Primary insomnia is a mental health problem that are often reported due to the combination of either difficulty of falling asleep or maintaining sleep. It is known that people with primary insomnia have an increased arousal of physiological, cognitive or emotional process, combined with negative conditioning that's associated with sleep. Progressive relaxation is one of the methods known to be effective to minimize primary insomnia due to the person's need to release their tension. Frequently, the problem that causes primary insomnia is from anxiety and muscle tension. Further work on the field is needed to show more effectiveness of progressive relaxation towards primary insomnia, especially in Indonesia, due to the lack of papers that show an intervention effect towards mental health problems. This paper presents a single case study of a graduate student who was diagnosed with primary insomnia. Graduate students are more likely to have sleep deprivation due to the academic pressures and poor sleeping habit. Primary insomnia was diagnosed on this participant because they have met with the criteria of primary insomnia, such as predominant complaints of inability to fall asleep and maintaining sleep for at least one month and an impairment of social and occupational functioning. It was shown during the counselling that the participant was having distress mainly caused by family problems. Participant felt burdened about the future due to the participant's family expectations on several subjects such as career, relationship and academic. Participant felt the need to fulfil all of the requirements. Another intervention such as the ABC model from cognitive behaviour therapy was needed due to the participant's negative core belief that made them unable to see their own positive traits. Participant also learned magic words to cancel out unnecessary negative thoughts that caused sleep disturbance. The intervention was conducted for five sessions and in three weeks period. Participant reported that before she was introduced with progressive relaxation, she had difficulty maintaining her sleep, she was awake for five to six times during her sleep, and she was able to sleep only if the time was past midnight. After being taught of progressive relaxation, participant reported her primary insomnia symptoms have decreased. She was able to sleep without any disturbance and can sleep at 10 p.m. Participant's anxiety towards her family's expectations have also decreased reportedly. Participant reported that she was able to focus on what matters in the present, able to distinguish her own needs and her family expectations. Magic words were constantly used by participant even a year after intervention. Participant reported that using magic words was the most efficient way for her to cancel out negative thoughts. This single case study showed that a short-term intervention was capable to provide an effective outcome for an individual that has primary insomnia. It was also shown that progressive relaxation was successful to treat primary insomnia. This single case study showed the need to reduce anxiety towards people with poor quality of sleep. It is suggested for further study to replicate progressive relaxation for reducing primary insomnia symptoms due to the successful outcome of this single case study.