“I didn't understand the debilitating consequence of having no sleep. It becomes a tsunami. I was in a void.”
In November 2015, six days before opening night, Kim Cattrall withdrew from the Royal Court Theatre's production of *Linda* on her doctors' advice. She did not say why at the time. Five months later she did, in a 45-minute BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour special she presented herself, reading from the diaries she kept while she could not sleep. The Kim Cattrall insomnia story, told by her, begins there.
This page collects what she actually said about that year, where she said it, and what she tried. It is editorial commentary built on her public interviews. Kim Cattrall has no connection with Adapt X.1 and has not endorsed it.
What she said, in her own words
She had always been a good sleeper. “I always was able to sleep. All I needed was a blanket and a pillow. Now sleep was so precious,” she told the BBC, as quoted by HuffPost in June 2016 under the heading “Is this what it feels like to be questioning your sanity?” (archived copy).
The Kim Cattrall insomnia timeline starts in London in October 2015, during rehearsals, when she first blamed “jetlag … too much tea [or] another stage of menopause” (Stylist, 29 April 2016, paragraph 3). Then it stopped being ordinary. She described the weight of it as “like a three-tonne gorilla sitting on my chest” (same article, paragraph 7).
“Is this what it feels like to be questioning your sanity? Your mental health? I'm not crazy.”
The decision to leave the play came down to one sentence: “it was work or my sanity.” (The Guardian, 7 June 2016, paragraph 5). By the time she flew home she had not slept for 48 hours, then waited six hours at customs with her 18-year-old cat (paragraph 9).
In October 2025, announcing a partnership with the perimenopause app Natural Cycles, she put a number on it: “It was really difficult functioning on three hours of sleep,” she told People (via AOL, 22 October 2025, paragraph 6). Asked by NewBeauty which perimenopause symptom was hardest, she answered: “Hands down, my insomnia because it was so debilitating for not just my professional life but my personal life as well.” (NewBeauty, 17 October 2025)
Hear her say it
The Kim Cattrall insomnia rules: what she tried
Two doctors saw her. The London doctor's diagnosis was exhaustion due to insomnia. A New York doctor “prescribed medications”, in HuffPost's words (paragraph 18). She did not take that route. A friend told her, “Stop. You have to stop,” and she chose cognitive behavioural therapy instead.
The rules she lived by, as she listed them on air, were plain:
- “No naps. Banishment of electronics in the bedroom. No clocks. Only sleep or sex in bed -- not necessarily in that order.” (HuffPost, paragraph 22)
- Awake for about twenty minutes? Get up, “go to another room and read the Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln.” (paragraph 23)
- Worrying at 3 a.m. was postponed to a scheduled slot: “Wait. We're going to do that at 2 p.m.” (paragraphs 26-27)
- A pre-sleep bath ritual and a nightly relaxation recording from her therapist (paragraph 21).
It was not quick. “It took about eight months for me to feel that I was confident enough to go out on my own,” she told NewBeauty in 2025. Nothing in nine years of interviews mentions melatonin, a supplement, or a spray. The one thing she credits is retraining, and being gentler with herself: “It's like putting on a pair of sneakers and going into your past to get a new perspective. And I was gentle with myself.” (The Guardian, paragraph 12)
What she wished for
Her stated wishes are about priorities and information, not products.
- “I choose… to tame my appetite for work and challenge... [because] without sleep, I can't possibly dream.” (Woman's Hour, via Stylist, final paragraph)
- “I choose myself.” (HuffPost, paragraph 34)
- “I want to pass on the message that there's stuff out there — available information that can help you understand your symptoms.” (People via AOL, 22 October 2025, paragraph 9)
- “Your priority is you.” (NewBeauty, 17 October 2025)
About the product we make
Adapt X.1 is a melatonin-free oral sleep spray with three ingredients, studied in a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial and taken as six sprays before bed. It is sold on this site. Nobody quoted on this page uses it, was asked about it, or has any connection with it; their words are here because they described a problem many readers share. If falling asleep is the hard part for you too, the product page explains what is in it and how it is taken.
Has her wish already come true?
Yes, by her own account. In April 2016 she was “still calibrating my sleep” (HuffPost, paragraph 34). By April 2025 she told Marie Claire: “I wake up in the morning, usually refreshed. It wasn't always the case.” (Marie Claire, 1 April 2025, paragraph 27) She now speaks of the insomnia entirely in the past tense, and attributes it to perimenopause along with grief and overwork.
So the Kim Cattrall insomnia story is about what helped a public figure get through the worst year of sleep she has described, and about the honest limits of any product. Her answer was eight months of retraining and a changed set of priorities. Ours is a gentler night for the stretch in between.
Read the originals
- Kim Cattrall On Insomnia, BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour special, 29 April 2016 (no public transcript; clips on the programme page)
- The Guardian, 7 June 2016: her Radio Times interview reported
- HuffPost, 10 June 2016: the Woman's Hour essay in detail (archived copy)
- The Guardian, 19 November 2015: the withdrawal from Linda
- NewBeauty, 17 October 2025: the Natural Cycles interview
- People via AOL, 22 October 2025: three hours of sleep
This is an editorial series about public conversations on sleep. Nobody featured was paid, asked for anything or involved in any way. If you are the person featured and want this page changed, contact us using the details at the bottom of this site.
Quotes are reproduced briefly for commentary and attributed to their publishers. Kim Cattrall has not endorsed Adapt X.1 and is not affiliated with it. This page is not medical advice; persistent insomnia deserves a doctor's attention.