Sleeplessness is a serious disorder which is called insomnia. When a person fails to have sound sleep it means he or she is suffering from insomnia and this serious disorder may lead to several devastating results so it must be detected and cured
What is sleeplessness?
When the person from more than two nights fails to fall asleep it means disorder of insomnia has caught him. Due to this disorder person may get in trap of various issues related to health.
How it can be detected?
For insomnia there can be various symptoms that gives you red alert about it such as
- Feeling fatigue but Difficult to have sound sleep
- Frequently waking up at night and difficult to sleep back
- Awaking too early in the morning
- Problem in concentrating on work
- Daytime drowsiness and irritation
If you are having above two or more symptoms it means you are suffering from the same problem.
Types and causes of insomnia
Firstly this disorder can be divided in two types as follows depending on the duration for sleeplessness
- Acute insomnia
When person fails to fall asleep for more than two nights to few weeks it means person is having acute insomnia that is also called short term disorder.
- Chronic insomnia
If you are suffering from sleeplessness from week to month or longer it means it is chronic problem which is also called long term disorder.
There can be different reasons for insomnia for both short term and long term disorders as follows
Causes for short term can be
- Mental stress due to job loss, death of loved ones and exertion during work
- Environmental factors can also intervene into your sleeping schedule
- Some medications related to allergies, infections, depression and even asthma
- Irregular sleeping schedule due to jet lag and shifts of job
Causes for long term sleeplessness
- Any type of anxiety and depression may cause longer sleeplessness
- Long term emotional stress
- Severe pain and discomfort at night on regular basis
Secondly on the basis of root cause this can be divided into two types
- Primary
It happens when the root cause of the sleeplessness is not directly related to any health problem it can be else like too noisy sleeping environment, if the environment while sleeping is not comfortable, excess of watching T.V on bed, irregular sleeping schedule and so on.
- Secondary
It happens when the cause of disease is due to some health issues means if you are suffering from serious health problems like asthma, depression, arthritis, cancer, heartburn, pain and medication.
How to diagnose insomnia?
If you have detected that you are suffering from this problem then its time to contact health care provider so that he or she may diagnose this. For diagnosis there can be different ways as you can be asked for evaluation by physical exam, your medical and sleep history.
Even to keep record you can be asked for maintaining diary for your sleeping patterns for at least few weeks. If you are having your bed partner then he or she may be asked for interview to know about your quality of sleep,
In some extreme cases you may also be referred for sleeping center for special examination and tests.
How insomnia is treated?
For primary disorder there is not great need of treatment as it can be cured by changing conditions of your sleeping environment means conditions can be made favorable to have sound sleep and some good sleeping habit can be adopted to get rid of this problem like
- going and waking up from bed at fix time
- making your bed quite comfortable, dark and cool
- avoiding consumption of alcohol, tea or coffee before going to bed
- using bed only at night for sleeping
- avoiding use of mobile , laptop and watching T.V on bed
For chronic disorders health care providers can prescribe you some medicines and pills to eradicate this serious problem according to the diagnosis. Doctors only prescribe sleeping pills for certain period of time to prevent side effects of these so it is important to take advice of doctor before using pills to get asleep.
