ANCSLEEP BLOG

What is a Risk Factor for 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:

• Primary insomnia – no clear, underlying cause.
• Secondary insomnia – due to an underlying or secondary cause.

Adding to this is that there are two modes of insomnia as well, which concerns how long insomnia lasts:

• Acute insomnia – short-term, a month or less
• Chronic insomnia – symptomatic, long-term (at least three times per week for a month or more)

Primary vs Secondary Insomnia

Before talking about causes of insomnia, it is important to understand that there are two types of insomnia:

• Primary insomnia
• Secondary 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.