What are Sleep Difficulties?
Sleep can be disrupted for many reasons, including stress, anxiety, low mood, health conditions, changes in routine or habits around sleep. Sometimes the original cause passes, but difficulty sleeping continues. Worry about not sleeping can itself become part of the problem – the more pressure you feel to sleep, the more alert or frustrated you become, making sleep even harder.
Insomnia refers more specifically to persistent difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep or waking too early, despite having adequate opportunity for sleep, with resulting difficulties during the day. Sleep problems can also occur alongside other psychological or physical health difficulties rather than being a problem in isolation.
Understanding what is disrupting sleep, and what may be keeping the problem going, can be an important part of improving it.