Scientists have worked out why you might fall asleep on the sofa but can't when you get in bed

Falling asleep on the sofa is often so much easier than nodding off in bed.

Apart from your neck feeling a little twisted when you wake up, it's a much cosier kip.

So it turns out that there are both psychological and physiological reasons why sofa sleep is the best.

According to a sleep expert, it's quite possibly rooted in how our brain associates different spaces with different activities.

"If we lie awake in our beds for extended periods night after night with insomnia and its attendant anxiety and frustration, lying there can become a conditioned trigger for those experiences," explains Lisa Strauss, who specialises in the cognitive-behavioural treatment of sleep disorders.

The Boston-based psychologist told the Washington Post that 'people with conditioned arousal may fall asleep readily elsewhere, such as on the couch or at a relative's home, but not in their own beds'.

It can sometimes be harder to fall asleep in bed than on the sofa (Getty Stock Images)

A solution, she says, is to reframe the bed as a place of calm and rest.

Being in a 'peaceful' state of mind in bed, similar to how you feel on a sofa, can go a long way.

A pressure to sleep

Feeling a pressure to fall asleep in bed can also come down to 'performance anxiety', according to Strauss.

"Anxiety, pressure, effort and frustration interfere with sleep even in the absence of conditioned arousal.

None of these problems afflicts us on the couch because we’re not expecting sleep on the couch," she adds.

"Sleepiness naturally overtakes us there because we don’t obstruct it through effort and desperation."

Her favourite way to approach this issue is to 'understand that it’s not your job to sleep any more than it is your job to feel thirsty'.

Try to comfort yourself when you feel anxious by not making a big deal about 'having to get to sleep'.

Easier said than done, of course.

Having nothing to focus on when you sleep

Sofa sleep really does hit different (Getty Stock Images)

"Since we can only entertain one narrative (or image or song or bodily sensation) at a time, focusing on something soothing means we’re not focusing on all the thoughts that keep us awake, from worries (including worries about sleep) to regrets to stressors to exciting goings-on," Strauss explains.

"Consider putting your mind on something soothing to bridge the interval between coming to bed and falling asleep. It might even be the same thing that was making you sleepy on the couch."

Lighting and body rhythms

The team at Knowridge Science Report states that the lights on the TV 'may help you wind down'.

Even though 'blue light from screens can delay sleep in some people, for others, the familiar background noise and dim lighting signal the body to relax'.