Sleep Therapy & Insomnia Treatment

Specialist psychiatric and psychological treatment for insomnia and sleep disorders combining Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I), mindfulness, and where appropriate, medication management. Delivered by psychiatrists and psychologists at Singapore's Novena Medical Center.

Promises Healthcare provides comprehensive assessment and treatment for insomnia and a wide range of sleep disorders within its psychiatric and psychological services. The clinic's approach is grounded in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I), the international gold-standard, first-line psychological intervention for chronic insomnia — recommended over long-term sedative medication by sleep medicine guidelines worldwide. CBT-I at Promises addresses the cognitive and behavioural mechanisms that perpetuate insomnia: dysfunctional beliefs about sleep (e.g. catastrophising about the consequences of a poor night), compensatory behaviours such as excessive time in bed or daytime napping, and conditioned arousal that makes the bedroom a cue for wakefulness rather than sleep. A structured treatment programme — typically four to eight sessions — works through sleep psychoeducation, stimulus control instructions, sleep restriction therapy to consolidate fragmented sleep, cognitive restructuring to modify unhelpful sleep-related beliefs, and relaxation techniques including progressive muscle relaxation and mindfulness-based relaxation. The psychiatric dimension of the service is particularly important for patients whose insomnia is secondary to or comorbid with another mental health condition — anxiety, depression, PTSD, or chronic pain — where combined pharmacological and psychological management delivers significantly better outcomes than either approach alone. Psychiatrists at Promises can assess the full clinical picture, prescribe and manage sleep-related medications (including short-term hypnotics, melatonin formulations, and off-label options such as low-dose tricyclics or mirtazapine), and co-ordinate seamlessly with the psychological team. The clinic also manages shift-work sleep disorder, circadian rhythm disruption, nightmare disorder, and sleep disturbances arising from addiction recovery. Patients who wish to reduce or eliminate reliance on sleeping medication will find the CBT-I programme at Promises a medically supervised and evidence-based pathway to achieving this.