People with insomnia often describe waking at night or not sleeping well and feeling wide awake with a racing mind, finding it hard to switch off. This situation arises when brain ‘nervous energy’ levels are too high during sleep, and also leads to feeling tired during the day. David discusses how stress and being busy affect how the brain operates during sleep, the impact this has on performance and strategies for improving sleep and energy levels.

Reducing ‘nervous energy’ improves tiredness and sleep

Understanding that a lot of the tiredness in insomnia is not from lack of sleep, but from worry about not sleeping or too much ‘nervous energy’, is an important concept and can shift the focus on to strategies that work, rather than continuing to get more and more anxious about and focussed on sleep. It also highlights that the way to sleeping better and feeling less tired is slowing down and taking time out, rather than pushing harder and just keeping on going.