Insomnia - The Symptoms, Affects, And Treatments

[anthony]

Informational Article - Permission Sought to Reproduce

Forms Of Insomnia

Insomnia comes in many forms, not just in the form of sleeplessness:

• Difficulty falling asleep
• Having problems staying asleep after falling asleep.
• Waking up many times during the night.
• Waking up too early.
• Not feeling refreshed after waking up.

The Symptoms Of Insomnia

Insomnia can have a serious affect on a person’s daily life style. Symptoms of insomnia can include all of the following:

• Feeling sleepy during the day
• Having poor or slow judgment
• Inability to pay attention to detail
• Inability to remember things - even things that happened only minutes before.
• Easily irritated by minor things

Types Of Insomnia

• Transient Insomnia - a temporary effect that lasts just a few days.
• Short-Term Insomnia - lasts for between two to four weeks.
• Chronic Insomnia - lasts for a month or longer.

Causes Of Insomnia

There are many causes for insomnia. Below are some of the most common reasons people suffer from insomnia.

• Stress - There are many stress management aides available to assist you in reducing your stress.
• Noise in the sleeping environment
• Extreme temperatures - too hot or too cold
• Changes in your surrounding environment
• Worrying about not being able to sleep
• Excessive napping during the day time
• Too much caffeine, nicotine, or alcohol before bedtime. Smoking contributes to many health related problems and you should try to quit smoking.

Tips For Getting A Good Night’s Sleep

Following some of the helpful guidelines below can help you get a better night’s sleep:

Set A Schedule
Go to bed at the same time every night and wake up at the same time every morning. This will help your body get used to a sleeping pattern. "Sleeping in" on the weekends can cause insomnia because it is interrupting the sleep cycle that your body is used to.

Get Some Exercise
Try to get 20 to 30 minutes of exercise no sooner than 6 hours before bedtime- any exercise just before bed may cause you not to sleep that well.

Avoid Caffeine, Nicotine, and Alcohol
Avoid things that contain any caffeine such as coffee, soda pop, teas, and candy. Smokers usually sleep very lightly at night and will wake up at the slightest noise, sometimes not being able to fall back asleep. The same goes for people that drink alcohol just before going to bed.

Do Something Relaxing Before Going To Bed
Doing something that relaxes you before bed is good such as a warm bath, reading a book, or watching your favorite TV show.

Do Not Over Sleep
Be sure to wake up and get out of bed at your normal time frame. Sleeping more hours than you are used to will throw off your sleep cycle and cause sleeping problems. It may cause you to not be tired at night and then go to bed later, thus resulting in sleeping in even later the next morning.

Control Your Room Temperature
Extreme cold or warmth can cause you to sleep poorly. Be sure to maintain a comfortable room temperature that won't aggravate you during the night. If you have a waterbed be sure to set the water temperature at a comfortable temperature as well.

When It Is Time To See A Doctor

If your sleeping problem persists for more than one month then it may be time to visit your family doctor. Your doctor will be able to give you advice for your particular needs and can prescribe stronger sleeping aides that are not available over the counter.

You can seek possible remedies from someone like eVitamins.

 

[Deleted member 20280]

Definately a thread I need to watch. Thank you @anthony

 

[intothelight]

One other area that can cause disruption to sleep is the use of electronics an hour before bedtime. The "blue" light emitted from television, computer and even cell phone screens can suppress the production of melatonin, a hormone integral in the bodies natural sleep cycle. Don't use electronics within an hour before bed time.

Sleep isn't a waste of time as this is the time that a person's body works to repair itself. Long term lack of sleep can also have a negative effect upon weight, the cardiovascular system, mood (increasing depression symptoms) and a whole lot of other negative effects even to the cellular level.

 

[Deleted member 20280]

As a Chronic Insomniac, I am guilty of nearly all of the above.

I for one will be learning a great deal regarding my own personal sleep hygiene from this thread.

:)

 

[J_trustno1]

@anthony: Very well said and a must follow. Thanks for this thread :)

 

[Maggiemay]

Needed here too! ;) After my psych saying I need to work on sleep & therapist saying I already it all, I'm stuck not knowing what to do so I can get off Mitazapine and loose weight :s xxx

 

[Notsowild]

I've always been an insomniac. @anthony do you use any natural sleep aids? My son uses GABA and melatonin.

 

[anthony]

No. I sleep pretty good nowadays. Normally 6 - 8 hours. The only time my sleep changes, where I toss and turn for hours, is if I am really anxious about something / a lot on my brain, then I just toss and turn and get disturbed sleep. The majority of times, I have my sleep down pat nowadays.

I taught myself to clear my mind, and by doing so there is no focus on anything, and I just doze off. 99% of the time I do this naturally now without knowing it... I only have to try it when tossing and turning for above reasons.

I am not a fan of any interventions to what the body will do naturally. If you use something, whether they call it pharmaceutical or naturopathic, both are interventions to what the body and brain will do naturally. Naturopathic isn't natural, when the body is wired to sleep. It just needs some ideal conditions is the issue, especially with the way the world is wired nowadays.

 

[Karen12]

Throughout high school and college I never got enough sleep. In high school I had to get up extra early for a before-school activity every day. In college I worked multiple jobs to keep my head above water while going to school and I was perpetually sleep-deprived. All those developmental years living with a lack of sleep programmed me to sleep in absolutely every single minute that I can. I've never been able to shake that, even decades later. I feel like I'm still making up for all that lost sleep! I hate waking up before I'm ready - so much so that it makes me angry when I have to. That's a horrible way to begin the day.

Does anyone else have enormous trouble resisting the temptation to sleep in?

 

[Tanishq]

Set A Schedule
Go to bed at the same time every night and wake up at the same time every morning. This will help your body get used to a sleeping pattern. "Sleeping in" on the weekends can cause insomnia because it is interrupting the sleep cycle that your body is used to.

This is the strategy I used to fix my sleep. Oh boy, that one was hell of struggle. Did it.

I continually aspired to sleep early, like normal time around 10 or 11 pm.

 

[Glara]

My sufferer hasn't slept in months. A few hours here and there. Occasionally one night and the back to tossing and turning, or just lying there with his eyes open. I don't have any idea what to say to him when he tells me these things. I just try to tell him it will get better eventually. He usually answers when he's dead. I try not to engage that and say something along the lines of "sooner than that, you used to sleep etc etc. "

I don't like to make too many suggestions, I'm not a therapist and I don't have any answers. I want to be supportive, that's what he's looking for, I'm just not sure how to be.

 

[anthony]

I don't like to make too many suggestions, I'm not a therapist

You don't need to be a therapist to make suggestions. Every partner in a relationship is a therapist of a sort... every relationship has a therapeutic context to it when support / advice is gained. This forum is a form of therapy, whilst the people here are not therapists, per se.

The scope of information available today is vaster than any therapist would ever know or be educated about uniquely. Research your topic, find valid and not so valid options, then give them to him and start trying different things very slowly, give each a period of time to measure a result, then if nothing is gained even slowly, move on to the next solution.

You can't fix him, sure... but don't confuse that with support. Support is helping him find possible solutions, and he has to step-up and actually want to improve his sleep / change. Supporting someone who doesn't want to do a thing to help themselves, is more accurately the supporter is in denial, in such cases.

Support means to help him help himself. Not fix him, but he has to do the work... you just help him find possible solutions that suit him. If he doesn't want to change, then ignore the issue and get on with your life.