Some people have unrealistic expectations about sleep (like how much sleep people need). It’s normal to have trouble sleeping sometimes. When people get stressed about sleep, it can make sleeping problems worse. Sometimes people want things to go perfectly during the day and they want their sleep to be perfect too. It’s important to try not to worry about sleep. Trust that your sleep is well controlled by your body through sleep pressure, circadian rhythms, chemicals, and hormones. Understand that you'll have poor sleep sometimes—everyone does. Learn more about sleep strategies and try to have a good attitude about sleep.

Having beliefs about sleep that aren't realistic might lead to chronic insomnia. Try to change the way you think about sleep.

Drs. Morin and Espie suggest some healthy sleep attitudes:

Keep Your Expectations about Sleep Realistic

Don't put pressure on yourself to have a good sleep (e.g., 8 hours) every night. It isn’t always possible to get 8 hours of sleep, and everyone has mornings when they just don’t have a lot of energy.

Change the Way You Think about Insomnia

It’s easy to blame insomnia on outside things. This might make you feel like you can't control what's causing your insomnia and you might feel like a victim. Decide which of your behaviours might cause insomnia (e.g., napping, spending a lot of time in bed) and realize you do have control and can do something to try to change things.

Don't Blame All Your Mistakes on Being Sleepy

You might think your insomnia is to blame for everything that goes wrong (e.g., feeling tired, having trouble concentrating) during your day. Think about other causes. What else might be affecting your daytime fatigue? Are you worried or distracted about something else and could that cause low energy?

If You Have a Poor Sleep, Don't Worry

Don’t panic when you have a poor night’s sleep. Don’t think this means that you'll look and feel badly or that you’ve somehow lost control. Thinking like this can make things worse. Don’t panic—it’s not really that bad.

Don't Put Too Much Focus on Sleep

Don’t plan everything around your sleep. Don’t skip work or cancel plans when you have a poor night’s sleep. This will only make you focus more on your poor sleep.

Develop Tolerance to Losing Sleep

Think about going ahead with your daily activities even if you had a poor sleep. This will help you keep a realistic attitude about sleep.

Never Try to Sleep

Forcing sleep isn’t a good plan because you can’t make sleep happen. Doing this will just make you upset. Instead, think positively about sleep and just let it happen. To do this:

• change your sleep behaviours
• use sleep hygiene strategies
• change how you feel about sleep
• think about your stress level