What’s the difference between IFS or CBT for Insomnia?
For people who struggle with insomnia, good, consistent sleep can feel completely impossible. The frustration of lying awake at night and the constant struggle to shut off your racing mind become a regular part of going to bed.
One of the most used treatments for insomnia is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). CBT for insomnia helps address thoughts, behaviors, and habits related to sleep. This is what's called a top-down approach—using our conscious mind to change unconscious patterns. This method works great for some people - but not for everyone. That's where Internal Family Systems (IFS) for insomnia comes in.
For me and many of my clients, IFS for insomnia has proven to be the key to insomnia understanding & eventual recovery. In this post, I'll explore the principles of IFS and CBT for insomnia and why you might choose one method over the other.
CBT for Insomnia
Let’s start with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I). CBT for insomnia combines the cognitive (thought-related) and behavioral (action-related) aspects of insomnia. In addition to making behavioral changes (like a sleep schedule, a bedtime routine, etc.), you also challenge your “negative” thoughts and beliefs about sleep. With CBT for insomnia, you might use a sleep diary to uncover patterns and track your progress. This approach is focused on managing insomnia - strictly directing what you do and think about sleep.
CBT for insomnia can give many people results in the short term. When you use CBT-I, you are effectively throwing a bunch of management strategies at your system. A top down approach (using your conscious thinking brain to change what’s happening subconsciously) can work really well for some people some times.
However, it doesn’t work for everyone - and it doesn’t always work long term. If you’re here, you might be one of those people it did not work for.
IFS for Insomnia
Like CBT for insomnia, IFS is an evidence-based modality. Its name comes from the fact that it was originally discovered by a family therapist, and many of the techniques used are adapted from family therapy. The word “internal” means inside one system—in this case, that’s you!
IFS operates on several levels, one of which is the concept of 'parts.' This unique approach allows you to engage with your patterns and pathways beyond your conscious thoughts. In addition to being able to work top-down, we can also take a bottom-up approach where we first connect with our body sensations to understand what’s going on in our conscious brain.
Each person's experience of their 'parts' is unique. Some may visualize their parts or have images presented to them. Others may hear their parts as distinct voices or speech patterns. Some may feel or sense their parts as bodily sensations. There's no right or wrong way to perceive your parts, making it a truly individualized experience.
What we're doing with IFS for Insomnia is getting to know, understand, and befriend parts of us that come up around sleep. We're helping them meet, create relationships with each other, and experience what it feels like to be grounded and have access to Self energy. This is why IFS is often something that people can do on their own—you already have your own wise healer and internal leader inside of you right now. You also have a lot of amazing parts who are the reason that you're here today.
As you integrate and address what’s happening inside you through IFS, you’ll be better able to resolve the underlying causes of your insomnia for more restful sleep.
Should I try IFS or CBT for Insomnia?
When we are hoping to impact our insomnia, we need a few things. We need to understand what’s happening right now, understand what’s needed for change, and have a way to instill change.
IFS and CBT for insomnia are similar in that they both explore internal thought patterns and behaviors. However, as I mentioned earlier, CBT stays cognitive (it’s in the name!). The techniques and tools offered are quite practical, but can also be somewhat rigid. If your system is in need of more structure and rules around sleep, CBT-I might be a great choice.
However, if your insomnia is more deep-seated and has roots in trauma, IFS might be a better choice. Trauma lives in the body - it’s not always something we can connect with or explore cognitively. In fact, a lot of our conscious patterning is often wired specifically around using cognitive behaviors to distance ourselves from our traumas. These management strategies (called manager parts in IFS) can work really well, and are often very needed. Insomnia (and other chronic issues) can be a sign that underneath, your system needs deeper change.
To sum it up, there are some major differences between IFS and CBT. While CBT targets specific thoughts and behaviors through structured interventions, IFS dives deeper into the dynamics of what’s going on internally and somatically.
Here’s why I personally love IFS for insomnia:
Despite what we have often been taught and how our cultures are arranged, our nervous systems are majority bottom up, not top down. 80% of what we do is bottom up (so body/subconscious to conscious mind) vs 20% top down.
Insomnia is a multi-faceted beast. I have personally interviewed over 100 people about their insomnia, and there is no one case that is exactly the same. The reason I love IFS for insomnia is because it allows you to completely customize your treatment to your needs rather than following someone else’s protocol.
While there have been more studies conducted on CBT, IFS is also evidence based. In one clinical trial, IFS was successfully used to significantly decrease pain for rheumatoid arthritis patients. IFS works for many reasons – but one of them is because it allows you to interact with patterns in the body and subconscious mind.
NEW IFS for Insomnia Course
Curious about how IFS can be part of your journey with insomnia? It begins with identifying the internal components (parts) that are keeping you awake and understanding what they need to rest. I've developed a comprehensive course called "IFS for Insomnia," designed to walk you through every stage of applying IFS techniques specifically tailored to insomnia.
Just know that IFS is experiential – and if you can go into this course with an open, compassionate, curious mind, you’re already doing it.