Some Information About Insomnia

July 25, 2008

Insomnia is a common sleeping disorder, in which the sufferer has persistent difficulty falling or staying asleep, despite feeling tired. This leads to exhaustion and an impairment of functional ability.

Three main types of insomnia
· Transient or intermittent insomnia can be caused by environment factors and usually only lasts from a few days or weeks. Changes in your sleeping environment, heavy workloads, stress and anxiety can all contribute to this, and you will experience a slight impairment to motor functions and an increasing sense of tiredness.
· Acute insomnia can last for between a few weeks and six months, and again is usually influenced by outside factors such as stress and changes to environment.
· Chronic insomnia can be severe and last for years at a time. It can be caused as part of another underlying medical condition, but more commonly it exists independently. The effects of chronic insomnia can vary, but it usual symptoms include exhaustion, muscular and mental fatigue and hallucinations. Most people with chronic insomnia can show periods of increased alertness, although these will be only temporary.

Patterns of Insomnia
Insomnia normally follows patterns, which have been classified as:
· Onset insomnia – difficulty sleeping when first going to bed, which is often caused by anxiety or stress.
· Middle insomnia – sufferers wake in the night, or too early in the morning and find it difficult to go back to sleep, which is often caused by pain syndromes or other medical conditions.
· Terminal insomnia – waking very early in the morning and unable to sleep again, this is often linked to clinical depression.

Causes of insomnia
There are many factors than can influence sleeping patterns. Drugs such as ephedrine, amphetamines, and methylphenidate can overly stimulate the system making it difficult to sleep. Hormonal shifts can also disturb the natural sleep processes as well as psychological disorder such as anxiety, schizophrenia and depression. General imbalances in your life can affect your sleep, such as shift work or jet lag, which cause you to fall out of your body’s natural daily rhythm. Also as we get older we need less sleep, and the ability to sleep for long periods of time decreases. Older people often find they can only sleep for up to 4 hours at a time and so will wake early, and then take a nap in the afternoons.

Treatment
Insomnia can be a very disruptive condition that can have a significant impact on the sufferer’s life. There are some medications available for this condition, and psychological treatment may also be useful.

· Sleeping tablets and sedatives can often be prescribed for insomnia, but they are not recommended for long-term use as they can cause psychological dependence, and sedatives such as benzodiazepines can also cause physical dependence and withdrawal symptoms when the treatment is ended. You can buy valium (diazepam) online too.
· Some antidepressants such as amitriptyline and trazodone have also been used to treat insomnia as they can aid sleep, but they do have some significant side effects and can also lead to physical dependence.
· The antihistamine Benadryl (diphenhydramine) is a common ingredient in over the counter sleep aids, and it is not known to cause any kind of dependence. However it does carry a risk of drowsiness the follow day, and can decrease in effectiveness as your body gets used to it.
· Some herbal treatments are thought to ease insomnia such as valerian, chamomile, and passionflower. Studies have shown that valerian is effective on mild cases of sleeplessness.
· Psychological treatments include cognitive behaviour therapy, which has been shown to be more effective than medication in combating insomnia in some cases, and also relaxation techniques such as meditation are thought to be helpful as they lower stress and prepare the body for sleep. Its always better to consult your doctor for proper insomnia treatment

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