Online Insomnia Treatment With a Licensed Sleep Psychologist
Work with a licensed sleep psychologist. Covered by insurance. Delivered virtually.
Virtual CBT-I with a licensed clinical psychologist, across 39 states and Washington, D.C. RISE bills major insurance plans directly; network status, benefits and out-of-pocket costs are verified with your plan before treatment begins.
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Online insomnia treatment is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) delivered over video, in weekly sessions with a licensed clinical psychologist. It suits video because the treatment is conversation and practice rather than examination. In a randomized trial, 65 adults took the same six-session course, half over video and half in person, and the video group did no worse on insomnia severity.
What is online insomnia treatment and how common is it?
Insomnia treatment delivered by video rather than in a clinic. The treatment itself is unchanged: a structured course of CBT-I, usually six to ten weekly sessions, with a licensed clinical psychologist. What changes is the access. There is no waiting room, no drive, and no referral needed to start, and the appointment can sit inside a working day.
What are the signs and symptoms of online insomnia treatment?
Nobody within reasonable distance treats insomnia
The most common reason people look for virtual care is that the search for a local specialist has already failed. In twelve states there is no certified behavioral sleep medicine listing at all.
The waitlist is longer than the treatment
A course of CBT-I is six to ten weekly sessions. When the wait to start is measured in months, the wait is the larger part of the timeline.
A weekly daytime appointment is not workable
Weekly, for two months, in the middle of a working day, with travel on both ends. That is a real obstacle for shift workers, carers, and anyone without flexible leave.
You would rather not sit in a waiting room for this
Sleep problems are routinely dismissed as a personal failing rather than treated as a condition. Some people simply prefer the appointment to happen at home.
If this sounds familiar
Online insomnia treatment is treatable. CBT-I is the non-drug treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends as first-line care for chronic insomnia.
Check Insurance & Get StartedChronic insomnia prevalence is stated as the range commonly reported in the clinical literature, where estimates vary by diagnostic criteria. The delivery-mode comparison refers to Arnedt JT, Conroy DA, Mooney A, Furgal A, Sen A, Eisenberg D. Telemedicine versus face-to-face delivery of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia: a randomized controlled noninferiority trial. Sleep. 2021;44(1):zsaa136. The trial randomized 65 adults with chronic insomnia to six sessions delivered by telemedicine or face-to-face, with the Insomnia Severity Index as the primary noninferiority outcome. Specialist counts are from the American Board of Sleep Medicine's public directory (my.absm.org), counted 2026-09-03 with scripts/count-absm-directory.mjs against the snapshot committed at data/sources/absm-snapshot-2026-09-03.html. It is a certification roster rather than an availability roster, so it overstates how many clinicians are reachable.
What virtual care changes, and what it does not
Virtual delivery is not a compromise version of CBT-I. It is the same protocol, and the case for it is specific rather than general: it fixes access problems, and it does not fix everything.
- It removes the geography: The American Board of Sleep Medicine's public directory of certified behavioral sleep medicine specialists lists 203 practice locations across 38 states and the District of Columbia, and twelve states have none. Video makes the distribution stop mattering, because a psychologist licensed in your state can see you wherever you are in it.
- It makes weekly attendance realistic: CBT-I only works if you finish it, and completion is where a drive across a city quietly does its damage. A fifty-minute call that fits in a lunch break is a different commitment from a half-day round trip repeated for two months.
- What it does not do is diagnose everything: Sleep apnea, restless legs and narcolepsy need testing that happens in a lab or with a take-home device, and they need a physician. An assessment that points at one of those is a referral, not a treatment plan, and that is a real limit of this format rather than a footnote.
RISE psychologists practice across state lines through PSYPACT, the interstate telehealth compact, which is what makes a clinician licensed in your own state reachable in days rather than months. Treatment is billed through insurance, and your benefits and expected costs are verified with your plan before it starts.
How is online insomnia treatment treated?
