The leading theory of insomnia suggests it stems from an overactive sympathetic nervous system, leading to elevated cortisol levels that prevent sleep onset.

“that is a sympathetic hyper cortisol State”

“the leading underlying mechanism the leading theory of insomnia essentially comes back to that fight-or-flight branch of the nervous system that you are in this profound parasympathetic state where that nervous system is cranked too far in sort of the high strength direction and if you essentially have a cannula and you sample cortisol every thirty minutes across a 24-hour period you see this you know this nice rise during the day where cortisol is helping you stay awake it's keeping you alert it's doing all of the things that it needs to do and then as you start to come towards the nighttime period cortisol should drop and needs to drop for you to be able to initiate sleep”

“I think the overarching biological red thread narrative of insomnia is an amplified fight-or-flight nervous system”

“But that underlying theme, I think, as a message for insomnia, it's not the only cause of insomnia, but it seems to be if there's one common sort of rule that binds many of the patients with insomnia together, it's this overactive fight-or-flight branch of the nervous system. And if you can settle that down, you are certainly on the path towards better sleep.”