Sleep disorders
Sleep-onset insomnia
The most common form of insomnia, and the one most directly tied to hyperarousal: the body is tired, but the mind refuses to slow down at precisely the moment you need it to.
What it is
It is defined as a consistent delay in sleep onset beyond 20–30 minutes, after you have gone to bed intending to sleep and in conditions that allow it.
In most cases this is not a lack of tiredness but hyperarousal: the alerting system stays switched on when it should be winding down. Waiting for sleep becomes a source of tension in itself.
A hallmark is the «second wind»: you doze off on the sofa, you go to bed, and the sleepiness vanishes. That is no coincidence — it is a learned association between the bed and being awake.
How it shows up
- More than 20–30 minutes to fall asleep, most nights
- Thoughts that start racing the moment the light goes off
- Sleepiness before bed that disappears once you lie down
- Clock-watching and counting the hours you have left
- Anxiety about the night that begins as early as the afternoon
How it is treated
- 01
Stimulus control: the bed is reconnected with sleep and nothing else. You go to bed only when genuinely sleepy, and if sleep does not come, you get up.
- 02
Sleep restriction, so that homeostatic sleep pressure rises and sleepiness appears where it should.
- 03
Arousal-reduction techniques and a structured «worry time» earlier in the day, so thoughts are not carried to bed.
- 04
Cognitive work on effort: the harder you try to sleep, the more awake you become. Letting go of the effort is itself therapeutic.
Let's find out whether this is what is happening to you.