How to stop worrying about insomnia

As anyone who struggles with sleep would know, often the worry that comes with feeling like you’re not getting enough sleep is the exact thing that causes you to get less sleep than you’d like! It’s a paradox that the more pressure you put on yourself to get a good night’s sleep, the less sleep you’re likely to get. But there are some helpful strategies you can adopt to ease your worries and encourage sleep. 

Read on to learn more about the link between sleep and anxiety and to get some tips to help you worry less and sleep more. 

The link between anxiety and sleep

The relationship between anxiety disorders and sleep disorders goes both ways. Anxiety causes the brain to go into overdrive, keeping you alert and awake well into the wee hours. On the other hand, sleep deprivation can exacerbate anxiety, creating a loop of sleeplessness and worry that can make your sleep time worse. 

If falling asleep isn’t hard enough for a person suffering from anxiety, anticipation and dread as bedtime approaches can make it extremely difficult for a person who struggles with sleep to relax and prepare the body for sleep.  

Worrying about insomnia

Insomnia is typically associated with health problems such as heart diseases, depression, suicidal thoughts, fatigue and diabetes. But interestingly, a study about ‘insomnia identity’ found that people who believed they had insomnia experienced these symptoms to a greater degree than people who did not believe they had insomnia. This was regardless of whether they slept well or not!

The findings of the study suggest that insomnia may not be the only contributing factor to these kinds of negative health outcomes - they are physiological components at play too. That’s because people who believe they have insomnia tend to worry more about their sleep, and it is, in fact, this worry that may lead to these long-term health problems. 

How to stop worrying about sleep

So we know that there is a link between anxiety and insomnia, and that the worrying may actually be leading to worse health problems than the insomnia itself. But how do we break the cycle between worry and insomnia to get a better night’s sleep? 

To help you overcome your fear and reduce the dread associated with sleep, try some of these methods:

1. Firstly, avoid self-diagnosis

Whether it’s playing ‘Google Doctor’ after a few basic searches, or simply reaching a conclusion based on your own feelings, we all tend to resort to self-diagnosis as a coping mechanism. In most cases, the impact of self-diagnosis is harmless (if not positive), but when it comes to sleep conditions, it may worsen the problem, as suggested by the study into insomnia identity. 

Try to remember that sleep is not always perfect. Struggling to get to sleep on occasion doesn’t necessarily mean you have chronic insomnia, and self-diagnosing yourself with the disorder might only make it worse.

2. Remove the stigma associated with lack of sleep

People suffer sleep problems for a range of reasons, but some (unfairly) consider lack of sleep to be a character flaw associated with poor self control or bad lifestyle habits. When one starts internalising these stigmas, it can often lead to low self-esteem, shame and embarrassment, all of which detract from healthy sleep. Stigmas don’t help anyone so your best bet is to realise that your sleeping habits concern only you (or perhaps your partner).

3. Have some perspective

Don’t dwell on the negative. Try to change your thinking patterns and remove some of the dread around bedtime by looking at sleep from a new perspective. Yes, you may struggle with sleep, but it will help to accept that sleep is not perfect for everyone. Normalise your sleep patterns - just because you wake up in the night or struggle to fall asleep does not mean you’ve failed. Thinking this way will only increase your anxiety and make it harder to get to sleep!

4. Overcome unhelpful thoughts

It will help to reframe and de-catastrophise any negative thoughts you might have about your sleep. For example, thoughts like “I can’t get to sleep so I’ve ruined my day tomorrow” aren’t helpful and will only exacerbate sleep anxiety. Take a realistic look at any negative thoughts and try to rationalise them. Have you slept poorly before and did this really ruin your day or have you managed to cope? It’s all about taking negative thoughts and reframing them in a more positive or realistic way. It can also help to write these negative thoughts down to help you clear your head before bed. 

5. Set realistic expectations about sleep 

The study into insomnia identity found that people who self-diagnose insomnia are also more likely to have unrealistic expectations about sleep. People who have experienced bouts of insomnia before are hyper-vigilant about any signs that could indicate its return. This could turn 15 minutes of tossing and turning before sleep into an anxiety-inducing catastrophe. The result is that sleep becomes an activity surrounded by dread and fear, two emotions that are in no way conducive to relaxation and sleep.  

6. Associate your bed with sleep

It’s important to reinforce the link between your bed and sleep. If you can’t fall asleep in the first 20 minutes after you go to bed, don’t just lie there staring at the ceiling. Get up and do something relaxing. Only return to bed when you’re feeling tired. Your brain needs to associate bed with sleep.

The bottom line

While insomnia is a very real and very debilitating disorder for many, it’s clear that anxiety around sleep, and insomnia in particular, can actually make the problem worse. It may help to talk to a doctor or healthcare professional about your concerns before self-diagnosing insomnia. Not only will they be able to more accurately determine if your sleep problems are cause for concern, but they’ll also be able to equip you with effective treatments and strategies to help you overcome not only the sleep disorder, but also any related anxiety disorders.

If you’re experiencing persistent disruptions to your sleep, consult with a pharmacist or trusted medical professional to discuss possible solutions.

Any advice provided in this content is of a general nature and does not take into account your objectives, health or needs. The information in this post is not intended to substitute medical advice, diagnosis or treatment and should not be exclusively relied on to diagnose or manage a medical condition. You need to consider the appropriateness of any information or general advice we give you, having regard to your personal situation, before acting on our advice or purchasing any over-the-counter sleep product.