Online CBT-I is the same protocol as in-person CBT-I. You keep a daily sleep diary, your clinician uses it to set a sleep window, and the window widens as sleep consolidates. The work between sessions is where the treatment happens, which is the reason the format transfers to video without much loss: almost none of it depends on being in the room.
What CBT-I techniques are used for online insomnia treatment?
Sleep diary review
the week's data, worked through together on the call
Sleep scheduling
setting and adjusting your sleep window between sessions
Stimulus control
rebuilding the association between the bed and sleep
Cognitive restructuring
working on the beliefs that keep the insomnia running
Relapse prevention
a written plan for the bad week that arrives after treatment ends
First-line care
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends CBT-I as first-line treatment for chronic insomnia
Time-limited
A structured course of weekly sessions, not an ongoing prescription
No medication
CBT-I involves no medication. Prescribing stays with your existing clinician
How you get matched to the right treatment
There is one intake, not a menu. You complete a structured sleep and clinical assessment, a licensed RISE clinician reviews your symptoms, history, screening results and insurance, and they match you to the format that fits: one-to-one CBT-I with a sleep psychologist, or prescription digital CBT-I, which delivers the same protocol through an app in about five to ten minutes a day. You do not pick the format and neither does a referring clinician. RISE evaluates and matches.
Both are CBT-I: two ways of delivering one protocol. The match turns on trade-offs, mostly cost, how quickly a clinician is available, whether a weekly appointment fits your schedule, how much support you want, and what else is going on medically. Live video is available in either, and you can step up from the digital program to sessions with a psychologist if that turns out to be what you need.
RISE bills major insurance plans directly; network status, benefits and out-of-pocket costs are verified with your plan before treatment begins.
RISE clinicians are licensed clinical psychologists. They do not prescribe medication. Starting, adjusting, tapering or stopping any sleep medication stays with your prescribing clinician unless that is specifically coordinated with them.
“I wish more people knew about this. I can finally sleep better without a cocktail of medications every night.”
The sleep psychologists
All of our clinicians are licensed in the states we cover, board-certified in behavioral sleep medicine or licensed psychologists with specialized training in CBT-I.
Dr. Jane Dyonzak
Ph.D., FAASM
Licensed Clinical Psychologist and Fellow of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine with 20+ years specializing in sleep and behavioral medicine. Dr. Dyonzak has served as a consultant to sleep disorders centers and principal investigator for clinical trials on sleep medications and devices.
Dr. Lauren Neaman
Psy.D., A-CBT
Licensed Clinical Psychologist and Diplomate of the Academy of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies. Dr. Neaman completed advanced training through the University of Pennsylvania's Behavioral Sleep Medicine program and specializes in insomnia, anxiety disorders, and circadian rhythm issues.
Dr. Benjamin Pfeifer
Ph.D.
Founding clinician at RISE Sleep Clinic specializing in treating adults with insomnia and sleep disorders. Dr. Pfeifer completed his Ph.D. at The Ohio State University and holds PSYPACT authorization for telehealth practice. His background includes work with veterans at VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System.
Dr. Daniella Marchetti
Ph.D., DBSM
Licensed Clinical Health Psychologist and Diplomate in Behavioral Sleep Medicine. Dr. Marchetti specializes in insomnia treatment, CPAP adherence, nightmare therapy, and circadian rhythm disorders. She earned her doctorate from the University of Miami and completed her fellowship at the Miami VA Medical Center.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is online insomnia treatment as good as seeing someone in person?
How does online CBT-I actually work?
Do I need a referral?
Which states can you treat me in?
Is my session private?
Ready to treat online insomnia treatment?
Take the assessment. We verify your coverage before treatment starts.
Check Insurance & Get StartedMedically reviewed by Dr. Chester Wu, MD — Double Board-Certified in Psychiatry and Sleep Medicine. Last reviewed 2026-09-06.
A physician reviews the clinical content on this page; the treatment itself is delivered by licensed psychologists. Those are deliberately two roles and two people.