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Are you finding it difficult to get the rest you need through the night because you can’t sleep? Does it happen on a regular basis? It can be very annoying and disruptive to your ability to function during the day. You spend your day feeling exhausted because you’re so tired and wiped out. You have no energy in the day so by the time you get to bed you think you’re just going to crash and be sleeping in no time. However, it turns out you end up with another restless night. For alot of people it can, and sometimes does, turn into a spiral that ends up affecting your daily life and not for the better.

So just in case you’re not already aware of the reason you can’t sleep these are the most common reasons for alot of people. Go over them and see if one of these things could be guilty of interfering with the nighttime rest that you so desperately need.

Common Internal Reasons why you can’t Sleep

Insomnia, is sleep loss just because you are going through a time where the sleep you are getting isn’t a good one and when you wake up, you don’t feel refreshed or ready to start your day. Insomnia can be short or long-term and can include not falling asleep, waking up in the middle of the night, not being able to get back to sleep, and/or waking up too early.

Sleep-apnea, which is when you may or may not be a snorer, however, you still don’t get a good quality sleep due to your breathing pattern. You tend to stop breathing all together for anywhere from a few seconds to possibly minutes. This is a condition I have. What helps is a CPAP machine, which blows air through a mask to make sure you keep breathing.

Situational Depression occurs when something happened in life that affects you personally. Thoughts running through your head keep you awake, or you feel deeply sad, or very worried about something. Situational depression is not uncommon; almost everyone goes through it at least once, if not a few times, in their life.

Pain, it’s impossible to get comfortable, or pain wakes you up and you can’t get back to sleep. Some people, like my wife, deal with Chronic Pain, which is a pain that can exist for years. Most people have dealt with trying to go to sleep with pain at some point in their life, whether it’s a toothache, broken bone, or the all too common back pain. Children sometimes go through what is called growing pains, which usually occur during a growth spurt. Also, many parents lose sleep because their infant is teething which just means baby is starting to grow teeth.

Stress is a big one, this commonly comes about when you’re really worried about something serious or a situation you really do not want to deal with. When it comes to stress it could be just about anything. These examples are just some I’ve dealt with: someone is late getting home and you don’t know why. You’re worried they could be in trouble or hurt, so you stay up waiting for them. You find out a friend is in the hospital and you can’t visit them until the next day because of hospital rules on visiting hours. You have an important meeting or appointment the next day.

Common External Reasons why you can’t Sleep

Can’t sleep due to the room temperature and/or weather being too hot in the summer or too cold at night in the winter. The air in the room is too dry, or it’s super muggy and damp making you feel sticky or sweaty.

Can’t sleep because there’s too much noise such as outside traffic, construction work, or somebody snoring too loudly. Maybe due to a party going on nearby where they are getting too loud and/or their music is loud.

One of the better reasons why you or anybody can’t sleep is because tomorrow is a special occasion. It’s that situation where you know something awesome is going to happen and you can’t wait for it to get here. For example, your birthday or a special event or outing.

Can’t sleep due to an upcoming personal event or situation. This is when you know there is something you have to do or deal with the next day, and you might even be a little worried about how you will do it. This includes, but is not limited to, things like – your wedding, a test or exam, a job interview, tryouts for a sport, a public speech or performance, or your first real date with somebody you really like.

There you go, the top 9 common reasons why some people can’t sleep and the causes, for a majority of people, of their trouble going to sleep or getting a good night’s rest.

These examples are just some of the more common big reasons why some people can’t sleep or have trouble sleeping. There are other, both general and more serious, reasons as well. Way too many possibilities to be able to list in one article.

Sleep Journal

If you’re unable to sleep at night on a regular basis, may I suggest you create a sleep journal? By creating a sleep journal, you will have some notes and information recorded. If you’re not getting the rest you need over a long period of time, you may want to consider seeing a professional. By having created a sleep journal you will have vital information for the professional to work from, which could help them narrow down the root cause of your situation.

