 Treatment-seeking insomnia sufferers most often present in primary care venues where the first and usually only treatment is a prescription for a sedative hypnotic, typically a benzodiazepine BZD or newer benzodiazepine receptor agonist BzRA. For some patients, short-term or intermittent use provides satisfactory insomnia relief. However, more than 65 of individuals who are prescribed hypnotics use them for more than a year, and 30 remain on these agents for more than five years. Whereas some patients may appreciate partial or full relief of insomnia symptoms with ongoing hypnotic use, continuous long-term use of these agents may not represent optimal therapy. A sizable proportion of insomnia patients who participate in non-drug insomnia therapy such as cognitive behavioral insomnia therapy CBT-I achieve sustained insomnia remission long after a time-limited course of treatment. However, it is difficult for most long-term hypnotic users to convert from use of medications to a self-management approach. Interventions that combine CBT-I with supervised medication tapering SMT have shown the greatest promise for achieving this outcome, but almost 50 of patients who receive this assistance either fail to discontinue their hypnotics or return to them even if they do achieve short-term abstinence. Previous research provides only a rudimentary understanding of how to help long-term hypnotic users discontinue their sleep aids and successfully manage their insomnia with CBT-I techniques. 