All you need to know about this sleep problem
Getting good quality sleep is essential for ensuring your physical and mental health. Those who fail to acquire seven to eight hours of rest every night are at risk of suffering from high blood pressure, heart attack, diabetes, heart failure, and stroke. In addition, such people often complain of reduced immune system function and lower sex drive. This is why it is necessary to treat sleep problems like insomnia asap. Those interested in knowing more about insomnia causes and how it affects your sleep should read further. Here you go!
What is insomnia? Discuss its symptoms
Insomnia is a sleep-related disorder in which people find it hard to rest. Patients suffering from this condition face difficulty in falling or staying asleep. Some people also complain of getting up too early in the morning and not feeling refreshed. Experiencing fatigue and hardship in functioning throughout the day are two other symptoms noticed in people who have this sleep trouble. Other common signs detected in insomnia patients are as follows:
- Spending a significant part of the night lying awake in bed and worrying you won’t be able to fall asleep.
- Trouble in getting to sleep after going to bed.
- Waking up from your slumber consistently at night results in interrupted or broken sleep.
- Waking up too early in the morning and failing to go back to sleep.
- Experiencing irritability and mood changes.
- Failure to catch a good night’s rest results in problems concentrating and remembering things.
What are the different types of insomnia?
Based on the characteristics, insomnia can be classified into the following types:
- Acute Insomnia: This type of insomnia cures itself in a while. Generally, it is caused because of issues like death in the family, stress at work, or problems in relationships. Acute insomnia does not last for more than a few weeks.
- Chronic Insomnia: This type of insomnia affects your sleep in the long term. It keeps you awake for three or more days each week regularly, typically for a period longer than three months.
- Maintenance Insomnia: When people consistently wake up too early or face trouble staying asleep after drifting off, it is maintenance insomnia. The sleep issue is caused because of underlying physical and mental health problems. Lying awake and worrying about sleep can make it worse.
- Onset Insomnia: Patients with this sleep problem face difficulty in falling asleep. The primary onset insomnia causes caffeine consumption, mental health problems, and drinking.
- Behavioral Insomnia of Childhood: Those suffering from this type of insomnia refuse to go to bed, have trouble falling asleep, or both. They should be taught self-soothing strategies and follow a regular sleep routine for getting better.
Besides specific characteristics, insomnia can also be classified based on causes into primary and secondary insomnia. While the former does not result from a clear cause or existing mental or physical health condition, the latter is caused because of chronic pain, shift work, medications, or mental health conditions like depression and anxiety.
What causes insomnia?
For curing this condition, it is necessary to first identify the insomnia causes. Some of these are as follows:
- Stress: Issues at work, school, or home can keep your mind active at night, preventing you from drifting off. Trauma or stressful life events like losing a loved one, divorce, or job loss can also lead to insomnia.
- Eating late in the evening: The food you eat at dinnertime also affects your rest. So, if you consume a heavy meal at night, you may feel uncomfortable because of heartburn or backflow of acid from the esophagus. It can cause trouble and keep you up.
- Travel: An internal clock in your body governs your sleep-wake cycle, metabolism, and body temperature. Traveling to a different time zone and frequently changing work shifts can disrupt the internal clock and result in sleepless nights.
- Sleep Habits: One of the common insomnia causes is poor sleep habits. Those who have irregular sleep time, an uncomfortable rest environment, or the practice of working in bed often face rest issues. Playing video games late at night or performing stimulating activities before bedtime can also interfere with your sleep.
Some other insomnia causes are mental health disorders, sleep-related problems, medical conditions, medications, and consuming late-night alcohol or caffeine.
What are the possible ways of treating insomnia?
Sleep experts suggest several methods like therapy, medication, supplements, and natural remedies for treating insomnia.
- CBT for Insomnia:
People who have insomnia are recommended to try cognitive behavioral therapy to get better. In this treatment option, the focus is to address and alter inaccurate or unhelpful thoughts. Actions that relax your brain and help with sleep like stimulus control therapy, relaxation technique, sleep restriction therapy, and bright light therapy are promoted. In addition, good sleep hygiene practices like following a sleep schedule, avoiding alcohol, and not consuming coffee at night are encouraged.
- Medications and supplements:
Some patients suffering from insomnia are prescribed medicines like Lunesta, Ambien, and Halcion. In addition, OTC medication and supplements like melatonin also offer relief. For those who do not know, melatonin is the hormone associated with controlling your sleep-wake cycle. So, taking melatonin supplements decreases the time one needs to fall asleep. However, with that said, one should note that there is no solid proof of whether melatonin supplements treat insomnia.
- Lifestyle changes:
People who do not want to try medication or therapy can opt to make some lifestyle changes for treating insomnia. They can try:
- Acupuncture is a traditional Chinese technique that involves inserting needles at pressure points
- Natural sleep aids like consuming warm milk, herbal tea, and valerian before going to bed
- Meditation relaxes your brain and body and improves sleep quality. Moreover, it also helps with anxiety and pain.
- Aromatherapy:
Aromatherapy involves using strong aromatic liquids made from herbs, trees, and flowers for treating insomnia. People inhale these oils or massage them on their skin to help ease symptoms of sleep issues. Choosing the right essential oil from sandalwood, cedarwood, lavender, and roman chamomile is vital for people who opt for this cure.
Insomnia is common rest trouble that leads to sleepless nights. Reasons like stress, traveling to a different time zone, medication, or an underlying medical condition can lead to this problem. For treating these insomnia causes, patients can try CBT, aromatherapy, lifestyle changes, or melatonin supplements.