Why is it so hard to recover from chronic insomnia?

Up to 45% of the world’s population struggle with sleep. What most people don’t know is that many of the things we typically do to catch up on sleep (napping? sleeping in? going to bed early?) turn out to be the very things that can cause a short-term bout of insomnia to become a chronic, long-term and serious problem.

Sadly, insomnia is one of the few things in life where the harder we try, the more we fail. The worse it gets, the more desperate people become for sleep. It might be crazy-making, but you should know that it’s not all in your head. While anxiety and depression can certainly cause insomnia, it’s also the case that insomnia causes anxiety and depression. Improving sleep can go a long way in improving both.

But when we don’t know what to do, our sleep regulation systems tend to become disrupted, creating a vicious cycle, often a serious, long term problem – one that leaves people feeling like their ability to sleep has become broken, with life spiralling out of control.