Why do I have trouble sleeping?
These are changes to behavior or thought patterns that accidentally make the insomnia continue beyond the initial stressor— or the "glue" that keeps the poor sleep patterns together.
Let's take the mystery out of sleeping troubles
So how is this happening? How does it start and continue for long periods of time... turning into insomnia, sometimes lasting years. The best place to start is the beginning: What makes someone susceptible?
Predisposing factors
Genetic factors that have been passed on to us can make it more likely we experience sleep problems. High metabolic rate, high heart rate, tendency to worry more, tendency to be more sensitive to the sleep schedules of others around us and to the environment (noises and light) make it more likely we will experience insomnia. Women are also more likely to experience insomnia, often due to hormonal transitions and life experiences such as heightened night-time awareness when raising children.
Precipitating factors
This is the straw that broke the camel's back, the trigger that started the cycle and put those genes/predisposing factors in motion. It could be from a singular intense stressor such as physical pain, having a baby, or a major life event. Or sleep problems can come from a string of smaller stressors like struggling to juggle work, life, and financial demands. Basically, anything stressful can be a trigger. Once the stressor is gone, sometimes sleep goes back to normal. In other instances, the sleep problems continue beyond the stressor due to perpetuating factors.
Perpetuating factors
These are changes to behavior or thought patterns that accidentally make the insomnia continue beyond the initial stressor — or the "glue" that keeps the poor sleep patterns together. Naps, spending too much time in bed awake, doing other activities in bed, avoiding exercise, drinking too much coffee, eating lots of processed foods, or having less energy to enjoy life leads to more insomnia and stress. Exposure to lighting and stimulation at times that are working against your circadian rhythm can also contribute.
Some chronic illness are associated with sleeping troubles. However, even if this is the case, it does not mean that changing habits and lifestyle won't help. In fact, research has shown that addressing sleep issues can often improve the chronic mood or physical symptoms we are struggling with. We change habits in order to help bring the body closer into balance. Sleep likes balance.
Pavlovian conditioning
Your bedroom, bed, and even the idea of sleep may become associated with stress and being awake in the subconscious mind. Stress creates cortisol, which keeps us more awake, becoming a vicious cycle. This conditioned relationship between the bed and stress can also be worsened by task-location associations to being awake in bed — checking social media, emails, or anything else that is happening in bed other than sleep or sex. Just like how the dogs in Pavlov's study were conditioned to drool at the sounds of a bell, we can retrain ourselves to relax when we get into bed.
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