Insomnia refers to a person cannot go to sleep early. It also refers to when a person has difficulty falling and staying asleep. Some reasons you might want to fall asleep—but your body won’t let you—include lifestyle habits, medications, or physical or mental health conditions. Read on for nine reasons why it may be hard to sleep and what to do, including when to see a healthcare provider.
Alcohol
While alcohol can make you sleepy at first, it can make it challenging to get a good night’s sleep later. Drinking alcohol affects how long you’re in the rapid-eye movement (REM) stage of sleep, which is essential for processing emotional memories.
Caffeine
While eating or drinking a lot of caffeine earlier in the day is fine, having it close to bedtime can be problematic. Consuming caffeine can provide an energy boost and help you feel more awake, but you can feel those effects for up to six hours.
If you have a caffeinated beverage within six hours of your typical bedtime, the caffeine can keep you from feeling sleepy and falling asleep.
Shift work sleep disorder
Shift work sleep disorder occurs when your work schedule and your biological clock are out of sync. In our 24-hour society, many people have to work night shifts, early morning shifts, or rotating shifts. These schedules force you to work when your body is telling you to go to sleep, and sleep when your body is signaling you to wake.
While some people adjust better than others to the demands of shift work, most shift workers get less quality sleep than their daytime counterparts. As a result of sleep deprivation, you may struggle with sleepiness and mental lethargy on the job. This cuts into your productivity and puts you at risk of injury.
Unpleasant emotions
Unpleasant emotions that people expect to experience if they go to bed, like anxiety and stress, potentially due to issues like struggling to fall asleep in a poor sleep environment.
Available entertainment
Available entertainment, which is often (but not always) digital, for example in the form of social media or TV shows. This can lead to mindless bedtime procrastination, when people lose track of time because they’re immersed in evening and nighttime activities.
Desire for control
Desire for control, when people postpone going to bed as a way to feel in charge of their schedule, sometimes by rebelling against an authority figure.
