What is the price of insomnia? Well numbers don’t lie: insomnia takes a heavy economic and social toll. An article in Belgian newspaper De Morgen puts its finger on the sore spot: the bill for chronic lack of sleep and poor sleep in Belgium runs to nine billion euros per year. That’s 1.5% of this country’s gross national product. But how do we regain those lost euros, hours – and our vitality?
An invisible bill
Nine billion euros. That’s the astronomical amount lost to lost productivity, absenteeism and accidents due to sleep deprivation, according to a Belgian report published by KBC in June 2025. They conclude that the cost amounts to 1.5% of the gross national product. Apply this percentage to the economy of countries like the Netherlands, France, Spain or Germany and the amounts are many times higher!
As we live in a society that is “on” 24/7, our sleep, and therefore our physical and mental health, is paying the toll. Sleep problems and sleep deprivation increase the risk of burnout, cardiovascular disease and depression. But the solution is not in “trying harder”. On the contrary.
Dealing with insomnia: stop the fight
Dutch physician and ACT therapist Aline Kruit, author of the book Sleeping is Doing Nothing (slapen is niets doen), highlights a paradoxical truth: The harder you try to sleep, the less you succeed.
Sleep is a passive process over which you have no direct control. Kruit advises against waking up. Instead of fighting your thoughts (“I must sleep now because I have an important meeting tomorrow”), learn to accept them.
By using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), you learn that lying awake quietly is less harmful than stressed fighting for sleep. “Sleep is surrender yourself,” says Aline Kruit.
Covering your mouth or entrusting your sleep to apps is not the answer. Did you know that the number of people suffering from orthosomnia, or the obsession with perfect sleep, has skyrocketed? We have lost connection with our own rhythms, our body’s own signals, and rely on unreliable apps and bizarre rituals. Why oh why?
Good sleep? Release the gas pedal during the day
Belgian neurologist and sleep expert Dr. Inge Declercq and author of the books De kracht van slapen (the power of sleep) and Slaap Wijzer (sleep guide) looks at the biological engine behind our sleep. According to her, a good night begins upon waking.
Deconnection
We can’t expect our brains to suddenly “turn off” at 11 p.m. when we’ve been running at full speed all day. Declercq advocates “deconnection moments” throughout the day and timely shutting down. She elaborates on this in her recent book Brain Rest .
Light and biorhythms
Our biological clock needs daylight in the morning and darkness in the evening. Declercq’s advice? “Let off the gas pedal regularly during the day.” Short micro-breaks and breathing exercises keep your stress system (cortisol) from working overtime, allowing you to transition more naturally into sleep mode in the evening.
No brooding in bed
Declercq is formal: the bed is for sleeping (and for sex). Mulling is done on a chair in another room, with pen and paper to write away your mulling thoughts, so your brain doesn’t associate the bedroom with stress.
I know, these are really obvious tips. And yet a lot of people fail to apply them. When’s the last time you’ve felt truly relaxed? Without booze (or drugs), Netflix, your phone or your tablet? Really relaxed, really enjoyed yourself or laughed hard? It strikes me that a lot of people with sleep problems, that I counsel myself, often have difficulty answering this. Often stress dominates and additionally, the stress dominates sleep.
Seek help for insomnia
The nine billion euros our economy is losing is a wake-up call. But the road to recovery does not lie in more sleeping pills or sleep aids such as all kinds of gadgets or nutritional supplements.
Sleep aids have become a very lucrative business. Did you know that more than 80 billion Euros are already involved worldwide? Hallucinatory! Simply too crazy for words! While understanding our biological needs and letting go of the mental compulsion to perform in bed can really be done differently. For example, with proper support from healthcare professionals.
Sleep or better sleep is not a luxury or a waste of time: it is the foundation on which your body and mind are carried. High time, then, that we start investing those billions in our own rest.
A psychologist specializing in sleep or a trained sleep coach can help you with this. They are a bridge between scientific insights and hard economic reality. They help you get a grip again. For example, an effective treatment for insomnia is CBT-i (cognitive behavioral therapy) or ACT ( see above).
An investment in yourself that really pays off. By doing something about long-term poor sleep or chronic insomnia, people often regain courage. They get to know their own biological clock, learn to feel what their own body wants and start listening to it better. Slowly but surely, they escape from the vicious circle of insomnia. And thanks to that knowledge, the chance of relapsing is many times smaller. When you know why you sleep badly and how you can do something about it, you experience a certain peace.
How can we lower the price of insomnia?
Schedule “brain rest. Take at least 5 minutes every two hours to stare away from your screen, for example.
Accept the waking moments: Are you lying awake? Don’t get mad at yourself. Recognize that your body is resting, even if you are not sleeping deeply.
Look for the light: Go outside first thing in the morning. This sets your biological clock on alert for the night ahead.
- Seek professional help! Take the step. Often, by the way, help with insomnia is woven into the basic health insurance package.
