bed as a cue for sleep rather than adding one more technique to apply at 2am." |
A break from the page
Stop working at it. Start treating it.
A first conversation is confidential and commits you to nothing. CEREVITY is a nationwide network of independent licensed clinicians working private-pay, with no claim submitted to any insurer and nothing routed through your employer. You can send a private inquiry in about two minutes.
§04 / 09 / Cases
Common challenges we address.
Effort applied to the one thing that resists it
The patternHigh performers arrive having solved every other problem by adding effort, and they have applied the same method here for months: earlier nights, stricter routines, more research, better equipment. The method is competent and it is the mechanism of the problem. Because effort has always worked before, the failure gets read as evidence that the case is unusually severe rather than that the tool is wrong.
What we addressClinicians make the mechanism explicit before changing anything, because sleep restriction and stimulus control both look like carelessness to someone whose instinct is to protect sleep opportunity. Sessions establish that sleep is not under voluntary control, that arousal is a perpetuating factor in the standard model of chronic insomnia, and that withdrawing effort is the intervention rather than a prelude to it.
Sleep hygiene already tried and blamed for failing
The patternMost clients have read the same list many times: cool room, no screens, consistent wake time, no caffeine after noon. Having followed it without result, they conclude either that the advice is worthless or that they are. Neither conclusion is right, and both make it harder to start a treatment that superficially resembles more of the same.
What we addressClinicians distinguish sleep hygiene from CBT-I directly, citing the American Academy of Sleep Medicine position that sleep hygiene should not be used as a single-component treatment for chronic insomnia disorder in adults. Naming the distinction early converts a history of failed self-help into evidence that the right treatment has not yet been tried, which is accurate and is also what makes the first fortnight survivable.
§05 / 09 / Methods
Evidence-based treatment approaches.
CEREVITY clinicians treat sleep anxiety with cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia rather than with another round of sleep hygiene advice, because the American Academy of Sleep Medicine graded multicomponent CBT-I a strong recommendation and separately suggested that sleep hygiene should not be used as a single-component treatment for chronic insomnia disorder in adults.
Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, 50-minute sessions
CBT-I is the treatment with the strongest guideline support for chronic insomnia disorder, and multicomponent CBT-I is the only intervention the American Academy of Sleep Medicine gave a strong recommendation in its 2021 clinical practice guideline. Weekly 50-minute sessions carry the protocol: sleep scheduling, stimulus control, cognitive work on sleep-related worry, and review of a sleep diary between sessions.
Stimulus control
Stimulus control is based on behavioral principles linked to conditioning, pairing the bed and bedroom with sleep rather than with watching television, screen time or reading. Clients get out of bed when awake and return only when sleepy, which is counterintuitive to anyone who has spent months maximising time in bed. The component is uncomfortable for about a fortnight and is the one most often abandoned without support.
Sleep restriction therapy
Sleep restriction limits sleep opportunity to match the client's baseline sleep ability, then widens the window as sleep consolidates. Compressing time in bed raises sleep pressure and shortens the interval spent lying awake, which is the interval in which sleep anxiety does its work. Clinicians plan the compression around the client's calendar rather than starting it the week of a trial or a board meeting.
Cognitive work on sleep-related worry
Cognitive components target the specific beliefs that keep arousal high: that a bad night ruins the next day, that a fixed number of hours is required to function, that sleeplessness is evidence of a deeper defect. Work tests each belief against the client's own record rather than arguing with it. The target is the appraisal, not the wakefulness.
Extended 90-minute sessions
The 90-minute format is used when sleep anxiety sits inside a broader anxiety picture, or when a partner needs to be present for the scheduling changes. Fifty minutes covers the protocol but leaves little room for the anxiety history underneath it. A longer block allows both to be worked in one sitting rather than split across weeks.
§06 / 09 / Investment
Understanding the investment in private-pay care.
Private-pay, nationwide, and outside anything adversarial
At CEREVITY, our online individual therapy sessions are structured as a direct investment in your mental agility and overall well-being. The investment includes:
- Licensed mental health professional specializing in therapy for sleep anxiety and chronic insomnia
- Evidence-based, one-on-one approaches proven effective for lying awake worrying about not being asleep
- Flexible online scheduling including evenings and weekends
- Complete privacy with no insurance involvement or red tape
- High performers who cannot switch off at night expertise and understanding
- Outcome tracking and progress measurement
The cost of sleep anxiety going unaddressed
Consider what is at stake when sleep anxiety goes unaddressed:
Private-pay structure
Work is private-pay. No insurance claim is submitted, no diagnosis is filed with a payer, and nothing is routed through an employer benefits administrator. Clients in regulated professions frequently cite that structure as the reason they were willing to describe the sleep problem accurately for the first time.
What the fee covers
Fees cover clinician time in 50-minute, 90-minute or 3-hour blocks, plus the between-session review that CBT-I depends on. CEREVITY makes no claim about outcomes and does not treat sleep anxiety with medication advice. What the fee buys is a structured course of the treatment that guideline bodies place first, delivered by a licensed clinician who reviews the record with the client each week.
