Insomnia affects roughly one in three Mauritian adults. CBT-I is the gold-standard non-drug treatment. Here are the seven steps that work — and why sleeping pills usually make things worse over time.
Sleep is not a luxury that competes with productivity — it is the biological process that makes productivity, mood, memory and immunity possible. The brain uses deep sleep to consolidate learning, REM sleep to process emotion, and the whole night to clear metabolic waste through the glymphatic system. Lose two hours a night for a week and the deficit shows up as anxiety, irritability, brain fog and a short fuse with the people you love.
Insomnia is one of the most common complaints we hear at Felicity. The good news is that chronic insomnia has a remarkably effective non-drug treatment: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia, or CBT-I. Studies consistently show CBT-I outperforms sleeping pills in the long run, with no rebound, no dependence and lasting effects.
Benzodiazepines and Z-drugs (zolpidem, zopiclone) are widely prescribed for insomnia in Mauritius, often for far longer than the two-to-four-week limit international guidelines recommend. They work in the short term, but the body adapts within weeks, doses creep up, and stopping the medication frequently triggers worse insomnia than the original problem. They also reduce deep sleep — the most restorative stage — meaning a 'medicated' eight hours often leaves you less rested than a natural six.
CBT-I targets the underlying patterns that keep insomnia going: irregular schedules, time spent awake in bed, the anxiety of trying to sleep, and the unhelpful beliefs that build up around it. Most people see meaningful improvement within four to six weeks.
Two local factors deserve mention. First, evening heat. In Mauritian summers, bedrooms can stay above 28°C, well outside the 18–22°C range that promotes deep sleep. A fan, lighter bedding, and a cool shower an hour before bed make a measurable difference.
Second, screens. The blue-light story is overhyped — the bigger problem is what is on the screen. WhatsApp arguments, work emails and TikTok rabbit holes activate the threat and reward systems exactly when you need them quiet. The fix is not blue-light glasses; it is putting the phone in another room.
If you have struggled with sleep for more than three months, if you are using medication nightly, if you wake up panicking, or if daytime fatigue is affecting your work or driving safety, it is time to bring in a professional. CBT-I is delivered in 6–8 structured sessions and works for the vast majority of people who complete it. Felicity offers CBT-I with Mauritian therapists trained in the protocol, available by video, voice or chat.
What anxiety actually feels like, how to tell normal stress apart from a disorder, and the therapy options available to people living in Mauritius — written by Felicity's clinical team.
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