Insomnia

Every day it seems as if someone claims they have insomnia, didn’t sleep enough, or could have slept the entire day. However, insomnia is not defined by how long it takes a person to fall asleep, or how many hours of sleep a person gets. This is due to the fact that our needs for sleep vary, some nights we need more sleep, and some nights we don’t need much sleep at all.

Insomnia is instead define as poor-quality sleep caused by difficulty falling asleep, waking up frequently with difficulty falling back to sleep, waking up too early in the morning, and/or sleep that is not refreshing. There are three types of insomnia: transient or short term, intermittent, or on and off, and chronic, or constant, insomnia.

The cause of insomnia can vary, but some conditions are more likely to cause insomnia in an individual. These causes are advanced age, female gender, a history of depression, stress, environmental noise, extreme temperatures, jet lag, and medication side effects.

Chronic insomnia is more complex than either transient or intermittent insomnia and is usual the result of a combination of factors. The most common cause of chronic insomnia is depression. Other causes include arthritis, kidney disease, heart failure, asthma, and restless legs syndrome.