Insomnia – Do You Have It?
The term insomnia covers a wide variety of sleep issues, each has different causes and each needs different solutions. Insomnia costs New Zealand tens of millions of dollars per year in lost producitivty. The good news is there are steps you can take to improve your sleep.
The first step towards improving your sleep is to work out what type of insomnia you have. The first thing to think about is how long the insomnia has been an issue? And the second, and possibly more important, is to figure out what pattern of sleep problems you have.
Below is a few of the common sleep issues that may be affecting you:
Transient Insomnia
This is insomnia that lasts for a few nights, about a week at most. Most people suffer from this from time to time, particularly when dealing with stressful situations. Transient Insomnia is also common while experiencing a change in time-zone, and is a symptom of jet-lag. Some people also have difficulty adjusting to sleeping in a different place or environment.
For this type of insomnia, often, no treatment is necessary – just the awareness that under some situations having difficulty sleeping for a short amount of time is normal.
Short-term Insomnia
If you have experience insomnia for a few weeks then you may fall into this category. Like those with Transient Insomnia, this type of abnormal sleep may have begun with a stressful life event. Often these disruptions are long-term and have a larger impact on your life, such as death, divorce, unemployment or immigration.
Most people find that as they resolve the issues evoked by the life event their sleep improves as-well. However, in some cases people who identify with Short-term Insomnia develop poor sleep habits and anxiety around their sleep patterns. This can lead to long-term or even Chronic Insomnia.
In terms of treatment, relaxation therapy combined with counselling can help resolve the issues associated with the stressful life event and in turn encourage healthier sleeping patterns. Sleeping tablets, either herbal or medicated may also be of use. However, it is important to speak with a doctor before taking or trying this route, as some medications can interact with sleeping tablets and cause serious harm.
Chronic Insomnia
If your insomnia has lasted for at least three months, then you may be associated with the Chronic Insomnia category. Some people who identify with this group have had is for many years, and often have graduated from short-term insomnia. Often these people have long since resolved the underlying issues that initially caused their unhealthy sleep patterns, but the insomnia has remained. This is why creating health sleep patterns early on can be so important (Bearpark, H, 1994).
Patterns of Insomnia
Insomnia usually has a pattern, recognising that pattern can be very useful to indentify the cause of the problem. Below are a few of the common patterns of insomnia.
Sleep Initiation Insomnia
This is ususally when you have trouble falling asleep, and may be a sign of chronic insomnia. If you have trouble getting to sleep during the night and difficulty waking in the mornings it may be important to speak to a specialist about any other conditions that may be affecting your ability to sleep, such as breathing disorders, restless leg syndrome or delayed sleep phase syndrome.
Sleep Maintainance Insomnia
This is when you have no trouble falling asleep, but often have difficulty remaining asleep, usually waking up often throughout the night. Some common biological causes for this pattern are, sleep apnea and periodic limb movements. However, there are other factors that can influence this pattern, such as alcohol, caffine and nicotine consumption, as well as medication and sleeping tablets.
Environmental factors such as noise, light and temparature can also have a huge influence on your sleep patterns. It is important for you to make sure the environment you sleep in is calm, dark and comfortable so that you have the best opportunity to create healthy sleep patterns.
Early Morning Awakening Insomnia
This is when you have no problem falling asleep or remaining asleep, but that you awaken too early in the morning. This is often associated with shift work or a disturbance with your body clock and often becomes habitual (Bearpark, H, 1994).
Seeking Help
If you feel as though your insomnia is impacting your quality of life and your ability to function, please seek professional help – either contact your GP or another registered health professional.
If you are in Auckland or indeed any part of New Zealand you can talk to the team at Shore Therapy to discuss insomnia or related issues. If you would like to talk more about some techniques to encourage healthy sleep patterns, Click Here to contact us or to make an appointment or booking
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