subject: Variants Of Insomnia [print this page] Insomnia, which is often called sleeplessness, is not just a straightforward problem with sleeping. It can effect different people in different ways and this can include the amount of sleeplessness, how long it lasts for, and the way it presents.
It can seem that you are getting no sleep at all, it can certainly feel that way. In actual fact it is likely that you are getting sleep and the issue is actually fairly short periods of time.
That's is certainly true most of the time but there are some very extreme occurrences where individuals may go for days at a time without being able to achieve any sleep at all..
However, just because you're only losing out on a couple of hours sleep at night, it certainly doesn't mean that you should dismiss the problem and not treat it serously. Everyone needs sleep to sustain physical and psychological health and well being, losing out on too much sleep can have an impact on both areas.
Let's talk about the different types of insomnia?
If you find it difficult to get to sleep at night, perhaps laying awake for an hour or more, but then you can sleep through until the next morning OK
Then you are experiencing Initial Insomnia
If you wake up too early in the morning and then lay there tossing and turning trying to get back to sleep without success
Then you are experiencing Terminal Insomnia (not as scary as it sounds, terminal just refers to the end of the sleep period)
Or, if you get to sleep OK to start with and then find that wake up in the middle of the night only to find it really hard to get back to sleep again. Maybe you find that you can only get back to sleep after an hour or more, but then you sleep right through until the morning.
Then you are experiencing Middle Insomnia
Insomnia may not necessarily something that you have a problem with every night. You may find that there are big differences in how regularly you experience sleep problems and also how long the problems hang around.
Some people find they can sleep perfectly well most of the time but then they have periods of days when they really can't seem to get a good nights sleep,
If this is what you are experiencing then you may be suffering from Intermittent Insomnia
On the other hand if your sleeping problems have been going on for more than a couple of weeks, perhaps even for a few months, then you have Chronic Insomnia
What about if you are going without any sleep for days at a time? You cannot achieve any sleep during the night and the problem persists over a time.
If you find it impossible to get any sleep at all, and this goes on for three or more days in a week, then you may well be suffering from Severe Insomnia
