What should you know about stress related insomnia?

Stress hormones and repeated worrying can keep your thoughts active at bedtime. You may replay conversations, plan for tomorrow, or wake during the night and struggle to settle again. The next day, poor sleep may contribute to daytime sleepiness, irritability, or difficulty concentrating.

A brief episode may improve as the stressful situation settles. Ongoing sleep difficulty can become a separate insomnia problem, especially when you begin to associate bed with frustration or alertness. Anxiety, low mood, burnout, travel across time zones, medicines, caffeine, pain, and sleep apnoea can also affect sleep.

Keep a regular wake-up time, including after a poor night. Give yourself a quiet wind-down period, dim screens and lights, and write tomorrow’s tasks down before bed so they are not circling in your mind. Keep the bedroom cool, dark, and quiet, and avoid caffeine late in the day.

If you are awake and becoming tense, leave the bed for a calm activity in low light and return when sleepy. Do not drive if sleep loss makes you drowsy. A clinician can look for triggers and discuss cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia; sleeping tablets are not suitable for everyone and should not be started without advice.

Arrange a GP assessment if sleep difficulty is affecting work, study, mood, or driving, or if it keeps returning despite routine changes. Seek prompt help for severe anxiety, hopelessness, thoughts of self-harm, unusual periods of very high energy with little need for sleep, or breathing pauses and choking during sleep.

Ask what might be maintaining your sleep problem, whether another condition or medicine could be contributing, and whether a sleep diary or structured insomnia treatment would help. Mention snoring, restless legs, mood changes, alcohol, caffeine, and every medicine or supplement you use.