'I Want to Sleep But My Body Won’t Let Me': Why Does This Happen?

Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsStressMental Health IssuesPoor Sleep HygieneMenstrual Cycle, Menopause or PregnancyCircadian Rhythm MisalignmentWhat Should I Do If I Can’t Fall Asleep?Try Our Sleep Quiz

Table of ContentsView All

View All

Table of Contents

Stress

Mental Health Issues

Poor Sleep Hygiene

Menstrual Cycle, Menopause or Pregnancy

Circadian Rhythm Misalignment

What Should I Do If I Can’t Fall Asleep?

Try Our Sleep Quiz

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When you feel tired, it should theoretically be easy to fall asleep. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. The frustrating experience of wanting to sleep but not being able to can happen for a lot of reasons. Here are some of the most common reasons for difficulty falling asleep.

5 Sleep Strategies From Around the World

When you’re stressed, your body releases excessive amounts ofcortisol. You may already know cortisol as the “stress hormone,” but that’s kind of a misnomer. It has many jobs in the body including being involved in waking you up in the morning, keeping you alert, and elevating blood sugar levels to energize you for the day. It’s essentially the counterbalance tomelatonin, the hormone that makes you sleepy and sluggish at night.

Stress can trigger an increase in cortisol because you need that energy and alertness to respond to threats.Unfortunately, that mechanism is best suited to dealing with immediate dangers (like a predator) where skipping sleep to fight or run away can save your life. For most modern causes of stress, like an excessive workload or a relationship problem, staying awake through the night doesn’t really help.

Solution

The best thing you can do to address this is toreduce your stress levels. Use this wakeful time to really reflect onwhat’s causing your stress. Then, come up with a plan for addressing that root cause.

You can’t always control every cause of stress, but taking control where you can will help. Maybe you can’t flake on the projects you already agreed to do at work, but you can be more mindful about taking on new responsibilities. Maybe you can’t cure achronic health condition, but you can start a moderate exercise routine tailored to your ability level.

Depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues can also cause sleep problems. Whether chronic or acute, these conditions are stressful which means they trigger that same elevated cortisol release that keeps you awake at night. In addition, sleep disturbances are often a symptom of a mood or anxiety disorder.

Take care of your mental health. Consider seeing a mental health professional, even if you don’t think it’s “bad enough” to warrant professional support. Therapists can help you develop the skills to take better care of your mental health, whether or not youmeet the criteria for a clinical disorder.

Beyond therapy and other mental health treatments, you can also practice self-care and reach out to friends and family. Doing things that make you feel nurtured and supported can help convince your body that you’re safe and not in immediate danger so there’s no need for the cortisol boost.

So in an ideal world, your sleep hygiene would include waking up to bright, natural sunlight, then gradually increasing your activity levels as light levels and temperature increase, peaking in the afternoon. Then, begin winding down your activity levels as temperature and light levels decrease before finally going to sleep in the dark.

Poor sleep hygiene is any part of your day that doesn’t match that ideal. Some of the most common culprits of poor sleep hygiene include:

Mindful MomentNeed a breather? Take this free2-minute meditation to help you fall asleep—or choose from ourguided meditation libraryto find another one that will help you feel your best.

Mindful Moment

Need a breather? Take this free2-minute meditation to help you fall asleep—or choose from ourguided meditation libraryto find another one that will help you feel your best.

How to Ditch Poor Sleep Hygiene

Some of the best things you can do to improve your sleep hygiene involve being more consistent with your sleep schedule and making sure you adapt to light and temperature conditions to help trigger different phases of the cycle.

Here are a few tricks you can try:

How to Sleep Better

For people who menstruate, the monthly fluctuations in estrogen and progesterone can also impact sleep quality.

The changes in estrogen and progesterone levels that accompany your menstrual cycle might make it difficult to fall asleep.

For the same reasons, the hormonal changes that come with pregnancy and menopause can also disrupt your sleep cycle. Heightened levels during pregnancy can cause daytime sleepiness and fatigue, while the sharp decline in those hormones during menopause can make it harder to fall asleep.

If you often find it hard to sleep right before or during your period, talk to your doctor about possibly takingmelatoninor medication during this time. Your doctor might recommend a hormonal treatment when you begin menopause.

Your body tries to stick to a relatively consistent 24-hour cycle. But sometimes, your internal clock doesn’t sync up with your environment. A common example isjet lag, which occurs when you travel to a different time zone and struggle to adjust your sleep schedule to fit. However, this can also happen if you doshift workand your schedule isn’t consistent from week to week.

Another possible cause of disruption is what’s sometimes called “social jet lag” ordelayed sleep phase syndrome.This refers to people whose internal clock is naturally out of alignment with the society they live in. If you need to go to bed at 10:00 p.m. to get enough sleep before work in the morning, but your melatonin and other sleep hormones don’t start increasing until midnight, you’ll struggle to force yourself into a sleep-wake cycle that fits your work schedule.

What Is Non-24-Hour Sleep-Wake Disorder?

Unfortunately, there’s no quick fix for this.

By paying extra attention to your sleep hygiene, including using light and temperature to trigger wakefulness and sleepiness during the day, you can gradually reprogram your internal clock to better fit your daily routine. Bright light therapy and certain medications may help.

A lot of the solutions above are more long-term fixes and prevention methods. In the meantime, here are somestrategies you can try right now that may help you fall asleeptonight.

