Insomnia can make nights frustrating and days exhausting. Whether you have trouble falling asleep, wake frequently during the night or find yourself wide awake much earlier than planned, the right treatment can make a meaningful difference.
Treatment often depends on what is contributing to your sleep difficulties. Improving sleep habits and addressing factors such as stress, medical conditions or certain medicines may be enough for some people. When insomnia persists, treatments such as cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) and, in some circumstances, medication may be considered.
Ever arrived at work after a restless night and felt like you’re running on half your usual brainpower? You might reread the same email, lose your train of thought in a meeting or take twice as long to finish a task that would normally feel easy. When insomnia becomes an ongoing problem, these difficult days can start to add up.
Sleep is essential for restoring both the body and brain. Without enough quality sleep, the effects can follow you straight into the workplace, influencing everything from concentration and decision-making to reaction time and productivity.
We’ve all experienced that foggy feeling after a restless night. You might lose your train of thought mid-conversation, struggle to focus on work or find yourself rereading the same sentence several times. When poor sleep becomes an ongoing problem, these effects may become more noticeable.
Insomnia involves persistent difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep or getting restorative sleep, along with problems functioning during the day. While researchers are still uncovering exactly how insomnia affects the brain, evidence suggests it may influence several areas of cognitive function.
If you regularly struggle to get a good night’s sleep, you probably notice the effects the next day. You might feel exhausted, struggle to concentrate or reach for an extra coffee. But ongoing insomnia may also be affecting something less obvious: the way your body manages blood sugar.
Research suggests that both the quality and amount of sleep we get are linked to our risk of developing type 2 diabetes.1 So, what exactly is going on while we sleep? Insulin is a hormone that helps move glucose from your bloodstream into your cells, where it can be used for energy.
If you regularly struggle to get a good night’s sleep, you’ve probably noticed how drained you can feel the next day. But the effects of poor sleep may go deeper than low energy. Sleep and the immune system are closely connected, and ongoing insomnia may interfere with your body’s ability to defend itself against illness.
Your immune system is your body’s defence network - It helps fight infections, heal wounds and protect you from disease. Getting enough high-quality sleep gives this system the time and conditions it needs to work effectively.
If you regularly lie awake at night, the effects may extend well beyond feeling tired the next day. Research points to a relationship between insomnia and high blood pressure, also known as hypertension, particularly when sleep problems are frequent or ongoing.
Insomnia can look different from person to person. For some, it’s trouble falling asleep. For others, it’s waking through the night, rising too early, or simply never feeling like their sleep did the job. Researchers are still working out exactly how insomnia and blood pressure interact, but the evidence increasingly suggests it’s a two-way relationship, where each can make the other worse.
If you’re eating well and staying active but still finding it difficult to manage your weight, your sleep may be worth a closer look. Sleep is much more than downtime. It is an essential restorative process that supports the brain and the health of the entire body.
Research has consistently linked insufficient sleep with a greater risk of weight gain and obesity.1 For most adults, around seven to nine hours of sleep each night is considered appropriate for good health. Regularly falling short can affect appetite, food choices, activity levels and the way your body uses energy.
We all have nights when sleep just won’t come. Maybe you find yourself staring at the ceiling long after going to bed, or perhaps you fall asleep easily but keep waking throughout the night. An occasional restless night is usually nothing to worry about. But when poor sleep becomes a regular occurrence, it may affect more than just how tired you feel the next day.
Research increasingly suggests that insomnia is associated with cardiovascular disease, including coronary artery disease, heart attacks and heart failure.
