Summary Concerning the diagnosis and therapy of insomnia, a shift of paradigm has taken place in recent years. Traditionally, treatment has focused on improving night sleep, i. e. shortening sleep latency and prolonging total sleep time. Modern approaches aim at improving or restoring the recuperative value of sleep and ensuing daytime functioning on a social, psychological and professional level. Based on the guidelines for ‘non‐restorative sleep’ of the German Society of Sleep Research and Sleep Medicine, this article presents a clinical algorithm for the diagnosis and therapy of non‐restorative sleep with predominant insomnia. ‘Non‐restorative sleep’ refers to the failure of sleep to be recuperative and the resulting daytime functioning impairment of the individual afflicted with insomnia.
Main aspects for physicians and psychotherapists in the diagnosis and therapy of non‐restorative sleep are underlying organic/psychiatric‐psychological factors and/or secondary psychiatric sequelae of chronic primary insomnias. For primary, organic and psychiatric insomnias, a broad spectrum of psychopharmacological and cognitive behavioural methods can meanwhile be applied as monotherapy or in combination.