Burnout and Insomnia

How Burnout & Insomnia Interact and What Brain Science Shows Can Help

Keywords: burnout, insomnia, sleep disturbance, emotional exhaustion, chronic stress, nervous system regulation, HPA axis, hyperarousal, executive function, neuroscience-based coaching, mental fitness, recovery, sleep health

Burnout and insomnia are increasingly recognised as interconnected conditions, rather than separate challenges. If you feel emotionally exhausted yet unable to sleep, or notice that ongoing sleep problems are eroding your resilience, focus, and wellbeing, research confirms that this experience reflects a bi-directional stress–sleep loop rather than a personal failing. Over the past two decades, studies across healthcare, education, emergency services, and corporate settings have demonstrated that burnout and insomnia reinforce each other through shared psychological, physiological, and neural mechanisms.

Bidirectional relationship between stress/burnout & sleep/insomnia

Burnout and insomnia: a bi-directional relationship

Large studies consistently show that people with insomnia or poor sleep quality are significantly more likely to experience burnout, especially emotional exhaustion, the core feature of burnout.

Across professions, insomnia increases burnout risk by two- to fifteen-fold, depending on severity and context (Metlaine et al., 2017; Wolkow et al., 2019; Membrive-Jiménez et al., 2022; Sánchez-Narváez et al., 2023). A meta-analysis in nurses found a moderate correlation (r ≈ 0.39) between burnout and sleep problems (Membrive-Jiménez et al., 2022).

Longitudinal studies show this relationship works both ways. Burnout predicts future insomnia, while insomnia independently predicts worsening burnout over time (Armon et al., 2008; Jansson-Fröjmark & Lindblom, 2010). Daily-level actigraphy research further shows that poor sleep predicts next-day exhaustion, rather than exhaustion reliably predicting sleep (Frick et al., 2025).

Client example

Anna, a senior nurse, initially came to coaching because she “just wasn’t sleeping.” Over time, she noticed that the worse her sleep became, the more emotionally drained and detached she felt at work. As exhaustion increased, her sleep deteriorated further. What felt like two separate problems turned out to be one reinforcing loop.

What’s happening in the brain and nervous system?

From a neuroscience perspective, burnout with insomnia reflects a nervous system under chronic stress load, rather than a mindset problem.

1. A nervous system stuck in threat mode

Chronic work stress activates the brain’s threat and arousal systems, making it difficult to switch off at night. This leads to rumination, shallow sleep, frequent awakenings, and waking unrefreshed. Sleep studies show reduced sleep depth and persistent fatigue even when time in bed is sufficient (Ekstedt et al., 2006; Grossi et al., 2015).

Client example

Mark, a project manager, reported that his body felt “on high alert” even after long days. Although physically tired, his mind replayed conversations and to-do lists late into the night. His nervous system never fully downshifted into recovery mode.

2. Stress hormones, inflammation, and allostatic load

Burnout and insomnia both dysregulate the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis, the body’s main stress-response system. Research links burnout with insomnia to altered cortisol rhythms, increased inflammation, elevated glucose and HbA1c, and immune changes—markers of increased allostatic load (Metlaine et al., 2018; Stewart & Arora, 2019).

This explains why burnout affects not only mood and motivation, but also long-term physical health.

Client example

Leila, a high-performing executive, noticed weight changes, frequent colds, and rising blood sugar alongside chronic exhaustion and poor sleep. Her symptoms made sense once viewed as stress biology, not personal failure.

3. Impaired emotional and cognitive regulation

Burnout and insomnia impair working memory, executive function, and emotional regulation. Poor sleep reduces cognitive flexibility and increases emotional reactivity, making small stressors feel overwhelming (Van Dijk et al., 2020; Frick et al., 2025).

This creates a vicious cycle: reduced capacity → increased effort → more stress → worse sleep.

Weakened Cognitive Function and Emotional Regulation

Client example

Tom, a teacher, described feeling “mentally slow” and unusually irritable. Tasks that once felt easy became draining. When sleep improved, his emotional tolerance and clarity returned—without changing his workload.

4. Altered brain networks in burnout

Neuroimaging and EEG studies in clinical burnout (also referred to as exhaustion disorder) show altered brain functioning. Findings include reduced connectivity between prefrontal regulatory regions and limbic emotional networks, changes in basal ganglia volumes, and EEG patterns associated with reduced regulation and increased reactivity (Grossi et al., 2015; Chmiel & Malinowska, 2025).

Altered Brain Networks in Burnout

In simple terms, the brain becomes reactive rather than reflective.

Client example

Sarah, a healthcare leader, said, “I know logically I’m safe, but my body doesn’t believe it.” Her experience matched what neuroscience shows: the regulatory parts of the brain were offline, even though insight remained intact.

