How to Get Rid of Insomnia

It happens night after night. You get into bed, hoping for a goo night of sleep — only to toss, turn, wiggle and squirm until the wee hours of the morning.

You get up in the morning, cranky, irritable and sleepy.

You suffer from insomnia — the inability to fall asleep or to stay asleep at night.  You have recurrent insomnia. For some, insomnia is an occasional nuisance. For others, it is a nightly curse — a problem that won’t go away. In many cases, insomnia is only short-term, and it is frequently referred to as “transient insomnia.”

Usually transient insomnia is directly related to some event going on in your life. Stress from a new job, loss of an old job, marriage trouble, a rebellious teenager, an impending retirement, financial problems, death of a loved one or anxiety over an upcoming relocation —- these are examples of sources of stress in people’s lives that frequently cause temporary sleeping problems. 

Those sleeping problems are usually taken care of when the problem itself is resolved.

Insomnia is also caused by medications. Many prescription drugs and some nonprescription drugs have side effects that include insomnia.

And occasionally, a combination of drugs will produce insomnia as a side effect, even though no single drug in the combination causes insomnia.

Insomnia is frequently related to physical illnesses. People who suffer from illnesses or diseases that cause pain or discomfort are often unable to sleep due to their pain.

Many people with terminal illnesses such as cancer might be afraid to sleep because of the fear of nightmares or the fear of not reawakening in the morning. Although their bodies crave sleep, the fear of sleep keeps them edgy and awake.

Depression, like anxiety and stress, is a frequent cause of insomnia. As with stress, the insomnia caused by depression usually disappears when the depression is resolved.

Some people have trouble sleeping due to shift work. Most of the people who suffer from work-related insomnia or sleepiness have rotating work schedules — a day shift one day, and a midnight shift the next. Their “body clock” can’t get adjusted to the changing schedule, and they can’t sleep when they need to.

Other people who work straight evening or midnight shifts might have difficulty sleeping during the day event though their shifts are regular. The light from the windows or the noise of outside activity during the day is enough to keep them awake even though they are sleepy.