Colleen Carney

PhD, C.Psych. · Professor of psychology and director of the Sleep and Depression Laboratory, Toronto Metropolitan University · co-author of Quiet Your Mind and Get to Sleep and Goodnight Mind

Go-to expert for: treating insomnia without pills (CBT-I)

Who and why

Colleen Carney is a clinical psychologist and professor at Toronto Metropolitan University in Canada, where Carney directs the Sleep and Depression Laboratory. Carney is a leading expert in cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), especially for people who also live with depression, anxiety or pain, has written 12 books on treating insomnia, and trains clinicians in the method internationally.

Why it matters after 50: Insomnia becomes more common with age and often travels with low mood, worry and chronic pain. CBT-I is a drug-free treatment that tackles the habits and thoughts that keep insomnia going, without the side effects of sleeping pills.

What Carney recommends

CBT-I is recommended ahead of sleeping pills for chronic insomnia; it works about as well as medication and its benefits last longer.Strong evidence
Keep a sleep diary: note when you go to bed, when you get up and roughly how long you slept. It shows what is really happening and guides treatment.Strong evidence
Go to bed only when you feel sleepy, not just tired. If you are lying awake and no longer sleepy, get out of bed and return when sleepiness comes back.Strong evidence
Keep a regular rise time each morning, even after a poor night, rather than sleeping in or napping to catch up, which can weaken your natural sleep drive.Some evidence
Limiting time in bed to the time you actually sleep (time-in-bed restriction) is powerful but tiring at first. It is best done with a trained clinician, and anyone with other health conditions should check with their doctor first.Doctor only
Sleep hygiene tips alone are a starting point, not a treatment, for real insomnia. CBT-I is meant for insomnia disorder: trouble sleeping on at least half of nights for more than a month, with daytime effects.Note

Signature: CBT-I for 'insomnia plus' and the Consensus Sleep Diary

Carney adapts CBT-I for people whose insomnia comes with depression, anxiety or pain, and turned it into self-help books such as Quiet Your Mind and Get to Sleep and Goodnight Mind. Carney also led the expert group that created the Consensus Sleep Diary, a standard diary now widely used in insomnia research and clinics.

In your plan

Choose her for sleep if you struggle with insomnia: CBT-I habits. During sleep-restriction weeks, intervals pause for two weeks. Best done with a clinician.

Build my mix

Research and honest caveats

CBT-I for people with insomnia and depression

In 107 adults with depression and insomnia, four sessions of CBT-I reduced objectively measured time awake at night, and depression improved in all groups, even the one that got CBT-I with a placebo pill instead of an antidepressant.

Carney, Edinger et al., Sleep, 2017

The Consensus Sleep Diary

An expert panel built a simple, standard sleep diary so that insomnia studies and clinics measure sleep the same way.

Carney, Buysse et al., Sleep, 2012

Most of Carney's trials involve people with insomnia plus depression, mostly middle-aged rather than older adults, and results on depression did not differ between groups (all improved, including the group given CBT-I with a placebo pill). Self-help books can work for many people, but the time-in-bed restriction step is demanding and is safer with guidance.

Career highlights

2009Published Quiet Your Mind and Get to Sleep (with Rachel Manber)
2012Lead author of the Consensus Sleep Diary
2013Published Goodnight Mind (with Rachel Manber)
2017Published a randomised trial of CBT-I for insomnia with depression in the journal Sleep