Causes of Insomnia

Insomnia usually isn’t caused by a single bad night. It develops when sleep disruption becomes conditioned, and the mind and body start to associate bed with wakefulness, effort, or stress.

Common features include:

• difficulty falling asleep

• waking frequently during the night

• waking too early and unable to return to sleep

• feeling unrefreshed despite enough time in bed

• anxiety or frustration about sleep itself

The Role of the Nervous System

Sleep requires the nervous system to feel safe enough to let go.

When stress, worry, or hypervigilance are present, the body remains in a state of alertness — even when you’re physically exhausted. This can result from:

• chronic stress or burnout

• anxiety or overthinking

• pressure to “perform” sleep

• previous bad nights creating anticipatory anxiety

• irregular schedules or disrupted routines

As the pattern continues, the mind starts scanning for signs of wakefulness, making sleep even harder to achieve.

What Keeps Insomnia Going

Many people respond to insomnia by:

• trying harder to fall asleep

• checking the time repeatedly

• going to bed earlier to “catch up”

• forcing relaxation

• worrying about the consequences of poor sleep

• monitoring how tired they feel during the day

While understandable, these strategies can increase performance pressure around sleep — teaching the brain that bedtime is something to be managed rather than eased into.

In this way, insomnia becomes self-perpetuating.

When It’s Worth Getting Support

It may be helpful to consider therapy if:

• sleep difficulties last weeks or months

• anxiety about sleep is growing

• fatigue is affecting mood or functioning

• you dread going to bed

• you rely heavily on substances or routines just to sleep

How I Help With Insomnia

My approach to work with insomnia on evidence-based principles and draws from various psychological interventions that I tailor to your specific needs and goals.

This generally involves:

• understanding what’s keeping your nervous system activated

• reducing sleep-related anxiety and monitoring

• changing unhelpful beliefs about sleep

• rewiring the brain’s stimulus association with the physical bed and sleep

• improving sleep hygiene and sleep routines

• working with thoughts, emotions, and bodily arousal

This may involve cognitive and behavioural strategies, mindfulness-based and somatic approaches, and addressing broader stress patterns that feed into sleep difficulty.

If you’d like to arrange a session to discuss your specific situation and see what I can do to help, please get in touch using the form below

Telehealth sessions are available Australia-wide.