§07 / 09 / Evidence
What the research shows.
Three findings frame this accurately. Chronic insomnia disorder has a definite threshold, set by the National Library of Medicine reference chapter at symptoms occurring 3 nights or more a week for more than 3 months despite adequate opportunities for sleep, with resulting daytime dysfunction, and met by 6% to 10% of adults under strict ICSD-3 or DSM-5-TR criteria against 30% to 36% who report at least one insomnia symptom. Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia is the first-line treatment under two independent guidelines, one from the American College of Physicians in 2016 and one from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine in 2021. And insomnia is not merely downstream of anxiety: the same reference chapter states that chronic insomnia is not always a symptom of another disorder and can be an independent risk factor for certain mental health conditions.
► Three numbers, kept in their populations
of adults meet strict ICSD-3 or DSM-5-TR criteria for insomnia, against 30% to 36% who report at least one insomnia symptom
StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf, National Library of Medicine
a week for more than 3 months, the frequency and duration threshold separating chronic insomnia from a bad stretch, with adequate sleep opportunity present
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
the American College of Physicians recommendation grade, on moderate-quality evidence, that all adult patients receive CBT-I as initial treatment for chronic insomnia disorder
American College of Physicians, Annals of Internal Medicine, 2016
Read together, those support treating sleep anxiety directly rather than waiting for an anxiety treatment to fix the nights as a side effect. The clinical picture in this readership is specific and rarely described accurately. Arousal is highest in exactly the people whose next day is most consequential, so the cost of a bad night is itemised rather than vague, and the itemising is itself an arousing task performed in the dark. Compensation runs the wrong way, because protecting more time in bed weakens the association between the bed and sleeping. And the whole thing is kept private, since sleeplessness reads in senior professional settings as weakness or as a badge and neither reading permits an accurate account. None of that requires a new diagnosis, and all of it is addressed by a treatment that already carries the strongest available recommendation from two separate guideline bodies.
§§ / 09 / Recap
Key takeaways.
Five things to remember
- Sleep anxiety is not a diagnosis Sleep anxiety is a clinical description of worry aimed at sleep. Chronic insomnia disorder is the diagnosis, with a threshold of 3 nights or more a week for more than 3 months and adequate sleep opportunity present.
- Effort is the mechanism Hyperarousal sits among the perpetuating factors in the three-factor model of chronic insomnia. Sleep is not under voluntary control, so applying more effort raises the arousal that keeps a person awake.
- CBT-I is first-line, not last resort The American College of Physicians recommends CBT-I as the initial treatment for all adults with chronic insomnia disorder, and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine grades multicomponent CBT-I a strong recommendation.
- Sleep hygiene alone is not the treatment Sleep hygiene recommendations do not constitute an effective stand-alone therapy, and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine suggests against using sleep hygiene as a single-component treatment for chronic insomnia disorder in adults.
- CEREVITY provides this through online individual therapy nationwide, with full privacy through its private-pay concierge network and no insurance involvement.
§08 / 09 / FAQ
Frequently asked questions.
What is sleep anxiety?
Sleep anxiety describes worry aimed at sleep itself: the fear of not sleeping, and the effort to make sleep happen, both of which raise the arousal that prevents it. Sleep anxiety is not a diagnostic category. Chronic insomnia disorder is one, and the National Library of Medicine reference chapter sets its threshold at symptoms occurring 3 nights or more a week for more than 3 months despite the presence of adequate opportunities for sleep, resulting in daytime dysfunction. The distinction matters because the diagnosis has a treatment with strong guideline support behind it. If distress becomes acute, call or text 988, or text HOME to 741741.
Why do I get anxious when trying to sleep?
Sleep anxiety builds because sleep is not under voluntary control while almost everything else a high performer manages is. Hyperarousal is listed among the perpetuating factors in the three-factor model of chronic insomnia set out in the National Library of Medicine reference chapter, alongside behavioral adaptation and emotional dysregulation. Effort produces arousal and arousal prevents sleep, so the harder somebody works at falling asleep the more reliably they stay awake. A second loop runs alongside it: after enough bad nights the bed itself becomes a conditioned cue for alertness, which is why the anxiety often starts on the way to the bedroom rather than in it.
How do you stop sleep anxiety?
Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia is the treatment two independent guideline bodies place first. The American College of Physicians recommends that all adult patients receive CBT-I as the initial treatment for chronic insomnia disorder, a strong recommendation on moderate-quality evidence, and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine gave multicomponent CBT-I the single strong recommendation in its 2021 guideline. The components work by reducing sleep effort rather than adding to it: stimulus control re-pairs the bed with sleep, sleep restriction limits sleep opportunity to match baseline sleep ability, and cognitive work targets the beliefs that keep arousal high. Sleep hygiene on its own is specifically not recommended as a stand-alone therapy.
Is sleep anxiety the same as insomnia?
