Why Does Insomnia Go Away and Come Back? | Ep 59

Ever feel like your insomnia was FINALLY gone… only to have it come back for no apparent reason?

This used to drive me absolutely bananas.

Insomnia can vanish for weeks, months—or even years at a time, and then reappear without warning.

 No wonder it's so confusing.

But once I learned how memory works and how the brain stores experiences, it started to make a lot more sense. 

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why the cyclical nature of insomnia points to a mind-body loop (not a broken brain)
• How unconscious “imprints” get reactivated
• What it really means when insomnia “comes back”
• Why flare-ups aren’t “setbacks” but chances to update old wiring

The good news? The brain can rewire. So past triggers lose their grip—and you get to step fully into your life again 🧡

Mentioned Resources:

Why Your Insomnia Triggers Are Mostly Unconscious

Connect with Beth:

 👉  Instagram 

Work with Beth:

👉   Learn About the Mind. Body. Sleep. Mentorship
👉   Start the Free Insomnia Course Here

Full Show Notes & Transcription HERE.


About Beth Kendall MA, FNTP: 

For decades, Beth struggled with the relentless grip of insomnia. After finally understanding insomnia from a mind-body perspective, she changed her relationship with sleep, and completely recovered. Liberated from the constant worry of not sleeping, she’s on a mission to help others recover as well. Her transformative program Mind. Body. Sleep.® has been a beacon of light for hundreds of others seeking solace from sleepless nights.

© 2023 - 2025 Beth Kendall

DISCLAIMER: The podcasts available on this website have been produced for informational, educational and entertainment purposes only. The contents of this podcast do not constitute medical or professional advice. No person listening to and/or viewing any podcast from this website should act or refrain from acting on the basis of the content of a podcast without first seeking appropriate professional advice and/or counseling, nor shall the information be used as a substitute for professional advice and/or counseling. The Mind. Body. Sleep. Podcast expressly disclaims any and all liability relating to any actions taken or not taken based on any or all contents of this site as there are no assurances as to any particular outcome.

Mind. Body. Sleep.® with Beth Kendall is your trusted source for holistic insomnia recovery, blending neuroplasticity, nervous system health, and mind-body coaching to help you finally sleep again.

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:05):
Hello and welcome to Mind Body Sleep, the podcast for
anyone out there who wants tounderstand and recover from
insomnia using a holisticperspective.
I'm Beth Kendall, your host.
Let's get started.
Well, hello everyone.
It's so good to be back with youon the podcast today.

(00:26):
I've been on a productive pausefrom the podcast lately, partly
to enjoy the last days of summerhere in Minnesota, which are
always way too short, and partlyto build out some exciting new
things inside the mentorship.

(00:47):
And I'm not going to say toomuch about that just yet, other
than to share that I'll be goinga bit deeper into the
unconscious mind by adding thisfun little mini course to the
community.
I'm so excited about it.
If you listen to the podcast,then you know that the
unconscious mind is an area thathas always been of great

(01:12):
interest to me and one that Ifeel is vastly underexplored,
especially in the world ofinsomnia.
But I'll be talking much moreabout that in the future.
So what are we talking abouttoday?
Well, one of the things peopleask me all the time is why can

(01:35):
insomnia go away and then comeback?
So that's what we're going todive into.
First, I'm going to share alittle bit about my own
experience with the situation.
Then I'm going to talk about theunderstanding that helped me see
it much differently.

(01:57):
And lastly, I'm going toemphasize why absolutely nothing
has gone wrong when thishappens.
In fact, on some level, we evengasp, want it to happen in order
to truly get beyond insomnia forgood.

(02:20):
Let's get going.
For sure, one of the mostbizarre aspects of my own
experience with insomnia was howit could be gone for months.
And for some people, it's evenyears at a time, and then just

(02:41):
mysteriously come back,seemingly out of the blue.
I cannot even tell you howincredibly perplexing this was
to me.
Because when I was in one ofthose cycles where insomnia was
gone, it really felt gone.

(03:02):
In my head, I would think, oh,thank God, that's over.
And I think there was some smallpart of me that thought, surely
I had paid my dues, right?
Surely I had suffered enoughwith such a horrible sleep
problem that I had to be off thehook by now.
But then somehow insomnia wouldcome back.

(03:27):
And not only would I be justcompletely devastated, but I was
left spinning my wheels tryingto figure out how that could be.
How could I go from sleepinglike a relatively normal human
being to being right back in thecycle of insomnia, just like it

(03:52):
was day one?
It made zero sense.
But once I started learning moreabout how memory works and
specifically how the braincaptures information and
retrieves information, itstarted to make a lot more

(04:13):
sense.
And when things make sense tome, I'm much more apt to let
them go.
So that's what I'm going toshare with you.
Now, the first thing I want tosay about this, and what I
really wish someone had said tome during those extreme cycles

(04:34):
of insomnia, because it wouldhave made all the difference in
the world back then, was thatthe cyclical nature of the sleep
trouble I was experiencing wasactually a pretty good
indication that what I wasdealing with was a mind-body

(04:58):
pattern, right?
Because your brain doesn't justbreak and then start sleeping
again and then break all overagain, which is really how it
felt to me.
If insomnia was due to aphysical or structural issue, it
would have been much moreconsistent, not like an up and

(05:22):
down roller coaster that it wasfor all those years.
So, like I said, if someone hadexplained this to me, I would
have seen that my brain wasnever truly broken, right?
It was just replaying an oldpattern.

