3 Reasons Why “Get Better Sleep” Should be at the Top of Your New Year’s Resolution List

It’s about that time of year when everyone starts to reflect on their past year and look forward to the year ahead. On January 1st, people have big goals for increasing motivation, improving health, prioritizing relationships, or finding better balance.

But so often, there is something quietly undermining all of those goals, making them feel hard or impossible to achieve: poor sleep.

If you’re struggling with insomnia—whether that means difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking up too early with a racing mind—improving your sleep may be the most important New Year’s resolution you make this year. Not because sleep fixes everything overnight, but because it lays the foundation for emotional stability, mental clarity, and long-term well-being.

As an insomnia therapist, here are three reasons sleep deserves to be at the very top of your list.

1. Improving Sleep Reduces Anxiety, Stress, and Emotional Overwhelm

Insomnia and other mental health concerns such as anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder are deeply connected. When sleep is poor, your nervous system stays in a heightened state of alert, making it harder to regulate your emotions, tolerate life stressors, or quiet racing thoughts.

Many of my clients who struggle with sleep describe feeling:

• More irritable or reactive

• Emotionally fragile or overwhelmed

• Stuck in loops of bad thoughts they can’t shut off

• Less resilient in the face of everyday stressors

This isn’t a personal failing or a matter of just “not trying hard enough”—it’s biology. Sleep deprivation amplifies the brain’s threat system and weakens the parts responsible for emotional regulation. In other words, when you’re not sleeping, everything feels harder.

What’s important to know is that when insomnia improves, anxiety or other mental health concerns often improve too. Rested brains and rested bodies are better at handling uncertainty, problem-solving, and regulating emotions. That’s why addressing sleep is often a turning point in therapy - a point where clients can start to see some real improvements.

2. Better Sleep Improves Focus, Motivation, and Daytime Functioning

Chronic insomnia doesn’t just affect you at night—it follows you into every part of your day.

Poor sleep can lead to:

• Brain fog and difficulty concentrating

• Low motivation and reduced productivity

• Memory problems and decision fatigue

• Feeling disconnected or “not like yourself”

When people are struggling with their mental health and sleep difficulties, they often worry something is fundamentally wrong with them—that they’re lazy, burned out, or losing their edge. In reality, chronic sleep deprivation can mimic symptoms of ADHD, depression, anxiety, or burnout.

When sleep improves, clients often notice they’re more focused, more engaged, and better able to follow through on goals. That’s why sleep isn’t competing with your New Year’s resolutions—it’s what makes them possible.

3. Addressing Insomnia Now Protects Your Long-Term Mental Health

Occasional sleep disruption is normal. Chronic insomnia is not.

When insomnia goes untreated, it increases the risk of developing anxiety disorders, depression, and long-term stress-related health issues. It can quietly become the backdrop of your life—something you adapt to, normalize, and push through, even as it takes a toll or disconnects you from things that matter in your life.

One of the biggest misconceptions I see is that people should wait until sleep gets “bad enough” to seek help. In reality, the earlier insomnia is addressed, the easier it is to treat.

Improving your sleep isn’t just about feeling better tomorrow—it’s about protecting your mental health for years to come.

Why “Just Sleeping Better” Is Harder Than It Sounds

So that all sounds good, right? I’ll just improve my sleep and things will get better. If only it was all that simple! If fixing sleep were as simple as better sleep hygiene, far fewer people would struggle with insomnia.

Most people with chronic insomnia have already tried:

• Going to bed earlier

• Cutting out caffeine

• Meditation apps

• Supplements or sleep aids

• Perfect nighttime routines

And yet, sleep still doesn’t come easily.

That’s because insomnia isn’t just about habits—it’s about conditioned arousal. Over time, the bed becomes associated with frustration, worry, and pressure to sleep. The harder you try, the more awake your brain becomes. It’s also about getting better quality sleep, not just increasing the quantity of your sleep.

This is why willpower and tips alone rarely work—and why struggling with sleep is not a personal failure.

How Insomnia Therapy Helps You Improve Sleep (Without Medication)

If you’ve been dealing with bad sleep for months, are feeling like you’re “just pushing through” and are ready to find a different way of moving through the world, it may be time to address your sleep difficulties with therapy. Insomnia therapy—most commonly Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I)—is the gold-standard, evidence-based treatment for chronic sleep problems.

Rather than forcing sleep, insomnia therapy focuses on:

• Reducing sleep-related anxiety and hyperarousal

• Changing unhelpful thoughts about sleep

• Rebuilding trust in your body’s ability to sleep

• Creating sustainable sleep patterns without medication

As an insomnia therapist, my goal isn’t just to help you sleep better—it’s to help you stop fearing bedtime and regain confidence in your sleep so you can prioritize living your life.

Make Sleep Your Most Important Resolution This Year

Sleep is not a luxury. It’s not something you earn once everything else is done. It’s a foundational part of mental health. Improving your sleep sets you up for being able to life your life more fully and purposefully.

If you’ve been telling yourself that sleep will improve “once things calm down,” or that you should be able to push through exhaustion, this year can be different. Prioritizing sleep is an act of self-respect - and often the first step toward feeling like yourself again.

Wherever you are in your process of improving your sleep, I hope you take this is a sign to take some steps towards prioritizing sleep in 2026. If you are ready for support in working towards your sleep goals, working with an insomnia therapist can help. Reach out today if you’d like to talk more about how insomnia therapy might work for you! Contact us today or read more about how insomnia therapy might help on our website.