Always switched on: how hyperarousal sabotages your sleep

People with insomnia have a specific tension profile, in which sleep-related and anxiety-related forms weigh most heavily

Tired, but not sleepy. Exhausted, yet wide awake the moment you lie down. You probably know the feeling: the day has been long and intense, you want nothing more than to sleep—and then your mind starts racing.

That’s no coincidence, and it’s not exaggeration. It has a name: hyperarousal, a state of persistent heightened tension. Your nervous system remains on high alert, even when there’s no reason for it. At night, this shows up as increased brain activity, a faster heart rate, and more racing thoughts. During the day, it appears as irritability, inner restlessness, and difficulty truly relaxing.

In people with insomnia, this is a well-studied mechanism. Their bodies struggle to switch into rest mode.

Seven forms of tension

Researchers from the Dutch Brain Institute, the University of Amsterdam, and Amsterdam UMC recently mapped this in more detail. Through slaapregister.nl—a large, ongoing sleep study in which people complete questionnaires at home—they collected data from nearly 500 participants. The result: tension has seven different forms, and almost every form appears across multiple disorders.

Insomnia, anxiety, depression, panic attacks, PTSD, and ADHD partly share the same underlying tension—it just differs in composition. These are different expressions of the same elevated baseline level.

Insomnia has a specific tension profile

The study shows that people with insomnia have a distinct tension profile, where sleep-related and anxiety-related forms weigh most heavily. This helps explain why insomnia can be so persistent: the tension isn’t only in the inability to sleep, but also in the fear of it, the vigilance around sleep, and the physical activation that comes with it.

As a sleep coach, this confirms something I often see in practice: people who sleep poorly rarely have just a sleep problem. The tension that keeps someone awake at night is also present during the day—just easier to ignore when you’re busy.

Why tension blocks sleep

Sleep requires surrender. Your body and mind need to let go. I sometimes say: sleep is like a cat—if you don’t pay attention to it, it comes to you on its own.

Letting go is exactly what a tense nervous system finds difficult. The bed becomes a place where you lie awake and ruminate, instead of a place of rest. The more often this pattern repeats, the stronger that association becomes in your brain: bed = stay alert. On top of that, it reinforces itself. Poor sleep increases tension the next day, which makes the following night even harder. A vicious cycle you don’t break simply by meditating, running, or drinking a cup of chamomile tea.

Thoughts that increase tension

People with insomnia often have recurring thoughts that further fuel tension. When I had insomnia myself, I often thought: “If this continues, I’ll lose my enjoyment of life.” My thoughts were about the future, but there are often also thoughts about the night itself (“I only have x hours left”), the next day (“I won’t function tomorrow”), or control (“Why can’t I do this?”).

You can’t suppress these thoughts indefinitely—they keep coming back. But you can learn to respond to them differently. That’s not a quick fix, but a sustainable lesson for your nervous system, which gradually relearns how to relax.

Do you recognize this in yourself?

If so, it’s worth exploring which forms of tension weigh most heavily for you. Not every bad night has the same cause, and not every approach works for everyone. That’s why, at Droomtroost, I always start with a thorough analysis of you as a sleeper—so you can better understand what fuels your tension.