How do you counsel patients who are hesitant to try behavioral therapies for insomnia instead of starting a sleep medication?

I try to be very understanding of the desire to have an easier solution to sleep difficulties, which are so common. It is challenging that our gold standard and best strategies to help people sleep better require a lot of effort on the patient's part. Starting with that validation can be very helpfu...

I generally ask patients to try behavioral strategies first, such as box breathing, sleep, music, optimizing sleep hygiene, etc. If this isn’t effective, then we go to pharmacologic therapies, but usually a combination of the two.

The VA has a free app that has a light psychoeducation component but a fairly robust sleep journal + sleep restriction guidance. Other than typical simple behavioral strategies and fixing up sleep hygiene issues, I will generally offer non-habit-forming sleep aids first; however, if someone is sayin...