Insomnia and Sleep Difficulties

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Sleep Difficulties: How Stress and Modern Life Affect Your Nervous System

Struggling with sleep difficulties, waking unrefreshed, feeling constantly fatigued, or finding it hard to fall asleep? Your nervous system and brain function play a central role in how well you rest. Modern lifestyles, chronic stress, and emotional overwhelm can push your system out of balance, making restorative sleep feel increasingly difficult to reach.

Why Sleep Difficulties Matter

Quality sleep is essential for:

  • Energy and focus during the day

  • Emotional balance and stress resilience

  • Physical recovery, immune function, and metabolism

  • Long-term health, reducing the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and cognitive decline

According to the NHS website, it is estimated that in the UK, sleep difficulties affect 1 in 3 adults, and a large-scale survey in 2022 found that 71% of UK adults did not achieve the recommended 7-9 hours of sleep per night. The problem is widespread.

If you have a busy and demanding job, run a business, and juggle family commitments alongside leisure outside of work, then you know how important sleep is to keep all those plates spinning.

    Circadian Rhythm and Sleep Difficulties

    A circadian rhythm is a natural, internal biological process that regulates the sleep-wake cycle and repeats roughly every 24 hours.  Your circadian rhythm is regulated by your body’s internal master clock, located in the brain.  This master clock controls many biological functions over a 24 hour period, such as the release of hormones, body temperature changes, and sleep-wake cycles.  You may notice how you tend to feel energised and drowsy around the same times every day, this is your circadian rhythm at work.

    Chronic stress can significantly disrupt your circadian rhythm. It alters hormone release like cortisol and melatonin, shifting the timing of alertness and drowsiness. This makes it harder to fall asleep at the right time, reduces deep restorative sleep, and leaves the body struggling to recover, creating a cycle of fatigue and heightened stress sensitivity.

    How Sleep Difficulties Impact the Nervous System

    Persistent sleep difficulties keep the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) dominant, while the parasympathetic system (rest and repair) is suppressed. Over time, this imbalance can:

    • Increase sensitivity to stress

    • Maintain higher levels of stress chemicals and hormones

    • Reduce emotional resilience and cognitive performance

    • Weaken immune function

    • Contribute to fatigue, irritability, and low resilience

    Signs and Symptoms of Sleep Difficulties

    Common indicators include:

    • Difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep

    • Waking unrefreshed, even after sufficient hours in bed

    • Trouble concentrating or maintaining focus

    • Mood swings, irritability, or anxiety

    • Weight gain or changes in appetite

    • Low energy, sex drive, or motivation

    • Higher susceptibility to illness

    Causes of Sleep Difficulties and Insomnia 

    Stress and Anxiety

    Chronic stress and anxiety keep the nervous system in a heightened state of alert, making it difficult for the body to switch into rest and recovery mode. When the sympathetic “fight or flight” branch dominates, signals for relaxation and repair controlled by the parasympathetic system are suppressed. This imbalance can disrupt sleep patterns, making it harder to fall asleep, stay asleep, or reach the deep, restorative stages of sleep, which, over time, reduces energy, recovery, and overall resilience.

    Burnout and Overwhelm

    Burnout and chronic overwhelm take the nervous system deeper into survival than daily chronic stressors and sources of anxiety. They activate evolutionarily older branches of the nervous system, which take us into freeze states. This can cause a person to feel flat and emotionally disconnected from people and their environment, and unable to concentrate. This type of activation disrupts the body’s natural rhythms, including circadian patterns that govern sleep and hormone release. As a result, falling asleep becomes more difficult, sleep quality declines, and restorative processes are compromised. It may also cause the opposite, where the body is forced into repair mode and sleeping too much may also become a problem.

    Irregular sleep routines

    Disrupted sleep routines, irregular bedtimes, late nights, or frequent awakenings confuse the nervous system’s internal clock, weakening its ability to regulate alertness, stress responses, and recovery. When circadian rhythms are out of sync, the body struggles to enter restorative sleep cycles, leaving the nervous system in a semi-activated state even overnight. This chronic misalignment not only reduces energy and focus but also makes the system more sensitive to stress, perpetuating a cycle of fatigue, irritability, and impaired resilience.

    Lifestyle Factors

    Late caffeine, alcohol, heavy meals and being active before bed without sufficient decompression time can interfere with your sleep cycle.

    Screen Time and Artificial Light

    Late-night working and wind-down time revolving around devices can reduce melatonin production, the hormone that signals your body it’s time to sleep.

    The BodyMindBrain Approach to Sleep Recovery

    At BodyMindBrain, we put nervous system regulation at the heart of sleep recovery.

    Modern, high-functioning lifestyles are often the cause of excessive sympathetic nervous system activation, with insufficient recovery and parasympathetic balance. One of the negative consequences of this is that sleep becomes disturbed and insufficiently restorative for physiological and psychological recovery.

    We prioritise the use of advanced technologies that support your body, nervous system and brain to come out of a prolonged stress response. By optimising brain function, increasing oxygenation, boosting physical fitness and endurance, alongside re-establishing habits that support better recovery during high-stress times, we help you set up the right conditions for your sleep to return to its natural state.