Help with Insomnia and Sleep Difficulty

Article by Paul and Denise Douglass

What is Insomnia? What types of Insomnia are there? What causes insomnia? How can insomnia be helped?

See Also: Sleep Well with Hypnosis

What is Insomnia?

Insomnia, put simply, is a difficulty in sleeping. 

Insomnia is usually either a difficulty in getting to sleep, staying asleep, or waking from sleep too early.

The lack of sleep that insomnia can cause can be a major factor in the impairment of brain function while awake.

In the United States alone, insomnia is said to affect 60,000,000 people each year, which approximately one in every five people, although some studies have said that it can affect as many as 60% of people or more.
Insomnia affects women more than men.

The Types of Insomnia

Insomnia, just like anything else, can affect different people in different ways.  Insomnia can though, be broadly categorized as:

• Difficulty in falling asleep – This type of insomnia is often described by the sufferer as ‘not being able to switch off’.  Perhaps the person has something important on their mind, or perhaps they are generally suffering from anxiety about something.
  
• Difficulty in staying asleep – The person with this type of insomnia will find they wake up during the night, often many times per night. This type of insomnia can affect the quality of the sleep that the insomniac has, as well as the quantity of sleep.
  
• The first two types of insomnia can combine into another type of insomnia, where the person wakes during the night, and then has real difficulty in going back to sleep.  They will often report that when they wake from sleep, their mind ‘starts up’ and they can’t get something out of their mind, and so can’t get back to sleep.
  
• Waking from sleep early – People with this form of insomnia will wake from sleep too early in the morning, and not be able to go back to sleep again.  Some studies have shown that there can be a connection between this type of insomnia, and depression.

Categories of Insomnia

Although, as we’ve already said, there can be many forms of insomnia that can affects people’s sleep patterns in many different ways, insomnia has been broadly categorized as:

Transient Insomnia – This is insomnia that lasts for anything up to a few weeks.  Sleep patterns can be disrupted in any of the ways referred to earlier.  This form of insomnia can often come about as a reaction to something that’s going on in that person’s life at that moment.  Stress, anxiety, depression, money worries etc can cause transient insomnia.

Acute Insomnia – This is the name given to a period of insomnia that lasts anywhere between a few weeks to a few months.

Chronic Insomnia – This form of insomnia can affect someone’s sleep patterns on a seemingly never ending basis.  Sleep can be affected for years, and this can have subsequent effects on the person’s daytime functioning.   Again, this form of insomnia can be linked to other conditions, such as anxiety or depression.

The Cause of Insomnia

There can be many different caused of insomnia and sleep difficulties.  These causes of insomnia can include:

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Stimulants (such as caffeine)
• Stress
• Financial Difficulty
• Hormones
• Jet lag
• Physical problems of the brain or other medical conditions
• Environmental conditions (cold, heat, loud sounds etc)
• Overactive mind

How to overcome insomnia

The one thing we'd like to say right from the start, is don't worry, you CAN overcome insomnia when you know how.

What we've found over the years, is that there are a few simple techniques that you can use to overcome insomnia.

Sometimes, people who have insomnia can often feel quite out of control and negative about things, because it can sometimes feel like they're stuck with it, and there's nothing that can be done about it (which of course there is!).

So the first thing to understand if you're looking to get over your insomnia, is that that there IS something that can be done, and even that in itself can help you feel a bit more in control right from the start.

Sometimes, it might feel like people are judging you negatively because of your insomnia, and so overcoming insomnia can also have the added bonus of feeling less judged.

So, as we say, don't worry... we've found over the years, that there are a few simple techniques that you can use to overcome insomnia... you CAN overcome insomnia when you know how... it just might be that you need someone to show you how!

Next: What techniques can you use to overcome insomnia?

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