The recession is taking a toll not only on our financial health, according to a recent survey. It suggests that worries about savings, pensions, redundancy and personal debt are giving us sleepless nights. Nearly half of the 1,000 men and women surveyed by one medical website reported that they are not sleeping as well as they were before the downturn.

Recent events may have exacerbated matters but insomnia is nothing new. As many as 1 in 20 of the British population takes some form of prescribed sleeping tablet, despite widespread recognition that pills often do more harm than good.

Ten million prescriptions for sleeping tablets, such as temazepam and the “Z drugs” - zopiclone and zolpidem - are dispensed every year in the UK even though GPs are being encouraged to limit their use. Much of this continued overprescribing results from direct pressure from patients, who feel that they simply can't manage without them.

A recent review of clinical trials into the effectiveness of sleeping tablets published in the British Medical Journal concluded that regular users average only 25 minutes' extra sleep a night and pay an unacceptably high price in terms of side-effects such as daytime fatigue, impaired thinking and clumsiness.

And it is not only the hangover effects that cause concern. Users can become tolerant to the drugs within a couple of weeks, meaning that they don't work as well, or they have to take a higher dose to get the same effect. This can lead to addiction with the older, Valium-based sleeping tablets such as temazepam and nitrazepam. Users also experience problems when they try to stop taking the tablets, as they often find it difficult to get to sleep for a night or two, prompting them to turn to the pills again.

These problems were initially not thought to occur with the later generation of “Z drugs”, but time has proved that they are an issue with all prescription-only sleeping drugs. The influential Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin has issued guidance suggesting that the current overuse of all sleeping tablets “represents a risk to individual and public health and cannot be justified”. It advises that they be used only for a few days at a time, “to alleviate acute distressing insomnia caused by short-lasting events, illnesses or upsets”.

So what should we offer to the millions of people who regularly struggle with insomnia? The answer may lie in cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). According to researchers from the Sleep Research Centre at Loughborough University, five hours of CBT can “cure” most people's insomnia.

The therapy is based on a series of psychological interventions that encourage a return to normal sleeping patterns, and are designed to break the vicious cycle of worry-induced insomnia. The programme starts with basic instructions on what promotes sleep (such as avoiding daytime napping, and always retiring and waking at the same time every day) and what can prevent it (eg, too much caffeine, and eating or exercising close to bedtime).

It then moves on to teaching relaxation techniques, which focus the person's mind while they are lying in bed, and help them to forget problems that might intrude and keep them awake.

Next come instructions for dealing with sleep-related problems. For instance, if you don't fall asleep within 30 minutes then get up, leave the bedroom, go somewhere quiet and restful and stay there until you feel tired. Then, and only then, should you return to bed.

Patients with long-term insomnia often find it hard to accept that a talking therapy such as CBT will help them, but the results speak for themselves - 7 out of 10 people benefit significantly, whatever the underlying cause of their sleepless nights. And it even works for people who have been taking sleeping tablets for 20 years.

Access to CBT for insomnia is very limited privately and on the NHS. To find a properly trained practitioner, use the interactive Directory of Chartered Psychologists at www.bps.org.uk (search under clinical psychology and use “sleep” as the keyword)