Chronic Stress Reaction. Second, whereas animals often deal with threats by actually fighting or fleeing, we often cannot. So, while we try to enforce a state of outward calm when stressed, inwardly our mind and body are busily preparing for emergency responding. Whereas animals' stress responses can subside after they actually fight or flee, our stress responses often persist in a chronic way that threatens our own healthy psychological and physical functioning. As it is with scary picnics and scary traffic intersections, so it can be with a person's bedroom.
Chronic insomnia can also be a learned pattern.
After awhile, these bedtime cues start to acquire a powerful, negative meaning. This is, again, emergency preparedness at its worst. We're especially on the look-out for signs that tonight will be yet another sleepless night. Because of this trauma, we learn to associate the sleep experience, in general, with feeling anxious, guarded, and uncomfortable about the prospect of having trouble failing asleep and remaining asleep. As this learned pattern becomes more and more ingrained in our nighttime functioning, we move more and more into the vicious cycle of chronic insomnia.