Sleep Diary: Log 7 Nights and See Your Sleep Efficiency

A free interactive CBT-I sleep diary. Tap when you got into and out of bed, then the minutes. It works out time in bed, total sleep and sleep efficiency, and suggests a gentle sleep window.

Adults Teens Thoughts & skills CBT

2 minutes a morningIn person and on video

Free interactive tool

Link copied – paste it to your client

Made with care by Mentalyc

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Use with care

Sleep restriction should be supervised by a clinician.

It is contraindicated in epilepsy and seizure disorders and other conditions worsened by sleep loss; in bipolar disorder, lost sleep can trigger mania, so use it only with close mood monitoring. It causes daytime sleepiness at first, so take care driving. Screen for sleep apnea and other sleep disorders. With teens, who need about 8 to 10 hours, use sleep restriction only under clinician supervision.

How to play

Each morning, pick last night.
Tap the line where you got into bed, then where you got up. Drag or use −15 and +15 to adjust.
Tap how long it took to fall asleep, how often you woke and how long you lay in bed after.
After 5 complete nights, see your average sleep efficiency. If it is under 85%, you also get a gentle sleep window to discuss with your clinician.
Copy your week, and paste it back next week to carry on.

About the technique

A sleep diary is a daily log of when a person got into bed, how long it took to fall asleep, time awake in the night, final waking and the time they got up. The Consensus Sleep Diary standardized these items so clinicians and researchers collect the same information (Carney et al., 2012). From the log come time in bed, total sleep time and sleep efficiency, the share of time in bed actually spent asleep.

The diary is the measuring tool of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), the recommended first-line treatment for chronic insomnia in adults (Qaseem et al., 2016; Edinger et al., 2021; Riemann et al., 2023). Two core components run on it. Sleep restriction, developed by Arthur Spielman, limits time in bed to roughly the average sleep time and widens the window as efficiency rises, building sleep drive (Spielman et al., 1987). Stimulus control, from Richard Bootzin, re-links bed with sleep by getting up when unable to sleep and keeping a fixed rising time (Bootzin, 1972). The diary measures and guides treatment; it is not a treatment on its own.

It suits adults and older teens, kept daily before treatment starts and throughout. Sleep restriction should be supervised. It causes daytime sleepiness at first, so discuss driving, and in bipolar disorder lost sleep can trigger mania, so it needs adaptation and close mood monitoring (Kaplan & Harvey, 2013). Check for seizure disorders and other conditions worsened by sleep loss, screen for sleep apnea, and take particular care with teens.

For therapists: how to run it

Goal

Get an accurate picture of sleep across a week, and a safe, gentle starting point for a sleep window to agree with a clinician.

In session

Introduce it in session: fill in last night together so the client knows how to estimate (no clock-watching).
Review the week view at the next session: average sleep, time in bed and efficiency.
If you use sleep restriction, treat the suggested window as a starting point to discuss, and screen first for bipolar disorder, seizure disorders and sleep apnea.
Copy the clinical-notes text into the record.

As homework

Fill it in each morning about last night. Estimates are fine.
Don't change your sleep window on your own; talk it through with your clinician first.
At the end of the week tap See my week. Tap Copy on the result card, then paste it into your therapist's secure messaging (client portal) or bring it to your next session. Nothing is saved, so copy before closing.
Next week, tap Continue from last week and paste it back.

Good to know

The suggested window is gentle: average sleep plus 30 minutes, never under 6 hours for adults (7 for teens), and only with your clinician. It is only shown after 5 complete nights and when efficiency is under 85%. Nights that aren't complete are left out of the averages, never filled with defaults.

Worksheets that pair with this tool

Sources & credibility

Method: Sleep diary, sleep efficiency and sleep window (CBT for insomnia: sleep restriction and stimulus control)
Developed by: Consensus Sleep Diary (Carney and colleagues); sleep restriction (Arthur Spielman); stimulus control (Richard Bootzin); CBT-I (Charles Morin and others)
First described: 1972–2012
Approach: CBT for insomnia
Evidence: Supported by studies and guidelinesCBT for insomnia is the first-line treatment for chronic insomnia in American College of Physicians and American Academy of Sleep Medicine guidelines. A daily sleep diary is how it is measured and adjusted; the diary is a measurement tool, not a treatment on its own.

References

Carney C. E., Buysse D. J., Ancoli-Israel S., Edinger J. D., Krystal A. D., Lichstein K. L. & Morin C. M. (2012). The Consensus Sleep Diary: standardizing prospective sleep self-monitoring. Sleep, 35(2), 287–302. Source
Qaseem A., Kansagara D., Forciea M. A., Cooke M. & Denberg T. D. (2016). Management of chronic insomnia disorder in adults: a clinical practice guideline from the American College of Physicians. Annals of Internal Medicine, 165(2), 125–133. Source
Edinger J. D., Arnedt J. T., Bertisch S. M., et al. (2021). Behavioral and psychological treatments for chronic insomnia disorder in adults: an American Academy of Sleep Medicine clinical practice guideline. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 17(2), 255–262. Source
Spielman A. J., Saskin P. & Thorpy M. J. (1987). Treatment of chronic insomnia by restriction of time in bed. Sleep, 10(1), 45–56. Source
Bootzin R. R. (1972). Stimulus control treatment for insomnia. Proceedings of the 80th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, 7, 395–396. Source
Riemann D., Espie C. A., Altena E., et al. (2023). The European Insomnia Guideline: an update on the diagnosis and treatment of insomnia 2023. Journal of Sleep Research, 32(6), e14035. Source
Kaplan K. A. & Harvey A. G. (2013). Behavioral treatment of insomnia in bipolar disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 170(7), 716–720. Source

How it was made

Built by the Mentalyc team from the original method and the published sources listed here. Nothing you enter is stored.

Questions people ask

How do you calculate sleep efficiency?

Sleep efficiency is total sleep time divided by time in bed, times 100. Time in bed runs from getting into bed to getting up; total sleep is that minus the time it took to fall asleep, time awake in the night and time lying in bed after the final wake-up.

What is a good sleep efficiency?

In CBT for insomnia, 85% or more is usually considered good. Lower efficiency means a lot of time in bed is spent awake.

What is sleep restriction therapy?

It's a CBT-I technique that temporarily matches time in bed to the time you actually sleep, then widens the window as sleep improves. It should be done with a clinician, and it isn't suitable for people with epilepsy or seizure disorders; in bipolar disorder it needs close monitoring. It can make you sleepier at first, so take care driving.

How long should I keep a sleep diary?

Usually at least one to two weeks before making changes, then throughout treatment. Estimates are fine; avoid watching the clock at night.

What is stimulus control therapy for insomnia?

Stimulus control rebuilds the link between bed and sleep: go to bed only when sleepy, get up if you cannot sleep after about 20 minutes, keep a fixed wake time and use the bed only for sleep and sex. It is a core part of CBT for insomnia.

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Michael Thompson, MSc

Michael's background combines doctoral training in clinical psychology with research on motivation, learning, and emotional regulation.

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Table Of Contents

About the technique
For therapists: how to run it
Worksheets that pair with this tool
Sources & credibility
Questions people ask

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