Why sleep is a central lever in burnout recovery

Because insomnia:

• appears early,

• maintains emotional exhaustion,

• amplifies stress biology, and

• impairs cognitive and emotional regulation,

it is now considered both an early warning sign and a maintaining factor for burnout. Expert reviews increasingly recommend that sleep support be central to burnout prevention and recovery, alongside organisational changes (Stewart & Arora, 2019; Wolkow et al., 2019; Membrive-Jiménez et al., 2022).

Client example

When Anna focused first on stabilising her sleep rather than “fixing everything at work,” her energy and emotional engagement slowly returned—allowing her to address workload issues from a place of capacity rather than depletion.

Supporting insomnia: How CBT-I and IEMT can help

Insomnia is maintained by both cognitive patterns (worry, beliefs, habits) and physiological hyperarousal (a nervous system that cannot downshift). Effective support often addresses both.

CBT-I and IEMT: a simple comparison

CBT-I	IEMT
Changes sleep habits and sleep-related thoughts	Calms emotional stress and nervous system over-activation
Focuses on what you do and think around sleep	Focuses on how stress is stored and triggered in the body and brain
Uses structure, routines, and behavioural strategies	Uses guided eye movements to reduce emotional charge
Retrains the brain to associate the bed with sleep	Helps release the “wired but tired” state
Helpful when worry keeps you awake	Helpful when pressure or overwhelm keeps you alert
Strong evidence base	Emerging approach supporting stress regulation

CBT-I is the gold standard treatment for chronic insomnia, with strong evidence for improving sleep onset, maintenance, and efficiency (Edinger & Means, 2005; Morin et al., 2006; Trauer et al., 2015). IEMT draws on neuroscience principles from eye-movement and emotional processing research, which show reductions in emotional arousal and threat activation (Stickgold, 2002; Pagani et al., 2012; van den Hout et al., 2011).

Client example

Mark benefited from CBT-I strategies that reduced bedtime worry, while Sarah found that addressing emotional overload through eye-movement work helped her nervous system finally “stand down” enough for sleep to return.

Ethical coaching scope

At Code of Wellbeing, our coaching supports nervous system regulation, stress recovery, and mental fitness. Coaching does not diagnose or treat insomnia or mental health conditions and does not replace medical or psychological care.

If sleep difficulties are severe, persistent, or accompanied by depression, anxiety, or trauma, collaboration with a GP, psychologist, or sleep specialist is essential. Coaching and clinical care are not opposites. They are often most effective together.

Conclusion

Burnout and insomnia are interlocking expressions of chronic stress, visible across subjective experience, biology, and brain networks. The research is clear: sleep is one of the most powerful and accessible levers for burnout recovery, especially emotional exhaustion.

With neuroscience-informed support, the nervous system can relearn safety. And when the nervous system settles, sleep—and recovery—become possible again.

Sleep is one of the most powerful and accessible levers for burnout recovery

References

Armon, G., Shirom, A., Shapira, I., & Melamed, S. (2008). On the nature of burnout–insomnia relationships: A prospective study of employed adults. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 65(1), 5–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2008.01.012

Chmiel, J., & Malinowska, A. (2025). Neural correlates of burnout syndrome based on EEG. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 14(15). https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm14155357

Edinger, J. D., & Means, M. K. (2005). Cognitive–behavioral therapy for primary insomnia. Clinical Psychology Review, 25(5), 539–558.

Ekstedt, M., Söderström, M., Åkerstedt, T., Nilsson, J., Søndergaard, H., & Aleksander, P. (2006). Disturbed sleep and fatigue in occupational burnout. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, 32(2), 121–131.

Frick, S., Smolders, K., Van Der Meij, L., Demerouti, E., & De Kort, Y. (2025). The bidirectional relationship between sleep and daily burnout-related experiences. Sleep Health. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleh.2025.03.007

Grossi, G., Perski, A., Osika, W., & Savic, I. (2015). Stress-related exhaustion disorder—clinical manifestation of burnout? Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 56(6), 626–636.

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Membrive-Jiménez, M., et al. (2022). Relation between burnout and sleep problems in nurses: A systematic review with meta-analysis. Healthcare, 10(5), 954.

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Morin, C. M., et al. (2006). Psychological and behavioral treatment of insomnia. Sleep, 29(11), 1398–1414.

Pagani, M., et al. (2012). Neurobiological correlates of EMDR therapy. PLoS ONE, 7(9).

Stewart, N., & Arora, V. (2019). The impact of sleep and circadian disorders on physician burnout. Chest, 156(5), 1032–1040.

Trauer, J. M., et al. (2015). Cognitive behavioral therapy for chronic insomnia. Annals of Internal Medicine, 163(3), 191–204.

Van Dijk, D., et al. (2020). Cognitive functioning, sleep quality, and work performance in non-clinical burnout. PLoS ONE, 15(4).

Van den Hout, M., et al. (2011). EMDR and working memory taxation. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 42(4), 423–430.

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Wolkow, A., et al. (2019). Associations between sleep disturbances and burnout in firefighters. Journal of Sleep Research, 28.