One of the hardest parts of chronic insomnia is often not the lack of sleep itself, but the fear of how we will function the following day. We worry about making mistakes, struggling to concentrate, or not having enough energy to meet our responsibilities. Sometimes, anticipating a terrible day can feel almost as exhausting as the sleepless night that preceded it.
But what if our expectations about next-day performance are adding to our distress?
Sleep Deprivation and Next-Day Performance: What the Research Tells Us
A 2015 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine1 examined whether physicians who provided medical care overnight had worse outcomes when performing elective procedures the following day. Researchers in Ontario compared nearly 19,500 patients whose physicians had worked between midnight and 7 a.m. with a similar number of patients treated by those same physicians on days when they had not worked overnight.
The results were reassuring. The combined rate of death, hospital readmission, or complications was 22.2% among patients whose physicians had worked overnight, compared with 22.4% among the comparison group. The difference was not statistically significant. Although this study cannot conclude that fatigue does not affect performance, it challenges the assumption that working after a night of disrupted sleep inevitably leads to worse outcomes.
Why a Bad Night of Sleep Doesn’t Have to Mean a Bad Day
At the same time, we shouldn’t use these findings to put even more pressure on ourselves to perform at our usual level. The goal isn’t to prove that we can function just as well without sleep. It’s to recognize that we can get through the day without demanding perfection from ourselves.
Think about how you treat yourself when you have a cold, are worried about a family member, or simply aren’t feeling your best. You recognize that you have less energy to give and adjust your expectations accordingly. Why should sleep deprivation be any different?
Letting Go of Performance Pressure During Insomnia Recovery
Some days, we simply have less in our tank. We might be slower, less focused, or less productive than usual. But if we have only 50% of our usual capacity and give what we can, we are still giving 100% of what we have available that day.
Rather than monitoring our performance and criticizing every perceived shortcoming, we can practice accepting where we are in that moment. Acceptance doesn’t mean giving up. It means letting go of the struggle to be someone other than who we are today.
Less pressure, less self-criticism, and more grace. We don’t have to turn a difficult night into a difficult day by demanding more of ourselves than we have to give.
If chronic insomnia has left you caught in a cycle of sleepless nights, performance anxiety, and self-criticism, the Rest ReSET program can help you explore the emotional patterns and pressures that may be contributing to your experience. You can also sign up for my newsletter to receive thoughtful insights and practical guidance on your journey toward insomnia recovery. The signup is below.
1 Outcomes of Daytime Procedures Performed by Attending Surgeons after Night Work. New England Journal of Medicine (2015). https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsa1415994
