Insomnia is a sleeping disorder that prevents you from getting enough sleep because:
If you have insomnia you never feel like you are getting enough rest – probably because you aren’t. To say the least, it’s frustrating to not be able to sleep when you want to, and there are a whole host of risks associated with sleep deprivation.
Insomnia is being unable to fall asleep, stay asleep for any restful of time, or sleep until an appropriate time in the morning (i.e., waking up wide awake at 3am). It is a frustrating disorder because you want to sleep, but you just can’t. As you get more sleep deprived over time, this disconnect between wanting to sleep and actually sleeping can become extremely pronounced. Unfortunately, insomnia can have consequences far more severe than just frustration.
Sometimes insomnia has a clear underlying cause, and sometimes it doesn’t. The major concern with insomnia is severe sleep deprivation.
If you have ever experienced the torment of insomnia or are currently battling with it, then you understand the frustration and the toll it can take on your ability to lead a normal, happy life. In simple terms, it can make life unbearably miserable. It can transform you into a different version of yourself, affecting your behavior and making you less productive in all aspects of life. It even diminishes your lifespan and reduces the overall quality of life. So, it is without a doubt worth taking proactive measures to avoid it.
However, the issue of insomnia is far from simple. It becomes even more complicated when you consider the fact that there are different types of insomnia.
Furthermore, insomnia can manifest in two ways, causing different degrees of suffering:
In total, there are four distinct ways in which one can experience insomnia:
Now, let's delve into the various strategies and techniques we can employ to avoid insomnia by addressing its common root causes.
Alaskan winters pose and extremely unique challenge to our lives and sleep. Our winters mean either receiving mostly or only darkness, depending on where you live. This extreme lighting condition is contrasted against summer, which is the opposite, and entails making fairly drastic changes to our lives – changes which be very disruptive towards sleep.
The extreme winter darkness means shifting our lives form summer in all ways:
Most of us look like different people in the winter vs the summer: we get outside less, we might work different jobs, the things we do and places we go for fun change, and we may interact with friends less as a result. Furthermore, many of us respond in mental or emotional ways to the darkness, but ways which are unconscious, and our behavior further changes as a result.
It’s no secret that we are living under unique circumstances in Alaska, about half of the year it is dark, and the other half of the year it is light. Though it might seem counterintuitive, winter in Alaska makes sleep more difficult for many people, especially as one travels north.
Excess darkness can be extremely disruptive to three things aspects that are essential for the onset of sleep:
As the winter season approaches, it's crucial to be aware of the various factors that can hurt your circadian rhythm. By understanding these factors, you can effectively prepare for and combat insomnia during this time of year. Delving deeper into the causes and effects of circadian rhythm will enable you to take the necessary steps to safeguard against its disruption. Let's delve into the fascinating world of circadian rhythm.
Insomnia is a sleep disorder that prevents you from falling asleep, staying asleep throughout the night, or sleeping until a reasonable hour in the morning. The result of insomnia is mild to severe sleep deprivation, which can have severe consequences. Furthermore, it’s an extremely frustrating disorder.
Insomnia can negatively affect several domains of your life:
Every area of health can be negatively impacted by sleep deprivation related to insomnia. If the cause of your insomnia is medical, insomnia can be a vicious cycle where your medical symptoms worsen, which, then, worsens your insomnia.
There are two types of insomnia:
Insomnia can also be acute, short-term, or chronic, long-term. Medical causes of insomnia tend to be chronic and primary. These causes could include:
Insomnia is a sleeping disorder that can cause sleep deprivation and subsequent frustration. Insomnia arises when you either can’t fall asleep, can’t stay asleep, or always wake up far earlier than necessary. The result of insomnia is mild to severe sleep deprivation, which can have catastrophic emotional, cognitive, physical, or social effects. In short, every area of your health can be greatly reduced from sleep deprivation related to insomnia.
Insomnia is a sleeping disorder that consists of individuals struggling to achieve their nightly 8 hours. There are two types of insomnia, and two modes of insomnia.
The two types of insomnia are:
The two modes of insomnia are:
This means that there are four possible types of insomnia.
A risk factor is something that increases your likelihood of developing a disease or condition. Insomnia, like other sleep disorders, has a number of different potential causes and factors that can put you at risk for developing insomnia.
Complicating matters is the fact there are two types of insomnia:
Adding to this is that there are two modes of insomnia as well, which concerns how long insomnia lasts:
Before talking about causes of insomnia, it is important to understand that there are two types of insomnia:
Adding to this is that there are two modes of insomnia as well, which describes the causes of insomnia:
Secondary insomnia means that you have insomnia as a direct result or symptom of something else, such as a health condition, medication, pain, substance abuse, etc. For example, depression can be an underlying cause for insomnia.
Primary insomnia means that your trouble sleeping is not directly related to some other underlying issue.