According to a new study there is help for insomniacs not from people or drugs but through an internet based therapy.

Promising results were seen when insomniacs received nine weeks of therapy from the internet in which no human therapist is involved and the program gives advice and even specific bedtimes based on sleep diaries of the users. The program through stories, quizzes and games teaches patients better sleep habits such as avoiding daytime naps.

Frances Thorndike of the University of Virginia Health System who co-authored the study and helped design the software as well said, "This is a very interactive, tailored, personalized program."

The software, called Sleep Healthy Using the Internet, or SHUTi could some day be a low-cost alternative for some patients and the only non-drug option for people living in areas without trained specialists she said.

The study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry involved 45 adults who suffered from moderate insomnia. The researchers asked 22 of them to try the internet program and reported that after the treatment they woke up fewer times and spent fewer minutes awake during the night than the 23 people who did not receive the internet treatment. 

The study said insomnia is a condition that is reported by one third of adults and approximately 10 % meet the diagnostic criteria for an insomnia disorder. Insomnia not only decreases the quality of life and impairs daytime functioning it can have personal and public health consequences as well. It is estimated that insomnia results in $41 billion reduced productivity every year.