Insomnia is a sleep disorder that leaves you sleep deprived and frustrated, or worse. Insomnia is a condition when you either can’t fall asleep, can’t stay asleep, or always wake up far earlier than you need. The result of insomnia is mild to severe sleep deprivation, which can have mild to catastrophic consequences.
Insomnia side effects interfere with all aspects of life, including our emotional, cognitive, physical and social health.
Understanding what insomnia is and what you can do to help treat it may dramatically improve your well being.
Insomnia can be characterized by its cause and its timeline. There are a total of four potential types of insomnia.
The two types of insomnia are:
The two modes of insomnia are:
If you are trying to identify insomnia, it would be helpful to identify whether or not your sleep problems are recent or chronic and if you know the cause of them.
Short-term insomnia, acute, is usually in response to temporary and external factors such as:
Acute insomnia usually clears up once the external cause goes away. Even if there is no discernible cause for your short term insomnia, it still may clear up on its own. Of course, it may also develop into long-term, chronic, insomnia depending on the context.
Causes of chronic, long-term insomnia include things like:
Another helpful tool for evaluating whether or not you have insomnia is understanding the risk factors for developing it.
Probably the most common factor for chronic insomnia with no identifiable cause is simply aging. People over 65 are significantly more likely to report insomnia. This happens because of natural biological changes that take place as we age. Secondly, it’s also more common in women than men.
Many diseases can affect our ability to sleep, and make us at risk for developing insomnia:
Other medical reasons also cause. Certain medications cause insomnia (primary) as a side effect, and include:
Psychological factors are some of the most common root factors for developing primary insomnia, and include:
Lastly, insomnia is also commonly caused by lifestyle choices that make sleep difficult, such as:
Finally, the important question concerning insomnia is its treatment. Insomnia should be treated differently depending on what type of insomnia you have. Acute insomnia will likely go away on its own. Chronic insomnia may be harder to treat and require a diverse set of interventions. This often starts with behavioral interventions, such as:
Over the counter pills are usually not recommended because they may have undesired side effects and lose their effectiveness over time.
Treating insomnia will likely require direct consultation with your doctor or a sleep specialist, and may require trial and error to narrow down possible causes and best treatment options. If you live in Alaska and are worried that you are struggling with insomnia, please contact one of our sleep specialists.