No, and the two are worth keeping apart. Sleep anxiety names the worry and the effort directed at sleep, which can be present on a handful of nights before an important day and resolve on its own. Chronic insomnia disorder is a diagnosis with a defined threshold: symptoms on 3 nights or more a week for more than 3 months, with adequate opportunity for sleep available and daytime dysfunction resulting. About one-third of adults, 30% to 36%, report at least one insomnia symptom, while 6% to 10% meet strict ICSD-3 or DSM-5-TR criteria. Sleep anxiety is very often the perpetuating mechanism that carries a short episode across that threshold.
Should I go to bed earlier if I am not sleeping?
Extra time in bed is the most common self-prescribed correction and the one that most reliably entrenches sleep anxiety. Time in bed rises, total sleep does not, and the share of the night spent lying awake in the bedroom climbs, which weakens the association between the bed and sleeping that stimulus control depends on. Sleep restriction therapy runs the other way, limiting sleep opportunity to match the person's baseline sleep ability and widening the window as sleep consolidates. Anyone attempting that alone should know it is uncomfortable early and is normally delivered with clinical review rather than as a tip.
Does anxiety cause insomnia, or does insomnia cause anxiety?
Chronic insomnia and anxiety disorders travel together, and the reference literature declines to make insomnia purely a downstream symptom. The National Library of Medicine chapter on chronic insomnia lists anxiety disorders among its major comorbidities and states that chronic insomnia is not always a symptom of another disorder and can be an independent risk factor for certain mental health conditions. For scale on the anxiety side, the National Institute of Mental Health puts past-year prevalence of any anxiety disorder among U.S. adults at 19.1%, a figure drawn from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication conducted between 2001 and 2003 using DSM-IV criteria and a structured diagnostic interview. The consequence for treatment is that sleep anxiety gets addressed in its own right rather than deferred until an anxiety treatment has run its course. CEREVITY clinicians treat the two alongside each other where both are present.
How does your private-pay pricing structure work?
As a private-pay concierge network, we offer structured investments in your mental health without the restrictions or privacy risks of insurance. You can review our full fee schedule and specific session lengths directly on our website. While this costs more than insurance copays, it provides the flexibility, total privacy, and highly specialized care that standard options cannot offer. View our current rates here.
How do you protect my privacy?
Privacy is foundational to our network. As a private-pay network, your sessions never appear on insurance records or EOBs that could be seen by employers, boards, or family members. We use HIPAA-compliant nationwide telehealth platforms, and you can attend sessions from anywhere with a private internet connection.
§09 / 09 / Begin
The effort is the problem.
Sleep anxiety responds to a specific treatment with strong guideline support behind it, and that treatment is not another round of sleep hygiene advice. Sessions are private-pay, with no claim submitted to any insurer and nothing routed through an employer. If distress becomes acute, call or text 988, or text HOME to 741741.
Seven days a week, early morning to late evening · Current hours on the contact page, in your time zone§§ / Author
About Benjamin Rosen, PsyD.
Benjamin Rosen, PsyD
Dr. Rosen is a Licensed Psychologist working with high-achieving professionals across executive, entrepreneurial, legal, and medical fields. His work integrates evidence-based cognitive and psychodynamic approaches with a deep understanding of the pressures that come with sustained responsibility. He sees clients via CEREVITY's nationwide telehealth network. View full bio →
§§ / Further reading
Related from the Knowledge Base.
Condition
High-functioning anxiety and depression therapy
High-stakes anxiety describes the arousal that attaches to consequential performance, and it is the daytime half of what sleep anxiety does to a person the night before a trial, a board vote or an earnings call.
Therapy format
Couples therapy
Executive burnout frequently arrives with a sleep problem already embedded, and treating the exhaustion without treating the insomnia leaves the mechanism that regenerates it intact.
Session depth
50-minute therapy sessions
Anxiety and depression are the conditions chronic insomnia most often accompanies, and the reference literature treats insomnia as an independent risk factor for them rather than only as a symptom.
§§ / Sources
References.
- StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf, National Library of Medicine. Chronic Insomnia. 2025. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- American College of Physicians, Annals of Internal Medicine. Management of Chronic Insomnia Disorder in Adults: A Clinical Practice Guideline From the American College of Physicians. 2016. acpjournals.org
- American Academy of Sleep Medicine. New guideline supports behavioral, psychological treatments for insomnia. 2021. aasm.org
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health. Insomnia. 2026. nhlbi.nih.gov
- National Institute of Mental Health. Any Anxiety Disorder. 2026. nimh.nih.gov
- CEREVITY. High-stakes anxiety therapy. cerevity.com/high-stakes-anxiety-therapy
- CEREVITY. Leadership isolation therapy. cerevity.com/leadership-isolation-therapy
- CEREVITY. Executive burnout therapy. cerevity.com/executive-burnout-therapy
⚠ Crisis resources
If you are experiencing a mental health crisis or having thoughts of suicide, please reach out immediately. 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline · Call or text 988 Crisis Text Line · Text HOME to 741741 National Alliance on Mental Illness · 1-800-950-NAMI (6264)



