In short
Stress and anxiety arethe most common cause of insomnia. Mental and physical activation keeps the brain “on” at bedtime, and worry about not resting feeds into the problem. The solution usually does not lie in sleeping pills, but inlower that activation and break the cycle with cognitive behavioral therapy.
When the mind does not disconnect
Sleep requireslet your guard down: that the body and mind go from the activation of the day to rest. Stress and anxiety do just the opposite: they keep the alert system on, with thoughts that don't stop, muscle tension, and a body that keeps “going” when it should be stopping.
The typical result is aconciliation insomnia: It's hard to fall asleep because your head is racing. And a second problem appears:worry about not sleeping. Looking at the clock, calculating the hours left, fearing the next day... all of this adds more activation and turns the bed into a place of struggle. Thus, occasional insomnia due to a stressful time can become chronic.
Understanding this cycle is the key, because it is exactly what the treatment breaks.
Self-test: does stress keep you awake?
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Frequent signs
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The stress-insomnia cycle
Several factors feed off each other; The treatment acts on all of them.
Stress keeps the body in alert mode.
Thinking about problems in bed prevents you from sleeping.
Worrying about sleep makes it even worse.
Associating bed with not sleeping perpetuates insomnia.
Caffeine, screens and irregular schedules add up.
Anxiety and low mood often go hand in hand.
Diagnosis at the Sleep Research Institute
We assess your sleep and your level of activation, and we rule out that another cause is fragmenting the night.
First consultation
History of sleep, stress and habits
Sleep agenda
We see your real pattern and the factors that influence it
Discard
We check that there is no other medical cause
Treatment plan
Therapy to lower activation and sleep
Turn down the activation and go back to sleep
The reference treatment iscognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), which acts right on the stress-insomnia circle. We work on techniquesrelaxation and activation control, the restructuring of the thoughts that feed the worry about sleeping, thestimulus control(recovering the bed as a place of rest) and realistic sleep hygiene.
When anxiety goes beyond sleep, we coordinate the approach with the appropriate psychological or medical support. The goal is for you to fall asleep again without fighting with the pillow andwithout depending on the pill, with results that are maintained over time.
With a job change I stopped sleeping and went into a loop: the more obsessed I became, the worse. Therapy taught me to slow down and not fight with the bed. I went back to sleep.
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We solve your doubts
Do I have to take sleeping pills?
How long will it take to notice improvement?
What if my anxiety goes beyond sleep?
I sleep well on vacation, what does that mean?
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Content reviewed by the medical team of the Sleep Research Institute.