Insomnia — When Sleep Becomes a Performance

Insomnia means persistent trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking too early, despite having enough opportunity to sleep, and with daytime consequences (fatigue, mood changes, concentration issues). It’s not “I chose Netflix”; it’s “I went to bed and my brain refused to play along.” Acute insomnia often begins after a trigger — stress, illness, travel — but can become chronic when patterns of worry, hyperarousal, and coping behaviours lock in.

Those behaviours are usually understandable: napping to “catch up,” going to bed earlier and earlier, staying in bed longer “just in case,” scrolling to distract from anxious thoughts, relying on alcohol or sedatives. Short‑term, they feel protective. Long‑term, they weaken sleep drive, confuse your circadian rhythm, and teach your brain that bed = wakeful stress zone.

The good news is that insomnia is highly treatable. CBT-I (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia) consistently outperforms sleeping pills in the long run. It targets unhelpful thoughts (“I’ll be useless tomorrow”), rebuilds the bed‑sleep association, tightens sleep windows so drive can rebuild, and adds relaxation and wind‑down practices that calm hyperarousal rather than fight it.

Insomnia is not a moral failing or a permanent identity; it’s a set of loops your nervous system learned under pressure. With the right levers, those loops can be loosened — gently, systematically, and with far less self‑blame.

Why It Matters

Seeing insomnia as a learned pattern makes it something you can unlearn with support, rather than a mysterious curse you’re stuck under.

Closing Line

Your brain once learned how to sleep without your help — the work now is mostly getting out of its way again.