Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) For Sleep

If you’ve ever struggled with insomnia, you'll know the cycle: the more you try to force sleep, the more it slips away. Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) offers a different approach. Instead of battling with your thoughts, ACT teaches you how to respond to them in a way that supports better sleep.

In this article, we’ll explore how Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) can help you stop fighting with sleep, reduce night time anxiety, and finally get the rest your body needs.

What is ACT?

ACT (pronounced like the word “act”) stands for Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. It uses mindfulness-based behavioural therapy techniques, focusing on helping people accept what they can’t control and commit to actions that align with their values. In the context of sleep, that means learning to accept night-time thoughts and sensations without struggling against them and creating habits that support restful sleep.

ACT doesn't try to eliminate racing thoughts or anxious feelings. Instead, it helps you change your relationship with them. You learn how to observe thoughts without getting tangled in them, creating space for sleep to happen naturally. In simple terms: ACT teaches you how to make space for discomfort instead of fighting it.

When applied to sleep, that means learning to:

Accept the presence of wakefulness and anxious thoughts at night.
Observe your inner experiences without judgment.
Unhook from unhelpful sleep narratives (“I’ll feel terrible tomorrow,” “I’ll never be able to sleep”).
Refocus your energy on restful behaviours and values-based actions, regardless of how well you slept last night.

By practicing these skills consistently, individuals often experience a more relaxed and less pressured relationship with sleep, which can naturally lead to falling asleep more easily and waking up less during the night. This shift reduces the mental and emotional exhaustion that comes from battling insomnia, helping to restore energy levels during the day. Over time, as the anxiety around sleep diminishes, people report improved mood, greater emotional resilience, and a stronger sense of control over their wellbeing. Rather than being consumed by sleep struggles, they’re able to channel their energy into meaningful daily actions, which in turn supports a more balanced and restorative sleep pattern.

ACT in Action: Core Concepts That Can Improve Sleep

ACT is built around six core psychological processes that work together to increase flexibility in how you respond to thoughts, feelings, and experiences, including those that show up at night when you can't sleep. Rather than trying to eliminate racing thoughts or anxious feelings, ACT helps you create space for them while still making choices that support rest.

Here’s how each of ACT’s six core processes can support better sleep:

Cognitive Defusion - This involves creating distance between you and your thoughts. Instead of “I can’t sleep and that’s a disaster,” ACT helps you notice, “I’m having the thought that I can’t sleep and that it’s a disaster.” It sounds small, but this shift creates space to respond more calmly.
Acceptance - Rather than resisting wakefulness or night time anxiety, ACT helps you allow it. Paradoxically, letting go of the need to sleep can reduce the pressure that keeps you awake.
Present-Moment Awareness - Mindfulness exercises bring your attention to the here and now, like the feeling of your breath or the weight of your body on the mattress, rather than spiralling into thoughts about the past or future.
Self-as-Context - This is the idea that you are not your thoughts or emotions. You’re the observer of those experiences. That perspective can reduce how much power your mind holds over your sleep.
Values Clarification - ACT encourages you to connect with what truly matters to you, whether that’s being present with your kids, showing up at work with energy, or just enjoying life more fully. These values become your guide, rather than sleep itself being the end goal.
Committed Action - Instead of avoiding discomfort, you take small, meaningful actions, even on rough nights. This might include sticking to a consistent bedtime routine, getting out of bed when feeling wakeful, or starting your day even if you feel tired.

ACT vs. CBT-I: What’s the Difference?

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-i) is often considered the gold standard. It focuses on challenging and changing unhelpful sleep thoughts and behaviours. ACT, on the other hand, doesn’t aim to change thoughts, it teaches you to make room for them.

Instead of disputing thoughts like “I’ll never sleep tonight,” ACT teaches you to notice that thought, acknowledge it, and refocus on what matters in the moment, like lying still and allowing rest.

Think of CBT-I as changing the content of your thoughts, while ACT changes how you relate to your thoughts. For people who find CBT-i too rigid or confrontational, ACT can be a gentler, more compassionate alternative.

ACT for Insomnia: What the Research Says

ACT techniques are gaining traction as a promising solution for insomnia. Studies show that ACT can significantly improve sleep quality, reduce sleep-related anxiety, and increase overall well-being.

A 2023 study found that ACT led to meaningful improvements in sleep and quality of life, additionally, techniques can be tailored to the individual making the results more impactful. Another 2021 study found ACT to improve people's perceptions to their sleep experience and that the effects were likely to be sustained over time.

Overall, the research on ACT for insomnia is promising (with more to be done) and offers hope, especially for those who feel like they’ve tried everything. Its flexible, values-based approach not only improves sleep and quality of life, but also meets people where they are, making it a compassionate alternative when traditional methods fall short.

Why ACT Might Be Right for You

ACT helps reduce the pressure to sleep, which paradoxically makes it easier to fall asleep. It can be especially helpful if you:

Get stuck in loops of worry or rumination at night.
Feel anxious about not sleeping and don't want to get out of bed in the night.
Have tried CBT-i techniques such as sleep restriction or cognitive restructuring without success.

By shifting the focus from controlling your mind to accepting it, ACT helps you get out of the way so your body can do what it’s built to do: sleep.

Final Thoughts

ACT isn’t about trying harder to sleep, it’s about stepping out of the struggle.

By accepting wakefulness, defusing from anxious thoughts, and realigning your actions with what matters to you, sleep becomes something that happens more naturally. You stop chasing it, and that’s when it often shows up.

If you’ve tried other sleep strategies and still find yourself stuck, wide awake, frustrated, and exhausted, ACT might be the approach that finally clicks. It’s not about controlling your mind or forcing sleep. It’s about changing your relationship with wakefulness, so it stops holding so much power over you. That shift alone can open the door to better rest, even if nothing else has worked.

I hope you’ve found this article helpful! If you’re struggling to stop battling with sleep, I can help, so please do get in touch. Book an Immediate Sleep Support consultation, or enquire about Sleep Coaching packages here - Schedule a Call.

I'm Amy, a Holistic Sleep Coach and Certified Sleep Consultant Practitioner for adults & teens. I help people improve their sleep to feel and perform at their best, using The Good Sleep Method.

If you are looking for 1-1 tailored support to get a better night's sleep and tackle sleep anxiety for good, book a call with me to get started.

You can read more about me here.

Follow me on Instagram @thegoodsleepmethod

How Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) Can Improve Your Relationship With Sleep