Sunday Night Insomnia And What's Actually Causing It

As a society, we seem to live for our weekends. It's the time when we can sleep in, get some things done that you may have been putting off throughout the week, spend some much needed time with family and friends, go on mini vacations, and just relaxing. But even though you are relaxing, one thing seems to be a common thread among most adults. In fact, almost 80% of adults have this issue.

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM THAT SO MANY PEOPLE EXPERIENCE

The issue I'm talking about in Sunday night insomnia. Why does this happen? You just had a great weekend, and now it's Sunday night, and you can't sleep. And you have to get up for work the next day. Not being able to sleep is not helping things. And the more you can't sleep, the more you may get anxiety about the fact that you can't sleep. You might even be one of those people saying to yourself "ok, if I can fall asleep now, I will get get X amount of hours in". And that amount will of course decrease the longer you stay awake

SCIENTIFIC STUDIES AND REASONS AS TO WHY THIS HAPPENS TO SO MANY PEOPLE

First - There is Anxiety. This is very common - anxiety and worrying about the next day, things you need to do, schedules, etc. Just work or school responsibilities and mess with your sleep.

Second= There is Biological Rhythms. Bottom line - your social life, or just thinking that "it's the weekend - we can stay up later" thought process can be detrimental. It has to do with our circadian rhythms. We often change our sleep schedules when the weekend begins. After five days in a row of needing to get to sleep early, we may decide to enjoy ourselves and stay up late. We might go out, be social, or do something else fun that keeps us up past our usual bedtime.

Third - Sleeping In. Even though almost everyone does this for at least one of the weekend days, this is throwing off your biological time clock, essentially. You are supposed to keep the same schedule on the weekends as you do during the week. Let's be honest, that one is tough to do.

Fourth - Overthinking. This one is the worst. It's when you can't shut your brain off, and then the fact that you can't sleep makes overthinking even worse.

When sleep doesn’t come right away, it can trigger negative thoughts such as “Oh boy, if I don’t get good sleep tonight, I’ll be a mess tomorrow!” or “If I get fired, I might have to move!” or “I’m not going to be able function tomorrow.” Thoughts like these serve to make us more anxious; being anxious then makes sleep more elusive.