Why Can't I Sleep · type
The Lit Window
Getting under is hard, staying under is hard, and the days are being paid for out of the nights — worth taking to a doctor.
What this type is
Your answers over the last two weeks put you well above what most adults report across all three components: the light goes off and sleep does not come, the night breaks and does not reknit, and the days are visibly carrying the cost in attention, mood and the worry about tonight that starts sometime in the afternoon. At this level the experience is not subtle, and you almost certainly did not need a questionnaire to tell you it is happening.
What is worth knowing is that this has a name and a treatment. Insomnia that runs at least three nights a week for three months or more is called chronic insomnia, it is one of the most common things a GP sees, and the first-line treatment for it is not a sleeping pill. It is CBT-I, a short structured programme aimed at the habits and the time-in-bed arithmetic that keep insomnia going after whatever started it has gone. It works about as well as medication in the short run and, unlike medication, it is still working months after it stops. But that is a doctor's call to make with you, not a page's. This page has done its job if you make the appointment.
Two things do not wait for that appointment. If you snore and anyone has seen you stop breathing or gasp in your sleep, say so to a doctor this week — that is a different problem with a different fix and it is the one worth ruling out first. And if you are sleepy enough during the day that driving or operating anything is not safe, treat that as today's problem, not this month's. The rest of the suspects — anxiety, depression, pain, medications, alcohol, a new baby, shift work — are worth naming out loud too. They are not lesser explanations than insomnia. They are different explanations with different help, and sorting out which one you have is exactly the part a screening check cannot do.
What people with this result notice
Four of the eight notes the test writes for this type; the rest come with your own result.
⚕️ This has a name, and the treatment is not a pill
Insomnia running at least three nights a week for three months or more is called chronic insomnia, and the first-line treatment is CBT-I — a short structured programme, about as effective as medication in the short run and still working months after it stops. Ask a doctor about it by name. That conversation is the whole point of this page.
📞 Two things that are today, not this week
If you snore and anyone has seen you stop breathing or gasp in your sleep, say so to a doctor now. And if you are sleepy enough in the day that driving is not safe, stop driving until it is sorted. Both are more urgent than anything else on this page.
What produces this result
Every answer feeds one overall score, and that score falls into one of 3 bands. The bands are levels of the same thing, not different kinds of person.
Falling asleepStaying asleepThe cost
This is a screening-style questionnaire, not a diagnosis. A high score is a reason to talk to someone who can assess properly.
Is this you?
The Why Can't I Sleep test is 15 questions and takes about 3 minutes. Your result carries your own numbers, not just the name.
Take the test →