Insomnia treatment that works exists. You probably haven’t been offered it. You’ve tried melatonin, cut the screens, kept the room cold. That list is what sleep researchers use as a placebo, not because it might help, but because they know it won’t. Ten years is how long you might go before anyone points you somewhere better.

What does it feel like to follow every instruction and still be awake at 3am? The problem probably isn’t your habits. Once insomnia takes hold, your brain pairs your bed with being awake, and something switches on the moment you get in. That pairing is called conditioned arousal, and a drug does not break it.

The actual treatment takes two to four sessions and costs less than a month of medication. What’s been missing for most Canadians isn’t a cure. It’s a standard that nobody enforced until now.

Topics: insomnia treatment, CBT for insomnia, sleep hygiene, conditioned arousal, Ontario sleep standard

GUEST: Dr. Colleen Carney | sadlab@torontomu.ca

Originally aired on2026-03-13