Introduction

Summary

I trained as a clinical psychologist in the late 1970s, qualifying in 1980, and began practising in the local primary healthcare services in NHS Lanarkshire in Scotland. It was in that context that a general practitioner (GP) asked me one day, likely in 1981, ‘Colin, is there not anything you can do for folks who can’t sleep?’ I had to say that I didn’t know. We hadn’t had much, or even any, training on sleep problems. The GP concerned, along with many other professionals who referred patients, wasn’t satisfied that a pill was the only, or even the best, answer to mental health conditions. I had been seeing people with depression, anxiety, and so on, but could insomnia be addressed using evidence-based psychological therapies? I was curious to find out.