How Insomnia Becomes a Cycle
Published: 2025-10-12
Estimated read time: 3 minutes
One bad night leads to another, and another
It often starts with a stressful event: an illness, a loss, a major change, or even just a tough week. You do not sleep well for a few nights, and at first, that feels normal.
But then something shifts.
You start thinking more about your sleep. You start worrying: “What if this keeps happening?”
You begin changing your routine, going to bed earlier, sleeping in, canceling plans, or napping to “catch up.”
And slowly, a short-term issue becomes something more persistent.
This is how insomnia becomes a cycle.
The 3 Ps of chronic insomnia
A well-known model in sleep medicine explains how insomnia takes root:
1. Predisposing Factors
Some people are more vulnerable to insomnia due to:
High sleep reactivity (light sleepers, sensitive to stress)
Anxiety or mood disorders
Irregular routines or demanding schedules
These do not cause insomnia on their own, but they set the stage.
2. Precipitating Factors
This is the trigger, the thing that sets off the initial sleep disruption.
Examples include:
Illness or injury
Stress at work or home
Travel or shift work
Grief or emotional trauma
These events lead to a few nights (or weeks) of poor sleep.
3. Perpetuating Factors
This is where the cycle locks in. The sleep problem continues after the original stressor resolves, often due to well-meaning but counterproductive behaviors:
Going to bed earlier “just in case”
Sleeping in on weekends
Taking naps to make it through the day
Staying in bed awake, hoping to fall asleep
Avoiding activities due to fatigue
Worrying about sleep and monitoring it constantly
These behaviors confuse your body clock and weaken the connection between bed and sleep. Over time, your brain learns: “The bed is a place where I struggle.”
The role of anxiety and hyperarousal
As the cycle continues, sleep becomes a thing. You think about it constantly. You dread bedtime. You feel tension even walking into the bedroom.
This mental and physiological activation, known as hyperarousal, keeps your brain in wake mode.
Eventually, insomnia is no longer just about the original problem. It becomes self-sustaining.
Breaking the cycle
The good news? This cycle can be unlearned.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) is specifically designed to:
Shift your schedule back into rhythm
Rebuild a strong bed–sleep connection
Quiet the anxiety and overthinking that keep you up
Even if insomnia has lasted for years, your brain can learn to sleep again. The cycle that formed can also be reversed, with the right tools and support.
