1. Too much time in bed
The most common cause and the least suspected. If you are in bed nine hours and sleep six, you have spent three hours a night teaching your brain that bed is a place for lying awake. The fix is sleep restriction, and it feels wrong until it works.
2. Trying to sleep
Sleep is not a voluntary act. Effort activates the systems that block it. If your main experience is trying harder as the night goes on, see paradoxical intention and stimulus control.
3. Arousal that never came down
You finished work hours ago but your body is still organised for it — jaw set, shoulders up, breathing shallow, lower back braced. This is the case that Feldenkrais work addresses most directly, and it is missed by most sleep advice because it is not a thought.
4. Caffeine you stopped noticing
Half-life is five to six hours and sensitivity is largely genetic. A 2pm coffee still has meaningful levels at 10pm for many people. Run a two-week trial with nothing after 12pm before deciding it does not affect you.
5. Alcohol
Sedating at first, arousing as it clears. If your pattern is falling asleep fine and waking at 3am, this is often the answer. See sleeping after drinking.
6. Worry with a plot
Narrative rumination: one concern leads to the next, each one raising arousal a notch. Cognitive shuffling is designed for exactly this.
7. An inconsistent wake time
The circadian system anchors to when you wake and get light, not to when you go to bed. A wake time that varies by three hours at the weekend is a weekly dose of jet lag.
8. Sleep apnoea
Snoring, observed pauses in breathing, morning headaches, dry mouth, daytime sleepiness despite adequate hours. It is common, under-diagnosed, and no sleep technique fixes it. This one needs a clinician.
9. Restless legs syndrome
An unpleasant urge to move the legs, worse at rest and in the evening, relieved by movement. Often mistaken for anxiety. Also needs assessment — and it is worth checking iron status.
10. Depression or an anxiety disorder
Sleep disturbance is both a symptom and a driver. If low mood, loss of interest, or persistent worry has accompanied the insomnia, treat that as the primary target.
The pattern check
- Cannot fall asleep but sleep fine once asleep — onset insomnia; look at sleep drive, arousal, and effort. See sleep onset insomnia.
- Fall asleep fine, wake and cannot get back — maintenance insomnia; see sleep maintenance insomnia and waking at 3am.
- Wake too early and cannot resume — see early morning awakening, and consider mood.
- Sleep fine away but not at home — conditioned arousal; stimulus control.
- Fine for months then broken with no trigger — usually a stressor plus one of the behaviours above.
What to do this week
- Fix your wake time. Same clock time, every day, for two weeks.
- Write down time in bed and time asleep for seven nights. Calculate the gap.
- Cut caffeine after noon and alcohol within four hours of bed.
- If the gap is more than an hour, read sleep restriction.
- If three months or more, or if snoring and leg discomfort are present, book an assessment.