RESEARCH_FILE

Catastrophic worry loop

The catastrophic worry loop is the night-time escalation pattern documented in primary insomnia: a thought about not sleeping ("I'll be tired tomorrow") is followed step by step by progressively worse forecasts ("I'll fail at work", "my health will collapse"). In Harvey's cognitive model this negatively toned cognitive activity raises arousal and narrows attention onto sleep-related threat, which distorts the perception of sleep — closing the loop that keeps the person awake.