ANCSLEEP BLOG

Overview of Insomnia

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.

What are the Two Types of 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:

• Primary insomnia – insomnia with no clear, underlying issue 
• Secondary insomnia – insomnia as a direct result of something else

The two modes of insomnia are:

• Acute insomnia – short term (1 month or less)
• Chronic insomnia – long term (greater than 1 month)

This means that there are four possible types of insomnia.

• Secondary/acute insomnia – temporary insomnia in response to a temporary illness, stress, etc.
  • “Ever since my surgery two weeks ago I can’t get more than a couple hours of sleep per night”
• Primary/acute insomnia – temporary insomnia with no underlying cause
  • “I just can’t seem to sleep at all this month”
• Secondary/chronic insomnia – long-term insomnia in response that is long-term and may be secondary to chronic conditions such as pain, long term illness, etc.
  • “Ever since my back injury last year I wake up constantly throughout the night in pain”
• Primary/chronic insomnia – long-term insomnia with no discernable cause
  • “I haven’t slept more than a few hours at a time all year and I don’t know why”

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.