Sleep Difficulties and Insomnia Support in Brighton and Hove

Sleep Difficulties: support for busy adults who can’t switch off due to stress, wake unrefreshed, or struggle to fall asleep

 

Sleep difficulties are one of the most common signs that your system is carrying more stress than it can fully recover from.

You might be “functioning” during the day, but nights are fragmented, your body won’t settle, or you wake feeling like you’ve barely recovered. Over time, that doesn’t just affect sleep, it affects energy, mood, resilience, and performance.

This page will help you understand what may be driving your sleep disruption and how to start working with me in Brighton & Hove.

 

Signs of sleep difficulties

You may recognise yourself in some of these:

• Difficulty falling asleep (your mind or body won’t downshift)

• Waking in the night and struggling to get back to sleep

• Early waking (often 3–5am) with a racing mind or tension

• Sleep that looks “long enough” but still feels unrefreshing

• Daytime fatigue, brain fog, reduced motivation or low mood

• Increased irritability, emotional reactivity, or anxiety

• Reliance on caffeine to function, then difficulty winding down late

The goal is to restore your ability to downshift reliably, so sleep becomes deeper and recovery becomes more consistent.

 

Why can’t I switch off at night?

If your nervous system has been running in high demand all day, the “off switch” can feel unreliable. Even when you want rest, your system may still be signalling:

• vigilance

• threat sensitivity

• unfinished load

• physiological arousal (stress hormones, breath pattern changes, tension)

That’s why simple sleep hygiene often doesn’t work. Restoring sleep often required a mix of psychological, physiological and behavioural changes. Crucially, for anyone who has struggled with sleep for prolonged periods, relearning to trust your sleep can take some time.

 

Why do I wake up at 3am or 4am?

Early waking is common in people under prolonged stress or overload. It can be influenced by:

• stress hormone timing (particularly cortisol)

• a nervous system that shifts into alertness too easily

• shallow breathing patterns

• blood sugar instability

• accumulated sleep debt and shallow sleep architecture

• mental load that resurfaces when the mind is quieter

Early waking is often a predictable pattern of a system running too close to the edge.

Circadian rhythm and sleep

Your circadian rhythm is your internal 24-hour clock. It influences sleep-wake timing, temperature, hormone release, and energy.

When stress is chronic, circadian rhythm can become disrupted—making it harder to feel sleepy at the right time, harder to stay asleep, and harder to reach deep restorative sleep. The result is a feedback loop: poorer sleep increases stress sensitivity, which makes sleep more fragile again.

 

How sleep difficulties impact the nervous system

Persistent sleep disruption tends to keep the system closer to “fight or flight,” while the “rest and repair” branch becomes harder to access. Over time, this can contribute to:

• heightened stress sensitivity and anxiety

• reduced emotional resilience

• poorer cognitive performance and decision-making

• fatigue, irritability, and slower recovery from daily demands

 

Common causes of sleep difficulties

Sleep disruption can have multiple drivers at once. The most common patterns I see include:

Stress and anxiety

When you stay in a heightened state of alert, it becomes harder to enter deep, restorative sleep. Even if you fall asleep, the quality can be lighter and more fragmented.

Burnout and overwhelm

Burnout can create a more complex “survival” profile—sometimes hyperarousal (wired) and sometimes shutdown (flat, depleted). Sleep may become disrupted in either direction: broken sleep or excessive sleep that still doesn’t restore.

Irregular sleep routines

Variable bedtimes, late-night work, and inconsistent wake times can confuse the internal clock, making sleep less stable over time.

Lifestyle factors

Late caffeine, alcohol, heavy meals, intense training, or insufficient decompression time can all interfere with sleep quality.

Screen time and artificial light

Bright screens and late-night stimulation can reduce sleepiness cues and keep the mind activated.

How to deal with sleep difficulties

Most people try “sleep hygiene” first. It can help, but when sleep disruption is rooted in stress physiology, you often need a more integrated approach.

In practice, effective sleep recovery usually involves:

• reducing mental load and unfinished cognitive loops (not just “thinking positive”)

• prioritise fitness and good nutrition to support your metabolism, which prepares you for sleet
• sleep issues are the net result of what happens in the day, so practising self-regulation during your daytime routine is key
• learning how to detach from work completely, by absorbing yourself in other activities and environments

• retraining the downshift response by creating a process that helps you transition from work to home life

• stabilising sleep timing and cues (circadian consistency)

• improving recovery capacity so sleep becomes deeper and less disrupted

• building a realistic structure that fits your actual life (not an ideal routine)

 

How BodyMindBrain supports sleep recovery

Sleep difficulties are rarely solved by insight alone or lifestyle tips alone. They tend to improve when we address both:

• the psychological patterns that keep you overloaded
  and

• the physiological capacity of your system to settle, recover, and adapt

This is why BodyMindBrain integrates mind, brain, and body support.

Psychological support: reducing overload and restoring safety

On the psychological side, we focus on:

• making your patterns visible (the ones you’ve normalised)

• reducing internal pressure, perfectionism, and chronic “on” mode

• working with anxiety, hypervigilance, and threat scanning

• building boundaries and decision structures that lower the load

• creating a calmer relationship with your own mind at night

This supports ambition and responsibility—without your nervous system paying the price.

Physiological support: regulation, recovery capacity, and resilience

Sleep improves most reliably when the nervous system can downshift and the body is supported to recover efficiently.

Depending on your needs and suitability, we may use:

Neurofeedback (neuroregulation)

To support the brain in practising more stable patterns, often linked with:

• improved sleep quality

• reduced reactivity and anxiety

• improved focus and clarity

IHHT and targeted breathing (recovery and oxygen efficiency)

To support physiological resilience and recovery capacity—particularly when fatigue and stress physiology are driving sleep disruption.

EMS, strength and movement-based work (tension, capacity, embodiment)

To reduce default bracing patterns, support posture and breathing mechanics, and build physical capacity—so your system feels more resilient overall.

Together, this approach supports sleep by changing the system underneath it—not just trying to “think your way” into rest.

When to speak to your GP

If sleep disruption is accompanied by significant mood change, persistent physical symptoms, breathing difficulties at night, suspected sleep apnoea, or anything that concerns you medically, speak with your GP for assessment and support.

My work is focused on stress physiology, recovery capacity, and behavioural/psychological patterns that sustain sleep disruption.

How to start

Everything starts with an initial session

You don’t need to know exactly what’s driving your sleep issues yet. We begin by meeting 1:1, identifying the most likely drivers, and starting the work in-session.

Ongoing work is weekly. This weekly rhythm is the minimum effective dose for real adaptation in recovery, regulation, and performance.

The BodyMindBrain Approach

At BodyMindBrain, we help you break free from the cycle of stress and fatigue and rebuild the capacity to perform at your best. Our integrated system restores balance across mind, brain, and body, helping you recover faster, think clearer, and stay stronger under pressure.

Modern life keeps the sympathetic nervous system switched on, draining focus and slowing recovery. Using advanced, science-backed technologies, we retrain the systems that drive resilience, optimising nervous system regulation, oxygen efficiency, mitochondrial health, and physical strength.

Alongside this, we rebuild the psychological and lifestyle foundations that sustain energy,  and protect long term wellbeing.