Insomnia Facts
Insomnia could be defined as the lack of or insufficient sleep during nights. Insomnia is one of the most common disorders believed to develop because of various factors such as: difficulty in falling asleep, frequently breaking of sleep or waking up during nights and then cannot sleep again, waking up very early in the next morning or overall the un-refreshing sleep at nights. Insomnia could never be defined by the number of hour’s person sleeps or even the time being taken by him for falling asleep. The necessity of the sleep may vary from person to person depending upon his individual requirements for sleeping.
The person facing sleeping disorder may experience problems such as tiredness, lack of required energy, unable to concentrate properly or even irritating tendency. In general, there are three basic categories of Insomnia, such as: transient i.e. short term or intermittent i.e. on and off and lastly the chronic means consistent. The trouble of insomnia may vary from one night to several weeks in the transient phase, but if repeated episodes of such transient insomnia take place, it is known as intermittent. However, the chronic or consistent insomnia occurs on the nights and lasts even for a month or more.
The tentative cause of Insomnia: There may be some peculiar conditions when an individual may face insomnia such as: advanced age – it is reported that Insomnia affects more to the persons over 60 years of age, insomnia is more common in the feminine genders, or when the person has the history of depression. However, in some other conditions like stress, anxiety, some specific medical problem, or even due to the use of some typical medications, the insomnia is experienced the most. The studies also reveal that there may be several other causes of insomnia, both transient and intermittent insomnia occur in persons who have been experiencing one or more of the following problems: stress, environmental noise, extreme temperatures, change in atmosphere, change in schedules of sleeping or waking up as due to jet lag or side effects by some medications etc.
The consistent or chronic insomnia is rather complex and is found frequently caused due to multiple reasons including underlying physical or psychic disorders. Depression is also said to be one of the most common cause for the chronic insomnia. Some more causes that could be well be causing the chronic insomnia include arthritis, kidney disease, heart failure, asthma symptoms, sleep apnea, narcolepsy, restless legs syndromes, Parkinson’s disease and/or hyperthyroidism. Certain behavioral factors like misuse of caffeine, consumption of alcohol or similar drinks, disrupted sleeping or waking up cycles due to shift jobs or night time activities and constant stress may also be causing insomnia in many cases.
Insomnia or sleep disorder is widely reported both by males and females of all the age groups, however, it is rather common in the female category specifically in the post menopause as well as in the elderly age groups. The sleeping abilities or willingness to fall asleep anyway, diminishes along with the advancing age in all people.