Lots of people are not sleeping well right now and as a therapist whose treats insomnia I would like to share two tips to help you cope with sleep loss and help this to stay temporary and not turn into chronic insomnia.
1) Temporary insomnia is extremely common and does not indicate that you will struggle with this long term. In fact, only 5% of people never experience this kind of insomnia. If you are part of the 95% of people that lose sleep when they are scared or stressed, consider yourself normal. The majority of people go right back to sleeping once the stressful period is over or they adjust to it. Just knowing this information will actually protect you from developing chronic insomnia, because chronic insomnia is really temporary insomnia that has been maintained by thoughts and behaviors that insomniacs tend to engage in. Assume it will pass and it probably will. Assume you will be stuck like this forever and that thought will cause you not to fall asleep.
2) Act as if you don't have insomnia. This means keep up your regular going to sleep and waking up times. Don't take extra naps or spend lots of extra time in bed in the morning even if you are tired. It's hard to do but the more you refuse to adjust your life to accommodate the sleep loss, the shorter it will stick around.
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