subject: What You Should Know about Insomnia [print this page] What You Should Know about Insomnia What You Should Know about Insomnia
Insomnia is a bane and we wonder what it is all about. Here are some things you might want to know about it.
Insomnia is not a disease in itself but is a part of several disease entities. It is defined as inability to fall asleep at night or to maintain night sleep. It can also mean poor sleep quality. Night sleep is usually rejuvenating and the person who sleeps at night usually wakes up rested. Poor sleep quality is being able to sleep at night and still fell restless.
There are many causes of insomnia. These can be a body's reaction to changes or these can be due to psychological causes. One of the main changes include change in time like travel to another time zone, changes in shift schedule or ding two shifts the previous day. The body will need time to adjust to the new schedule so it takes days for insomnia to be relieved.
Another physical reaction is discomfort in the sleeping area like too hot or too cold temperature, and high altitude. Sickness can also cause insomnia because it causes discomfort. Withdrawal from addiction like drugs, alcohol and nicotine also causes insomnia. Diseases include chronic fatigue syndrome, heart diseases, acid reflux, asthma, and sleep apnea disorders.
There are high risk groups for insomnia. These people are prone to the condition because of their propensity for diseases that causes insomnia. These include elderly people, travelers, shift workers who often change work schedules, adolescents, students who have to study overnight for exams, pregnant women, women in menopause and those who are suffering from addiction including alcoholics and drug dependents.
Aside from these, people with psychiatric disorders also suffer insomnia. This is most pronounced in people suffering from depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and stress. These conditions can prevent sleep because their thoughts keep disrupting the conditioning process for sleep. So it is important that these conditions be treated or drugs to induce sleep can be used as long as it does not interact with the person's medications.
Insomnia can be treated in different ways. Medications are available as prescription as well as over the counter drugs. It is also important that the main cause of insomnia is targeted so that the discomfort is eliminated. When taking medications it is important that there are no drug interactions so the person will not have unwanted side effects.
Relaxation therapy is also helpful. These can relax the mind and muscles so that the person can sleep without disturbance. Yoga, and meditation can help by the same principle. Manipulations to relax the muscles can also benefit the person in the form of massages. Mind manipulation can also be done. Hypnosis can be done with the help of professionals. Self hypnosis is possible but it takes skill and training to master this technique.
Sleep is an important part of keeping the person's well being. But sometimes we have too much to do that we thought it is okay to forego sleep for just a few hours. This can lead to stress and may eventually lead to insomnia. Sometimes this condition is taken for granted for the sake of finishing the deadline. We should not forget that if we want to keep our johs, it is important to keep healthy and on our toes to perform well on our jobs.