Do a Mindful Activity

If you’ve been lying in bed for more than 25 minutes without being able to fall asleep, get up and go to a different room. Leave your phone and any other screen behind and spend time doing a quiet, mindful activity in the dark or in low lighting. Mindful activities can involve:

Sometimes, when it’s hard to fall asleep, theworry you feel about the fact that you can’t fall asleepends up making it even harder. A mindful activity that you enjoy can take your attention away from that worry and help put you in a calmer, more restful mental state. If you start to feel sleepy at any point, go lay down in bed again. But if you’re still awake 25 minutes later, get up and repeat the process.

Do Something Kind for Yourself

12 Tips for Better Sleep With Anxiety

Our fast and freesleep quizcan help you determine whether or not some of your sleep issues could potentially be connected to a sleep disorder:

6 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Mohd Azmi NAS, Juliana N, Azmani S, et al.Cortisol on circadian rhythm and its effect on cardiovascular system. IJERPH. 2021;18(2):676. Doi:10.3390/ijerph18020676HealthDirect Australia.The role of cortisol in the body.Ishizawa M, Uchiumi T, Takahata M, Yamaki M, Sato T.Effects of pre-bedtime blue-light exposure on ratio of deep sleep in healthy young men. Sleep Medicine. 2021;84:303-307. doi:10.1016/j.sleep.2021.05.046Zhang M, Wang Q, Pu L, et al.Light therapy to improve sleep quality in older adults living in residential long-term care: a systematic review.Journal of the American Medical Directors Association. 2023;24(1):65-74.e1. doi:10.1016/j.jamda.2022.10.008Baker FC, Lee KA.Menstrual cycle effects on sleep.Sleep Medicine Clinics. 2022;17(2):283-294. doi:10.1016/j.jsmc.2022.02.004Yoon SYR, Shapiro CM.Chronobiology of sleep – circadian rhythms, behavior, and performance. In: Encyclopedia of Sleep and Circadian Rhythms.Elsevier; 2023:56-66. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-822963-7.20008-X

6 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Mohd Azmi NAS, Juliana N, Azmani S, et al.Cortisol on circadian rhythm and its effect on cardiovascular system. IJERPH. 2021;18(2):676. Doi:10.3390/ijerph18020676HealthDirect Australia.The role of cortisol in the body.Ishizawa M, Uchiumi T, Takahata M, Yamaki M, Sato T.Effects of pre-bedtime blue-light exposure on ratio of deep sleep in healthy young men. Sleep Medicine. 2021;84:303-307. doi:10.1016/j.sleep.2021.05.046Zhang M, Wang Q, Pu L, et al.Light therapy to improve sleep quality in older adults living in residential long-term care: a systematic review.Journal of the American Medical Directors Association. 2023;24(1):65-74.e1. doi:10.1016/j.jamda.2022.10.008Baker FC, Lee KA.Menstrual cycle effects on sleep.Sleep Medicine Clinics. 2022;17(2):283-294. doi:10.1016/j.jsmc.2022.02.004Yoon SYR, Shapiro CM.Chronobiology of sleep – circadian rhythms, behavior, and performance. In: Encyclopedia of Sleep and Circadian Rhythms.Elsevier; 2023:56-66. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-822963-7.20008-X

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Mohd Azmi NAS, Juliana N, Azmani S, et al.Cortisol on circadian rhythm and its effect on cardiovascular system. IJERPH. 2021;18(2):676. Doi:10.3390/ijerph18020676HealthDirect Australia.The role of cortisol in the body.Ishizawa M, Uchiumi T, Takahata M, Yamaki M, Sato T.Effects of pre-bedtime blue-light exposure on ratio of deep sleep in healthy young men. Sleep Medicine. 2021;84:303-307. doi:10.1016/j.sleep.2021.05.046Zhang M, Wang Q, Pu L, et al.Light therapy to improve sleep quality in older adults living in residential long-term care: a systematic review.Journal of the American Medical Directors Association. 2023;24(1):65-74.e1. doi:10.1016/j.jamda.2022.10.008Baker FC, Lee KA.Menstrual cycle effects on sleep.Sleep Medicine Clinics. 2022;17(2):283-294. doi:10.1016/j.jsmc.2022.02.004Yoon SYR, Shapiro CM.Chronobiology of sleep – circadian rhythms, behavior, and performance. In: Encyclopedia of Sleep and Circadian Rhythms.Elsevier; 2023:56-66. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-822963-7.20008-X

Mohd Azmi NAS, Juliana N, Azmani S, et al.Cortisol on circadian rhythm and its effect on cardiovascular system. IJERPH. 2021;18(2):676. Doi:10.3390/ijerph18020676

HealthDirect Australia.The role of cortisol in the body.

Ishizawa M, Uchiumi T, Takahata M, Yamaki M, Sato T.Effects of pre-bedtime blue-light exposure on ratio of deep sleep in healthy young men. Sleep Medicine. 2021;84:303-307. doi:10.1016/j.sleep.2021.05.046

Zhang M, Wang Q, Pu L, et al.Light therapy to improve sleep quality in older adults living in residential long-term care: a systematic review.Journal of the American Medical Directors Association. 2023;24(1):65-74.e1. doi:10.1016/j.jamda.2022.10.008

Baker FC, Lee KA.Menstrual cycle effects on sleep.Sleep Medicine Clinics. 2022;17(2):283-294. doi:10.1016/j.jsmc.2022.02.004

Yoon SYR, Shapiro CM.Chronobiology of sleep – circadian rhythms, behavior, and performance. In: Encyclopedia of Sleep and Circadian Rhythms.Elsevier; 2023:56-66. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-822963-7.20008-X

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