The Insomnia Anxiety Connection - Are Symptoms of Anxiety to Blame?

The Insomnia Anxiety connection is a strong one, though it can be subtle and sometimes even hidden from the insomniac's conscious mind. But if overcoming insomnia is your goal, your success will increase as you look into all possible causes, as well as treatments, for insomnia, including possible anxiety causes.

The Insomnia Anxiety link was certainly strong in my case, as I have had generalized anxiety disorder symptoms for most of my life. However, even I could not see the link, mainly because I had this history of anxiety disorders long before I developed chronic insomnia.

I did have clues. Even before the chronic version set in, I had intermittent insomnia that I knew were caused by anxiety, especially performance anxiety. Perhaps this is true for you as well.

So what is performance anxiety, and why does it so often connect to occasional or intermittent insomnia?

You experience performance anxiety when you fear an upcoming event that you believe is a test of your ability to live up to expectations--either your own or others'.

Test anxiety is a common form of performance anxiety, but there are numerous other events that can trigger a sleepless night.

Other examples include going on a job interview, starting a new job or a new school, giving a speech or presentation, hosting a party or dinner, meeting your future in-laws, turning in a project at work or school, and so on. All of these events can cause a stress-anxiety-insomnia reaction, usually the night before the event, and sometimes several nights before.

If you look back and can recall performance anxiety causing acute, occasional insomnia, it's quite possible that you have other insomnia anxiety links. And it's worth examining the connection between chronic anxiety and chronic insomnia.

Anxiety comes in many forms, and the symptoms can be quite vague sometimes, so it may take a little soul searching and introspection to really get to the root cause of anxiety-caused insomnia. But it's definitely worth the effort.

Your main goal is overcoming insomnia, of course - that's why you're here. But do you have to overcome your anxiety symptoms before you can cure your insomnia?

Definitely not! Whether your anxiety is acute or chronic, severe or mild, conscious or unconscious, you can break the connection without eliminating your anxiety first. While I certainly encourage you to work on overcoming any type of anxiety you might have, I know from experience that you do not have to be anxiety-free to get a good night's sleep.

I explain how that works in the insomnia self-help tutorial and in the articles below.