Sleep Disorders & Insomnia · Online Across India & New Delhi
Sleep is not a luxury. It is infrastructure
Chronic insomnia, 3 a.m. waking, racing thoughts at bedtime, years on sleeping pills: sleep problems are among the most common reasons people quietly struggle, and among the most treatable. Dr. Shaurya Garg, MD Psychiatry (AIIMS New Delhi), treats sleep disorders with evidence-based care, online across India and in New Delhi.
A structured, clinician-reviewed evaluation of your sleep pattern, habits, and contributing conditions, with a personalised plan. Shared after a consultation.
Understanding Insomnia
Insomnia is a habit
your brain learned
Most chronic insomnia starts with a trigger, stress, illness, a life change, and then outlives it. The bed becomes associated with effort and frustration instead of sleep, and the harder you try, the worse it gets.
This is why advice like "just relax" fails, and why sleep deserves proper clinical assessment. Insomnia is diagnosed when difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking too early occurs at least three nights a week for three months or more, with daytime consequences: fatigue, poor concentration, irritability, low mood. It also travels with other conditions: anxiety and depression disturb sleep and are worsened by poor sleep, ADHD commonly delays the body clock, and loud snoring with daytime sleepiness can signal obstructive sleep apnoea, which needs its own evaluation and is screened for before insomnia is treated as purely psychological.
What the Evidence Says
The best treatment for insomnia
is not a pill
International guidelines are unambiguous: cognitive-behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is the first-line treatment for chronic insomnia, ahead of medication. It is a structured, short-term approach that retrains the sleep system: rebuilding the bed-sleep association, correcting the schedule, reducing the mental effort around sleep, and dismantling the 3 a.m. worry loop. Its effects last after treatment ends, which no sleeping pill can claim.
Medication still has a place: short-term use in acute situations, and treating the underlying condition when insomnia is driven by anxiety, depression, or another disorder. What deserves caution is the years-long nightly sleeping pill, often self-continued without review. If that is where you are, the answer is not abrupt stopping, which can rebound badly, but a planned, gradual, medically supervised taper alongside CBT-I-informed treatment.
Beyond the clinic, Dr. Garg is a seed investor and clinical advisor to a US-based sleep-technology startup, where he helped conceptualise a sleep aid during its early development. Sleep, here, is not a side interest.
Sleep Care
The problems
seen in clinic
Each pattern has a different mechanism, and a different fix.
Treatment
A plan for your sleep,
not generic sleep hygiene
You have already heard the standard advice: no screens, no caffeine, keep the room dark. Useful, and rarely sufficient for chronic insomnia. Treatment here starts with a structured assessment: your sleep pattern and history, mood, anxiety, attention, medication and substance use, caffeine and alcohol timing, and screening for medical sleep disorders. The plan is then built around the actual mechanism: CBT-I-informed behavioural treatment, body-clock strategies for delayed sleep phase, treatment of underlying anxiety, depression or ADHD where present, medication review and supervised deprescribing where needed, and structured follow-up until sleep is stable.
Common Questions
Sleep questions,
answered honestly
Is CBT-I really better than sleeping pills?
For chronic insomnia, major guidelines recommend cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia as first-line treatment because benefits can persist after treatment. Medication can still have a role in selected situations after benefits, risks, duration and alternatives are considered.
I have taken sleeping pills for years. Am I addicted?
Some sleep medicines can cause physical dependence, but that is not identical to an addiction diagnosis. Do not stop long-term medication abruptly. A prescriber can assess the medicine, dose, duration, withdrawal risk and whether a gradual taper alongside insomnia treatment is appropriate.
I sleep at 3 a.m. and cannot wake up in the morning. Is that insomnia?
Possibly not. If you sleep well when allowed to sleep late, the problem may be delayed sleep phase, a body-clock condition common in students and young adults, rather than classical insomnia. The distinction matters because the treatments differ entirely.
My partner says I snore and stop breathing at night.
That combination, particularly with daytime sleepiness, warrants medical screening for obstructive sleep apnoea. A sleep study may be indicated, and treatment depends on the findings and the person's broader health.
Can sleep problems be treated online?
Online consultation can support insomnia assessment, sleep diaries, CBT-I-informed planning and medication review. Suspected sleep apnoea, unusual movements, neurological symptoms or other medical concerns may require examination or a sleep study locally.
Unlock sleep evaluation
Book a consultation first
A structured sleep evaluation and personalised plan are shared after clinical assessment. Message on WhatsApp or email to book, online across India or in person in New Delhi.