The type of information you can include in your journal would be things like; how many hours of sleep do you get? What time do you go to bed and get up in the morning? Do you wake up in the middle of the night? Do you have thoughts going through your head, if so what kind of thoughts? Include your eating patterns too. Do you eat just before bed or have snacks? If you have snacks what kind of snacks? Do you read in bed, watch TV, or play with your phone? Do you take any kind of medication, if so what types and when? Do you nap during the day, or work out in the evenings?

If you can’t sleep right away when you head to bed, use the time to write in your journal. A possible side bonus could be that writing in a journal and getting your thoughts out just before going to sleep, might help you be able to nod off easier. No harm in trying, if it doesn’t work at least now you have lots of information on hand should you decide to seek assistance from a professional.

Honorable Mention Sleep Issues

It is crazy the number of possibilities there are for why a person can’t sleep. Reasons can range from nightmares to no apparent reason at all. So I’ve included a few other common issues that cause people a wide variety of problems with getting the rest they need.

• Restless legs syndrome where you can’t help yourself from twitching or moving your legs aground at night.
• Narcolepsy happens during your waking hours. You nod off even when you’re sitting up or currently involved with something.
• Shift work and/or night shift jobs, which interfere with your biological clock. Whether it be one day you wake up early, another you work late into the night, or always working nights which means you are forced to sleep during daylight hours.
• Jet lag which usually occurs due to time zone shifts, or long journeys in less than ideal comfort.
• Sleepwalking is pretty self-explanatory. A person gets out of bed and walks around their home and even in some cases leaves the house and/or performs some basic tasks. Meanwhile, they are unaware of what they are doing because technically they are still fast asleep.
• Menopause causes problems for many women due to dealing with hot flashes in the middle of the night. This tends to be very annoying because the body temperature rises making them wake up sweating, then they can’t sleep until they have cooled back down.
• Adrenaline or metabolism is still too high which is usually caused by things like exercising or being a little too active too close to bedtime.
• Alcohol or caffeine is still in your system making it hard for your mind and body to slow down, therefore you can’t sleep.

In conclusion:
I would like to point out, if your sleep issues are serious, seek help. Your mental and physical wellness requires you to get a proper amount of rest to function the best you can. If you experience the following situations, I strongly suggest you take them seriously and find a professional to look into them.

During the day if you fall asleep while talking to someone, or in the middle of eating. I’m not talking about you staying up late last night with some friends and you’re super exhausted the next day. I’m referring to when your friends and family mention you do this regularly.

Also if you catch yourself choking at night, or wake up feeling like you can’t breathe. If you have a partner and they tell you that they noticed you stop breathing at night. Go see a doctor, you might have sleep-apnea. So again I say if you regularly either fall asleep during your waking hours or if on a nightly basis stop breathing, seek help from a doctor or specialist.

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Overview of everything we just covered:

Reasons you can’t sleep

Internal reasons

• Insomnia
• Sleep-apnea
• Situational Depression
• Pain
• Stress

External reasons

• room temp or weather
• nearby noise
• excited about tomorrow
• personal event or situation

Honorable mentions

• nightmares
• no particular reason
• Restless leg syndrome
• Narcolepsy
• Shift work/night shift
• Jet lag
• Sleepwalking
• Menopause
• Adrenaline / Metabolism
• Alcohol or Caffeine

Additional information

• Create a sleep journal

Seek professional assistance

• during the day you commonly fall asleep while busy
• when sleeping you nightly choke and/or stop breathing

Have you had to deal with any of these issues or perhaps there is an important one you feel I may have missed. Send me a comment to let me know. I’m strongly considering another article in regards to sleep issues that I hope to finish researching and writing before the New Year so your input will be greatly appreciated.

FYI Here is an older post I wrote for suggestions on how to get a better quality sleep in case you’re interested: 7 Tips for Better quality Sleep Now