Most of us have had nights where sleep just will not come. You might lie awake thinking about tomorrow, wake several times during the night, or find yourself staring at the clock far earlier than you would like. An occasional restless night is normal. But when poor sleep becomes a regular pattern and starts affecting your days, it may be insomnia.
Insomnia is the most common sleep disorder in Australia, with around one in three adults experiencing insomnia symptoms, and around 10 to 15% meeting the criteria for chronic insomnia.
When you have been struggling with insomnia for months, it is natural to start changing your routine in an effort to get more sleep. You might go to bed earlier, spend longer in bed or worry about how you will cope tomorrow if you do not sleep tonight. Unfortunately, some of these thoughts and behaviours can unintentionally keep the cycle of insomnia going.
This is where Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia, or CBT-I, comes in.
After a restless night, reaching for an extra coffee can feel almost essential. Caffeine can give you the boost you need to get through a busy morning or afternoon, particularly when you are already feeling tired or stressed. The problem is that caffeine, stress and insomnia can sometimes feed into each other, creating a frustrating cycle that makes restful sleep even harder to achieve.
Caffeine Can Keep You Alert for Longer Than You Think: Caffeine works partly by blocking adenosine, a chemical that builds up in the brain throughout the day and helps create feelings of sleepiness.
Struggling to fall asleep is frustrating enough. Add repeated breathing interruptions throughout the night, and getting genuinely restorative sleep can become even more difficult. For some people, insomnia and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) occur at the same time, a combination known as comorbid insomnia and sleep apnea, or COMISA.
When these two sleep disorders overlap, the effects can extend well beyond feeling tired. Poor sleep may affect concentration, emotional regulation and your overall sense of wellbeing.
After a long day, switching off your mind isn’t always easy. You might feel physically exhausted, yet find yourself lying awake replaying conversations, worrying about tomorrow or simply struggling to relax. Could the same smartphone that keeps you connected throughout the day actually help you fall asleep?
Meditation apps are becoming increasingly popular as a convenient way to unwind before bed. But can they genuinely improve sleep, particularly for people experiencing insomnia?
Menopause can bring plenty of changes to sleep. Hot flushes, night sweats and hormonal shifts can make it harder to fall asleep, stay asleep or wake feeling refreshed. But for some women, there may be more than one sleep disorder behind those restless nights.
Menopause is associated with an increased risk of both insomnia and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). When insomnia and OSA occur together, it is known as COMISA, or comorbid insomnia and sleep apnea.
After a bad night’s sleep, going to bed earlier the next evening can seem like the obvious solution. You might also sleep in, stay under the covers longer in the morning or spend extra time in bed hoping sleep will eventually arrive.
While an occasional sleep-in may be perfectly reasonable, regularly extending your time in bed when you have insomnia can sometimes have the opposite effect. Instead of helping you sleep more, it may make sleep feel even harder to achieve.
For many of us, coffee is a comforting part of the morning routine. It helps shake off tiredness, improves alertness and can make starting the day feel a little easier. But during perimenopause and menopause, you may notice that your usual coffee suddenly affects you differently.
Hormonal changes can influence everything from sleep to temperature regulation, and caffeine may make certain symptoms more noticeable. If you are struggling with insomnia, hot flushes or night sweats, it may be worth taking a closer look at what is in your cup.
Have you ever had a poor night’s sleep and found yourself rereading the same email, forgetting why you walked into a room or struggling to find the right word? That frustrating, fuzzy feeling is often described as “brain fog”, and poor sleep may be one reason it happens.1
Sleep is essential for much more than simply feeling rested. Your brain relies on healthy, restorative sleep to support attention, memory, decision-making and clear thinking.1 When insomnia repeatedly disrupts that process, everyday mental tasks can start to feel surprisingly difficult.
