Beyond Restless: Understanding Sleep Challenges for Highly Sensitive Persons

Stress and insomnia: a difficult relationship to break

Insomnia affects millions worldwide, leaving people exhausted and struggling during the day. About 30% of adults experience symptoms like trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, and feeling unsatisfied with their sleep. This leads to fatigue, reduced alertness, and irritability during the day (1).

Some people are more likely to develop insomnia due to certain predispositions, but these only manifest under specific environmental conditions, such as stressful events (2). These events are known as precipitating factors. Therefore, individuals with such predispositions and poor stress management might be more prone to insomnia symptoms (3).

Stress + Sensitivity = Sleepless Nights?

This pattern aligns with the characteristics of highly sensitive persons (HSPs), who react more strongly to environmental stimuli and are more likely to experience high stress levels (4). As a result, they may be at a higher risk for the development of sleep problems.

Although only a few studies have explored the link between sensitivity and sleep issues, they consistently show a significant connection. Higher sensitivity is associated with difficulty falling asleep (5) and more frequent nightmares (6). However, these studies haven’t specifically looked at how sensitivity and stress contribute to these problems, which is what our research aimed to explore.

Understanding the Link Between Sensitivity and Insomnia

Our research (7) focused on the idea that sleep problems in highly sensitive people are due to heightened sleep reactivity. This means they have specific difficulties falling and staying asleep when stressed.

HSPs tend to carry the stress they accumulate throughout the day into bedtime, making it harder to fall asleep. Our model suggests that the link between sensitivity and insomnia symptoms could be explained by sleep reactivity.

Study design and results

We studied 358 participants, most of whom were women with an average age of 34.75 years. They completed questionnaires to measure their sensitivity, psychological distress, sleep reactivity, and insomnia symptoms. We controlled for personality traits like neuroticism and sleep patterns.

Our findings confirmed our hypotheses, showing a positive correlation between sensory-processing sensitivity, sleep reactivity, and insomnia symptoms. In a more detailed analysis, we found that sleep reactivity fully explained the link between sensitivity and insomnia. This effect remained significant even after accounting for factors like age, gender, and personality traits.

Implications for Insomnia and Highly Sensitive People

Our findings have two main implications. First, they highlight the connection between sensory-processing sensitivity and sleep problems.

Knowing that highly sensitive individuals are more prone to sleep issues during stressful times can help therapists provide tailored sleep advice and assess sleep reactivity in HSP clients. Mindfulness-based interventions (8) and cognitive-behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) can also be effective.

Second, our results enhance the understanding of insomnia. Poor sleepers and insomnia patients often have heightened sensory processing and sensory gating impairments, particularly around sleep onset (9).

Sensory processing sensitivity may explain some of these sleep-related issues. Future research should explore the role of highly sensitive persons in sleep science and clinical practice.

Practical Tips for Highly Sensitive People

A key takeaway is that addressing sleep-related difficulties specifically can help HSPs with insomnia. Their sleep problems are more related to carrying daily stress into sleep (sleep reactivity) than general stress levels.

Pre-bedtime meditation or relaxation techniques can be very effective for HSPs. These practices help release daily stress and reduce nighttime mental activity, improving daytime functioning and emotional well-being.

Conclusion

By understanding the complex connections between sensitivity and sleep, we can provide better support for HSPs dealing with sleep issues and advance the scientific study of insomnia.

In the quest for better sleep, there’s hope for discovery and healing. Continued research can lead to personalized sleep routines that help HSPs connect deeply with themselves and enrich their lives, both day and night.