What Is Insomnia?

Insomnia is the most common sleep disorder. It can have a devastating impact on one’s emotion, physical, occupation and social life. While it occasionally can be seen in the clinical setting as a primary diagnosis, it most often presents as a comorbidity to a medical or psychiatric issue;

Sleep is a rather peculiar action. Why does the brain and the body basically need to lose connection to the world for a few hours? Insomnia, which is the inability to sleep, can cause many symptoms and they are not delightful whatsoever. Sleep deprivation is not only rough because of obvious reasons, but the consequences that harm the brain and body can be devastating. Even if people know what sort of symptoms are, they do not know why these things happen.

In my paper, I will tackle insomnia from various perspectives: definitions, types, causes, effects, and means of solutions.

Martha is a 65 year old lady who suffers from insomnia based on the preliminary symptoms of sleeplessness. She is also under severe stress from her mum’s dependence condition which makes her unhappy with her retirement. Martha’s mum’s condition is of great influence to her insomnia disorder for she only thinks of her through out the day, caring for her leaving Martha with little time to check on her health. Insomnia is a disorder that mostly affects the elderly though it may affect people from all ages. It is the lack of sleep even when one feels to have some sleep. It is not a stand alone disease but a symptom which is defined by the duration one lacks quality sleep. Transient insomnia is not having sleep for a week, short term insomnia is lack of adequate sleep for 2-3 weeks, while sleeplessness for a month is termed as chronic insomnia. Various studies have shown that insomnia affects women more often than men and that 30%-50% of elderly Americans experience difficulty in initiating and maintaining adequate sleep. Diagnosing insomnia in a patient the health practitioner would evaluate the patient medical record and other factors that may contribute to insomnia. For example, snoring, psychological factors such as stress levels and drug use. Martha’s physician would check on her medical

Different age groups of people require different hours of sleep. Children and adolescents require nine to eleven hours of sleep per day. Adults need 7-9 hours, yet some people feel better sleeping lesser hours even with those guidelines. It is true that alcohol helps people sleep faster, but sleep is disrupted once the level which is in the blood starts to fall. It might lead to waking up and difficulties to fall back to sleep. It is true that depression and anxiety may lead to lead to insomnia but for a short time. People should understand that insomnia is not only brought by depression, but chronic pain, bad side-effects of a particular medication, worries and stress are also known to cause long-term insomnia (Okun et al., 2009). Depression and anxiety should not keep an individual awake for a long time but only for a short time. Additionally, the myth that it is right the lie in bed sleepless is not true. Everyone requires sleep during the day or at night, and it is necessary for the body and the brain to function properly. Notably, sleep is good for relaxing the brain in adults and in children, sleep is important for development (Szelenberger, 2006). One should not be fooled that sleep is not necessary, but those people with insomnia should practice relaxation techniques for them to fall asleep. It is true that people tend to sleep few hours as they

Sleep disorders alter ones sleep pattern and often results in the inability to either sleep or sleep soundly. They often cause you to feel restless, tired, fatigued, and irritable. It is estimated that nearly 75 percent of adult Americans experience sleep disorder symptoms at least a few nights per week. At the same time, sleep disturbances in some form are seen in as many as 25 to 30 percent of infants and children (“Sleep Disorders” 2013). Clearly a huge conundrum in the world, sleep disorders affect an inordinate amount of people. Millions of people suffer or have suffered from a sleep disorder at one point in their lives and if mistreated can impact organ systems functioning negatively. Physical disturbances, medical issues,

Ebben, M. R., & Narizhnaya, M. (2012). Cognitive and Behavioral Treatment Options for Insomnia. Mount Sinai Journal Of Medicine, 79(4)

Traditional treatments for chronic insomnia include drugs such as over-the-counter antihistamine preparations, with or without mild analgesics, benzodiazepine receptor agonists, sedating antidepressants, neuroleptics, melatonin, and herbal remedies such as valerian. The pharmacological advance has remained the most extensively used for decades, in spite of extensive concerns about long-term effectiveness, habituation, tolerance, and potential difficulties, especially in elderly people. Growing evidence suggests that non-pharmacological treatments, alone or perhaps in combination with drugs, produce clinically noteworthy and strong improvement. In looking at summary data about treatments, it should be noted, with some recent exceptions, outcome studies of pharmacotherapy are almost entirely restricted to brief treatment duration of less than 6 weeks. Even though little doubt exists about the helpfulness of hypnotic drugs for short-term treatment of acute insomnia, evidence shows that the effects of short-term pharmacotherapy trials degrade over time in patients with chronic insomnia. By contrast, cognitive-behavioural treatments are tough and robustly effective on long-term follow-up. In routine practice, pharmacotherapy and a variety of non-pharmacological interventions are sometimes united. Although clinical experience would seem to propose that this joint approach

