Insomnia, please go away...

You can’t fall asleep, you have trouble maintaining sleep, or you’re waking up too soon? You probably have one of the ten most common types of insomnia. Because of that, you need to watch what you eat and drink, get rid of stress and be as relaxed as possible.

You can’t fall asleep, you have trouble maintaining sleep, or you’re waking up too soon? If you are lying awake for hours at night, it doesn’t immediately mean that you suffer from insomnia, but you are probably close to that diagnosis. 

Insomnia can manifest itself in many ways. Experts who are dealing with sleep disorders are trying to discover the underlying causes of insomnia that are caused by various medical and psychological conditions. Here are ten most common types of insomnia.

1. General insomnia

Insomnia is generally defined as a disturbance of sleep during which the person cannot sleep, is having difficulties to maintain sleep or is waking up too early.  This disorder is also known as poor sleep quality.

2. Acute insomnia

Acute or short-term insomnia is often caused by stress. Sleep problems disappear when stress ceases or when you put it under control. Sleep disturbance doesn’t  have to occur only when  something negative is happening to you. It can be caused and with positive things. Positive things may produce stress caused by great excitement.

3. Behavioral insomnia in childhood

This type of insomnia occurs when children do not go to bed at specific time. If they are sent to bed every night at specific time, they tend to sleep according to specific schedule. If there is no specific schedule, they can be dragged awake throughout the night.

4. Idiopathic insomnia

This type of insomnia is an ongoing sleep disorder that begins in childhood and continues later in life. There is no explanation of what is causing it, but it was determined that it is nothing of the following: other sleep disorders, health problems, stress, psychological problems and drugs.

5. Insomnia due to substances

This type of insomnia is directly related to the use of some of the following substances: drugs, caffeine, alcohol and certain foods. If this is really your case, the problem will vanish when you stop using some of those substances.

 6. Insomnia due to health problems

This insomnia is caused by certain mental health disorders. How will the sleeping problem progress, depends on the state of mental health. Insomnia should be a separate part of the treatment, in addition to treatment of mental disorder that some person maid have. However, this type of insomnia is treated only if it is a big problem and if the doctor assesses that it requires a special treatment.

7. Inorganic or indeterminate insomnia

When all known substances and other physical causes are ruled out, then we have this type of insomnia. This means that the cause of it is psychological factor. Inorganic or indeterminate insomnia is a diagnosis that is used on an interim basis, until the exact cause of insomnia is determined  or when the patient doesn’t meet any criteria that can link him to some other type of insomnia.

8. Organic or determined insomnia

This insomnia is caused with health disorders, physical conditions and substances to which we expose ourselves. Detailed examinations are necessary to detect the real cause. Until we find out what is causing it, we call that type of disorder organic insomnia.

9. Paradoxical insomnia

It embodies several types of insomnia, but there are no objective indicators that there exists a sleep disorder. Although a person maid complain about sleep disorder, there are no serious consequences that affect that person during the day. People who have this type of insomnia often report little or no sleep for several nights. The main characteristic is overestimation of time necessary to fall asleep, and underestimation of total sleep time.

10. Psychophysiological insomnia

This insomnia is associated with excessive concern about inability to fall asleep. It can occur suddenly as a result of some event or gradually during several years. People who have this disorder are too concerned about their insomnia and fatigue that occurs the next day because they didn’t get any sleep. As a result, they become tensioned and anxious every time they go to bed. They can have disturbing thoughts that are related to insomnia and efforts to fall asleep. The more they think about it, they are becoming more strained, which in turn reduces the likelihood of falling asleep.

Tips – Don’t look at watch, sit down in a chair and read a book

Don’t do this at night if you have insomnia:

-    Do not constantly watch at the clock.
-    If you can’t sleep, don’t lie awake in bed for more than 15 minutes - sit down in a comfortable chair.
-    Do not turn on bright lights - dim lighting, light from the TV or monitor is better.
-    Don’t do anything too stimulating, do something that relaxes the brain - read a book or watch a TV show.