Have you been dealing with long bouts of sleeplessness? Do you feel exhausted but you just cannot seem to fall asleep and then when you do, you just cannot stay asleep for a significant amount of time? If this is what you’ve been going through, there’s a good chance you are suffering from insomnia disorder.
More Than a Little Trouble Sleeping
While insomnia disorder essentially refers to sleep deprivation, it does not have a simple definition. This is because the factors that trigger off insomnia vary widely from one person to the other. To understand this better, we need to take a look at the three main factors that cause insomnia:
- Predisposing Factors: The predisposed sufferer typically experiences insomnia due to an over active or an over anxious mind. This can be brought on either because the individual is driven and ambitious or on the other hand, the individual may be depressed. Both groups of people are equally affected by this disorder.
- Precipitating Factors: These are factors that relate to sudden stressful or disruptive occurrences in a person’s life such as the loss of a loved one, a sudden monumental increase in work or responsibilities, acute pain from an injury or surgery and or less serious stressors such as a radical change in work hours or a case of jetlag.
- Perpetuating Factors: These are typically self-induced factors such as drug addiction or alcohol abuse that affect a person’s regular sleeping pattern. It can also be caused by taking on irregular sleep patterns such as staying up late or sleeping fewer hours for a time and then trying to go back to a regular sleep cycle.
Insomnia Disorder is a Symptom
While most of us think of insomnia as the problem, the reality is that insomnia disorder is a symptom of other conditions. Look over this list of insomnia types to better understand what role life changes can take in your sleep patterns:
- Transient: This is temporary insomnia caused by an increase in stress levels brought on by changes in environment or conflict. You may experience this form of insomnia from having a particularly stressful argument, moving to a new place or even staying in a place which isn’t your home.
- Toxin-Induced: This is sleep that is affected by exposure to heavy metal or organic toxins.
- Alcohol-Dependent: This insomnia is more common in alcoholics and results when the sufferer needs to drink enough alcohol to achieve the hypnotic affect that will allow them to fall asleep but they often find that they are unable to sleep long enough.
- Stimulant-Dependent: This occurs after a user of stimulants quits using them. The brain gets used to the sleep/wake cycle caused by the stimulants and then is unable to achieve a level of exhaustion that allows sleep.
- Idiopathic: Idiopathic insomnia is a neurological problem with the sleeping/waking system that could have started at birth and is often a lifelong problem.
- Environmental: This is an inability to sleep or to feel fully rested which is caused by outside distractions such as construction or other noises during the rest period.
If you feel that you are experiencing insomnia, it is best to discuss these patterns with your physician before attempting to make any changes or trying remedies. Sleep aides may worsen chronic insomnia so use caution when evaluating their use.
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