APA Dictionary of Psychology

a treatment for insomnia that uses a form of systematic sleep deprivation in which a “sleep window” is established and maintained to allow the body to relearn proper sleeping dynamics and increase sleep efficiency. For example, if an individual reports spending about 8 hours per night in bed but sleeping only 6 of those hours, the therapist would recommend restricting the individual’s time in bed to match actual sleep time (in this case, 6 hours). Periodic adjustments to this sleep window are made contingent on sleep efficiency until an optimal sleep duration is reached.