Disclaimer This is a preprint and has not been peer-reviewed. All conclusions are theoretical derivations and matching test results at the level of scientific hypotheses. They do not represent final academic publication conclusions, nor do they claim absolute truth or clinical diagnostic and treatment standards. Author Information Author: Baichen Yi Version: V2.0 Affiliation: Independent Researcher, Xi'an 710000, Shaanxi, China ORCID: 0009-0008-6242-7743 Corresponding Author: Baichen Yi Email: ybcbenxin@163.com Conflict of Interest Statement: All authors declare no conflicts of interest related to this work. Abstract Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) is the first-line treatment for chronic insomnia disorder in adults. Clinical guidelines universally require the operational sequence of "cognitive restructuring first, behavioral intervention second", but existing theoretical systems have consistently failed to explain the underlying necessity of this sequence. This paper adopts the dual-agent collaborative conduction structure (M₁→F₁→Y→F₂→M₂) of the MFY three-variable steady-state hypothesis as the theoretical framework to test the matching and explanatory power of its core single-round repair closed loop F₁→Y→F₂→M₂ in the field of chronic insomnia. Matching tests show that the effectiveness logic of all CBT-I modules can be uniformly attributed to a single-round closed-loop repair within the dual-agent conduction framework composed of therapists and patients: the therapist's intervention behavior (F₁) penetrates the patient's expectation (Y) firewall, triggers expectation restructuring, then guides the spontaneous calibration of the patient's behavior (F₂), and ultimately restores the self-organizing ability of the sleep steady-state ontology (M₂). The underlying necessity of the intervention sequence lies in that the sleep steady-state ontology (anchor M) is an emergent state and cannot be directly accessed by subjective will (organizational closure of self-organizing systems with mental participation). Only when F₁ first penetrates Y to trigger expectation restructuring can subsequent F₂ unfold spontaneously as the behavioral expression of Y restructuring. Reversing the sequence (behavioral intervention first, cognition second) fails to eliminate the upstream distorted expectations that drive behavioral deviations. Behavioral improvement is only superficial and will relapse once constraints are lifted. This paper provides the first first-principles-based underlying mechanistic explanation for CBT-I intervention timing, and also offers a theoretical basis for stratified intervention of non-responders, early identification of insomnia recurrence, and multi-dimensional division of therapeutic efficacy evaluation. Series Paper Positioning Statement This paper is one of the series of applied papers on the MFY three-variable steady-state hypothesis. The core framework of the MFY hypothesis originated from a 12-month extreme case of psychological system collapse and self-healing without external professional intervention. The complete definition, derivation rules and first-principles construction process of the M-F-Y-F-M spiral ascending core model are detailed in the first paper of the series 1. The systematic test of cross-domain applicability and the establishment of the dual-agent conduction structure of the MFY hypothesis are detailed in the second paper of the series 2. The core positioning of this paper is: under the overall framework of the dual-agent collaborative conduction structure (M₁→F₁→Y→F₂→M₂), to test the matching, mechanistic explanatory power and clinical application value of its core single-round repair closed loop F₁→Y→F₂→M₂ in the field of chronic insomnia disorder. It belongs to the first cross-validation study of the hypothesis framework in a single clinical field.
Baichen YI (Thu,) studied this question.