Insomnia Disease

By Jeff Damm

Insomnia is a disease which has been researched by medical scientists of the USA as the challenge of having insufficient sleep. Insomnia occurs to a human being due to the following factors:

  • Having difficulty in getting enough sleep.
  • Experiencing a hard time in maintaining sleep, waking up regularly in the middle of the night.
  • Having a tendency of waking up too early and feeling prone to dozing off.  
  • Getting  very poor sleep because of meditating worries, burdens, and mysteries of life.

The above symptoms of insomnia can be caused by different kinds of social, biological, and psychological factors.  They frequently come up because of the inadequacy of sleep, but on the contrary, the insomnia sufferer has the potential of getting sufficient sleep [1].  It is worth noting that insomnia disease is totally dissimilar from sleep deprivation.

There are two categories of insomnia- primary insomnia and secondary insomnia.

  • Primary Insomnia: A kind of sleeplessness that does not have any connectivity with existing environmental, psychiatric, or medical causes such as abuse of drugs or poor medications.
  • Secondary Insomnia: A type of insomnia that is provoked from a primary medical disease, such as sleep disorders or mental disorders.

Prevalence

  • Around 30% of adults in the USA have signs of insomnia.
  • Around 10% of the elderly in the USA suffer from insomnia.
  • Approximately less than 10% of adults in the USA have a high probability of having chronic insomnia.

Types of Insomnia

Insomnia is regarded as an actual disorder when it produces  tremendous anxiety or distress which affects your rate of production in your line of duty [2]. The following are the types of Insomnia:

  1. Adjustment Insomnia: It is also known as short-term insomnia or acute insomnia. It is normally caused by stress and tends to last for a short period of time. It can go for a few weeks or days. Epidemiological research suggests that the one-year occurrence of adjustment insomnia among adults is in the range of 15 to 20 percent. Adjustment insomnia can affect children, youths, or older people. It occurs more likely in women than in men, and to older people compared to children and adults [3].
  2. Behavioral insomnia of childhood: There are two primary kinds of insomnia that affect the child.  Sleep- onset relatedness results when a child falls asleep when doing a specific kind of action. For example, there are a large number of children that only sleep when they are holding a toy, sucking their fingers, or scribbling some funny cartoons on a book. Limit-setting insomnia happens when a child refuses to sleep if the mother or the guardian authority is absent [4]. Around 10 to 30 percent of children suffer from this type of insomnia.
  3. Idiopathic Insomnia: It is a kind of insomnia that starts from childhood and stays for a very long period of time. It cannot be demystified by other causes. Research reports that this condition occurs approximately to 7 percent of adolescents, and 1.0% of young adults.
  4. Inadequate Insomnia: This is an insomnia type that affects an individual due to poor sleep habits. This condition affects approximately 1 to 2 percent of young adults and adolescents. This insomnia affected 5 to 10 percent of sleep-clinic people in the United States of America [5].
  5. Insomnia due to a medical condition, mental disorder, or drug substance: Medical surveys report that symptoms of insomnia are resulted because of a psychiatric or medical condition. Among the young adults and the adolescents, the occurrence of this kind of insomnia is a little bit lower. 2 percent of the United States populations are affected by this type of insomnia. Around 3.5% of total sleep- center patients suffer from this condition.
  6. Paradoxical Insomnia: In this type of insomnia, the sleeper appears to be sleeping to everyone else, which is a deception. Whereas, these sufferers report spending hours lying awake at night and the inability to sleep.
  7. Psychophysiological insomnia: Psychophysiological insomnia sufferers have intensive anxiety and worries regarding sleeplessness and sleep. This condition is seen between a range of 1 to 2 % of the whole population of the USA and 12 to 15 percent of the sum total of patients who turn up at sleep centers [6]. This illness is more common in women than in men. Seldom does it occur to young children but it occurs regularly to all adult age groups and adolescents included.   

Risk Groups

    • A large number of insomnia sufferers are older people and middle-aged adults. Physical challenges can be the main contributor to sleep deficiency.

 

  • Women are more prone to be affected by insomnia than men.
  • Individuals, who have a psychiatric or medical disease, including depression, are at high risk of getting insomnia.
  •   Individuals who use medications are highly at risk for insomnia.

 

Effects of Insomnia

  • Weariness
  • Grumpiness
  • Combativeness to minor issues
  • Nervousness to sleep alone
  • Dismal results at school or work
  • Lack of inspiration from a mentor
  • Tension or regular headaches
  • Regular accidents while driving or at the workplace.

Treatment of Insomnia

  • Cognitive behavioral therapy: CBT entails the discipline of changing beliefs and attitudes that hinder night sleep. It is very important to relax after a tedious day at the workplace, rectify poor habits that result in bad sleep, and to try as much as possible to increase some time when sleeping in your bed. Consider going to bed only when tired, rise up at the same time every day, avoid naps, and use the bed only for sex and sleep [7].
  • Over-counter products: Some of these products can assist in getting enough sleep.
  • Approved prescription drugs: Trazodone, which is an antidepressant for lessening the intensity of insomnia, is just one prescription drug that is used to lessen insomnia symptoms.

Insomnia is a very common disease and can affect anyone regardless of age, color, or ethnicity. It has affected a large number of individuals across the world. Individuals should be very alert to seek any medical assistance if they suffer from insufficient sleep. Children should be nurtured through the proper manner to assist them from being affected by this disease. Sound sleep positively impacts a person’s quality of life. Non-Profit Organizations,  like The EPIC Foundation, should be boosted with the right tools to help overcome this disease.

References

  1. American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 4th Ed. Washington, D.C.: APA; 2014
  2. Ancoli-Israel S. The impact and prevalence of chronic insomnia and other sleep disturbances associated with chronic illness. Am J Managed Care. 2015
  3. Harvey AG. A cognitive model of insomnia. Behav Res Ther. 2012.
  4. Johnson EO, Roth T, Schultz L, Breslau N. Epidemiology of DSMIV insomnia in adolescence: lifetime prevalence, chronicity, and an emergent gender difference. Pediatrics. 2013
  5. Kuppermann M, Lubeck DP, Mazonson PD, Patrick DL, Stewart AL, Buesching DP, Fifer SK. Sleep problems and their correlates in a working population. J Gen Intern Med. 2015
  6. Sateia MJ, Doghramji K, Hauri PJ, Morin CM. Evaluation of chronic insomnia. An American Academy of Sleep Medicine review. Sleep. 2012
  7. Simon GE, VonKorff M. Prevalence, burden, and treatment of insomnia in primary care. Am J Psychiatry. 2016