Insomnia

Do you have difficulty falling asleep at bedtime or feeling more tired than the night before you went to sleep? If you answer yes to either question, you are most probably a victim of Insomnia. People who are affected by Insomnia are unable to get adequate restful sleep. In addition to the above two symptoms, frequent awakenings during the night with trouble falling back to sleep, and waking up too early in the morning; are other symptoms of Insomnia.

Many people often mistook that everybody needs at least eight hours of sleep per day, however, this is a misconception. The amount of sleep one requires depends on the age: the amount of sleep one needs decreases with age. Newborn babies need 16 hours of sleep for every 24 hour day, in comparison to an adult who requires only an average of eight hours of sleep for every 24 hour day. Even then, this varies to some extent with individuals. Research also indicated that Insomnia is more common in women than men, and that senior citizens are more vulnerable to Insomnia than their younger counterparts.

Types of Insomnia

Acute Insomnia

Usually transient or short-term, this type of Insomnia lasts only a few nights and for less than four weeks. It is caused by a specific and temporary situation such as a stressful event, physical discomfort or environmental disturbances such as noise, or a disruption of your “body clock” in the case of jet lag or working the night shift. Once the underlying cause is identified, it is easy to overcome this type of Insomnia.

Chronic Insomnia

Commonly known as long-term or primary insomnia, this type of insomnia continues for three or more nights a week, and lasts a month or more. It can be due to multiple underlying causes. They include lifestyle habits; and medical, physical and/or psychological condition/s such as the following:

Asthma, Rheumatoid Arthritis or other chronic pain conditions, and congestive heart failure.
Mental health disorders such as Depression, Anxiety, or Chronic Stress.
Side effects of certain medications used to treat high blood pressure, decongestants etc
A specific sleep disorder such as sleep apnea or restless leg syndrome.

Lifestyle habits

Excessive worrying and even the worrying of not being able to sleep.
Too much caffeine, and/or alcohol.
Disruption of sleep/wake cycle
Poor sleep hygiene such as waking up late on weekend mornings when you are used to waking up at seven in the morning on weekday mornings.

Consequences of Insomnia

Daytime sleepiness which may lead to physical danger such as automobile accident
Irritability
Lack of energy
Difficulty concentrating
Depression and psychological distress
Decreased ability to make decision or solve problems.
Physical illnesses (fatigue can result in developing physical illnesses; research also showed that insomniacs were more often hospitalized for gastro-intestinal problems).
Direct costs which include outpatient visits, sleep recordings and medications directly devoted to insomnia.
Indirect costs such as professional consequences (higher absenteeism at work, difficulties in accomplishing work responsibilities, worse work satisfaction, and poorer career advancement).

Treatment

Acute insomnia usually does not require medical treatment so long as it does not occur very often and its underlying causes can be identified. However, if your overall sense of well being is affected, treatment may be needed.

Chronic insomnia tends to have more complex factors, and can have very severe consequences, thus it is essential to seek treatment.

Some common treatment of Insomnia includes:

Prescription medications
Behavioural therapy
Cognitive therapy
Relaxation training
Some good sleep practices can also help to overcome insomnia:
a. Cut down or try not to drink caffeinated drinks eight hours before you sleep
b. Avoid alcohol and nicotine especially before bedtime
c. Avoid naps, if you need to, take short naps early in the afternoon
d. Create a sleep-promoting environment such as moving the clock further away from the bed if it is causing you to become too nervous to sleep
e. Try to go to bed and get up at about the same time everyday
f. Avoid physical exertion at least half an hour before sleep