Insomnia is the most common sleep complaint. It occurs when you have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep even though you had the opportunity to get a full night of sleep. The causes, symptoms and severity of insomnia vary from person to person. Insomnia involves both a sleep disturbance and daytime symptoms. The effects of insomnia can impact nearly every aspect of your life. Studies show that

     “Insomnia is the inability to obtain adequate amount or quality of sleep. The difficulty can be with falling asleep, remaining asleep, or both” (“Insomnia Encyclopedia“). Sleeping is a major point in physically and mentally restoring yourself for the tasks ahead. Most people say that about eight hours of sleep is an adequate amount, however it differs from person to person depending on their sex, age, and health conditions. An estimated one-third of the population suffers from some form of insomnia. “In recent studies, a survey reported that 30% of American women and 20% of American men took medication to help them sleep during the course of a year” (“Insomnia”). The medications these people took are called

Many disorders and diseases can result from abnormal sleeping patterns that are triggered from sleep deprivation. The most common forms of sleep disorders include insomnia, sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, and narcolepsy (NINDS 10). All of these sleep disorders begin from sleep deprivation and can be managed once they are diagnosed correctly. According to Urban, “Nervousness, dizziness, and sleeplessness may occur”, as a result of sleep deprivation (1). This proves that the slightest health changes can occur if sleep deprivation becomes a problem. According to NINDS, “The disorders and the resulting sleep deprivation interfere with work, driving, and social activities” (10). This shows that the effects of being sleep deprived can drastically change one’s everyday

“In the 1970s, benzodiazepines came to the forefront in treating insomnia and are still widely prescribed” (Asnis, Thomas & Henderson, 2016). They are proven to work quickly to help with anxiety and sleep but caution should be taken to avoid dependency or other unwanted side effects.

Morin and Benca (2011) citing the American Academy of Sleep Medicine state that recognizes multiple subtypes of insomnia, of which the most prevalent are psychophysiological, paradoxical and idiopathic insomnia. Psychophysiological insomnia is thought to be an outcome of conditioned excitation which is more common among patients who are psychologically and physiologically more prone to sleep disorders. Such persons are more susceptible to overreact to daily irritants and sleep quality is observed to alter greatly different nights. Patients who beef about low sleep quality without proper evidence of such complaints in screenings are thought to have paradoxical insomnia. Furthermore, Idiopathic insomnia is first observed during childhood and

Insomnia can sap not only your energy level and mood but also your health, work performance and quality of life. Insomnia is the most common sleep complaint among Americans it can be either acute, lasting one to several nights, or chronic, even lasting months to years. According to the Insomnia “ JAMA; The Journal of the American Medical Association, about thirty to forty percent of adults say they have some symptoms of insomnia within a given year and about ten to fifty percent of adults say they have chronic insomnia. (Insomnia “ JAMA; The Journal of the American Medical Association) Insomnia is higher among older people and woman, the reason woman suffer loss of sleep is in connection with menstruation, pregnancy and menopause. Insomnia sometimes may occur when you are stress whether it is short-term or long-term for some people for instance, problems in a marriage or relationship, loss of a love one, a job. But as well in preparing or anticipating for an event like arrival of a newborn baby, weddings, vacations or holidays makes it even harder to fall asleep. My friends Rosa and Ruby are having symptoms of insomnia disorder because they recently had their newborn baby daughter’s. But I hope they are able to maintain a sleeping schedule for their daughters at certain hours in order for them to get their sleep back. Preventing insomnia it is important to remember to maintain a consistent sleeping schedule and also should avoid too much caffeinate drinks during the eight hours before sleeping. Treatment for insomnia, you can go to a psychiatrist they can prescribe antidepressants or another medications to help your sleeping problems and any mood or anxiety disorder you might have. (The literary Insomniac: stories and essays for sleepless

An article that was used made the statement that pills prescribed or bought OTC to cure or prevent insomnia can actually increase a person’s risk of death. (#4, 2010) Heath Ledger’s death in 2008 caused a lot of confusion and curiosity as what sleeping pills are really doing for people. When an autopsy returned after Ledger’s death, the results showed that he had Xanax, Valium, Restoril, and several other drugs to aid his insomnia, anxiety, and depression. With this outcome, it is safe to say that mixing prescription medicine and multiple amounts of those medicines could be fatal. Another article said that Americans suffer from insomnia more, compared to other countries. (#8, 2012) With this being said, Americans should start to wonder why that is true and how it can be changed.