(05:44):
And when I say pattern, what Imean is a collection of memories
tied to the experience ofinsomnia that we're getting
stirred up again.
So let's take a closer look atthis.
As most of you know and havepersonally experienced, there's

(06:07):
usually some sort of event orstressor that changes your
relationship with sleep.
For me, it was the move to adifferent bedroom at age eight.
For Richard, my support coach,it was his residency.
For some, it's the birth of achild, and for others, it might

(06:30):
be a medication reaction, itcould be a trip, a time change,
or just some kind of stressorthat puts some pressure on
sleep.
The actual circumstance doesn'tmatter so much as understanding
what happens in the brain duringthat time.

(06:54):
So during this time, the braincreates what I call an imprint.
An imprint is a memory or set ofmemories tied to the experience
of insomnia that gets stored inthe unconscious mind, almost

(07:18):
like a snapshot.
Now, this imprint can staydormant sometimes forever.
We may never even know it'sthere, but sometimes it can
re-emerge later on down the roadwhen something in our present
experience resembles theoriginal situation in which the

(07:44):
imprint was created.
So our past experience is cominginto the present moment.
One student referred to italmost like a flashback, which I
thought was a really goodanalogy.
And it can really be anythingthat triggers the imprint.

(08:05):
It could be a sensation, aplace, or even just a smell.
The brain notices a similarityand then goes back into the
database of its files and pullsup the appropriate imprint to
match the situation.
There's a great companion blogto this podcast that I wrote a

(08:29):
while back.
It's called Why Your TriggersAre Mostly Unconscious.
And I'll link that up in theshow notes in case it's helpful.
But this is precisely what ourbrains are supposed to do.
And nothing has gone wrong whenthis happens.
Now, what gets a little trickyhere is that when the imprint is

(08:53):
activated, it doesn't just bringup the memory, it brings back
all the thoughts, emotions, andsensations that were originally
tied to that memory.
And that's why it can feel likeyou've been knocked right back
to square one because that'swhat the imprint is telling you.

(09:17):
And that's usually when weinnocently start slipping back
into old sleep-relatedbehaviors, right?
Most of which involve trying tofix our sleep and find
interesting ways to try andoutrun all the difficult

(09:39):
emotions and sensations that areshowing up with the imprint.
But this is the wrong rabbithole, my friends, because
nothing inherently changeswithin your body's ability to
sleep.
You don't just lose thatovernight.

(10:00):
It's the reactivation of theimprint that we want to focus
on.
That's where we want to put ourlove and attention because
updating the imprint is whatchanges your experience of
insomnia down the road.
Now, the great thing aboutmemory is it's extremely

(10:25):
malleable.
It's extremely changeable.
It changes every time we bringit into our active awareness.
That means that every time youmeet insomnia with a little more
compassion, a little moreunderstanding, a little less

(10:48):
resistance, you're automaticallyupdating the imprint.
And isn't that great news?
Because I thought I was juststuck with this horrible
condition.
But using our responses as a wayto neurologically update the

(11:11):
mental imprints that are holdingup insomnia is how we move out
of it for good.
Hallelujah.
So, just to give you a practicalexample of this, when I used to
have a sleepless night, theimprints that came forward in my

(11:31):
brain made the whole thing feelvery huge and very scary.
My brain had connected notsleeping with something very,
very bad.
So every time I had a roughnight, it set off a lot of panic
and worry and automaticcatastrophizing about how

(11:53):
everything could go wrong.
But once I started to understandwhat insomnia is and why I had
it, I started to respond muchdifferently.
I didn't automatically believeevery thought my brain was

(12:14):
offering me.
And because of that, those oldmemories started to update.
And the imprint updated rightalong with it.
So now, if I have a rough night,there's little to no reaction to
that.
My brain doesn't tag that asdangerous anymore.

(12:36):
And the imprints that areassociated with that kind of
situation, the imprints of thepast no longer hold all that
pain and suffering.
It doesn't mean that the pastdidn't happen.
Of course it did, but the way Ihold those memories now is much

(12:59):
lighter.
So they don't control my lifeanymore.
Now, there might be some of youthinking right now, but Beth,
what if I'm too far gone?
Or what if my imprints are toostrong?
But no imprint is permanentbecause the brain is designed to

(13:22):
change.
In fact, it's changing all thetime.
That's one of the mostfundamental truths about
neuroplasticity.
So if you ever feel discouragedbecause it seems like insomnia
has come back, remember ithasn't actually come back.

(13:44):
I think the idea of it comingback implies that insomnia is
some sort of outside force ormonster out there that is coming
back to haunt you.
Or at least that's how Iperceived it when I was going
through it.
What's actually happening issimply the reactivation of some

(14:09):
old wiring that your brain is sograciously offering up as a
chance to work through.
So, in a sense, the obstacletruly does become the path on
this journey.
I hope this podcast brought someclarity around why insomnia can

(14:31):
sometimes go away and come back,and why it's just a normal part
of the recovery process.
If you're enjoying the podcast,I would love it if you left a
quick rating or review.
It helps others with insomniafind this work, and your words
might be just the encouragementsomeone else needs to hear.

(14:54):
Until next time, thanks forjoining me on the Mind Body
Sleep Podcast.
Bye for now.
Thanks for being here today.
If you love what you heard ontoday's episode, don't forget to
hit the like button andsubscribe to the podcast.
And if you need more supportwith your sleep, join me in the
Mind Body Sleep Mentorship.
This three month one-on-oneprogram will transform your

(15:17):
relationship with sleep so youcan get back to living the life
that you love free from the fearof not sleeping.
Head on over to bethkendle.comfor more details.
I'll see you next time.