What exactly is insomnia?

Hi Robert,

Both getting to sleep or staying asleep can lead to insomnia or sleeping problems. In many cases, this is caused by a few bad habits getting in the way.

In terms of ideas to help you get to sleep, here's a few off the top of my head:
- spend some time outdoors each day. Light is important for the body to produce melatonin which actually promotes sleep. Getting outside early in the day helps synchronize your body clock.
- exercise regularly, but don't leave it to too late in the day.
- make sure your room is dark when you are trying to sleep i.e. no alarm clock lights, computer lights etc
- listening to an audio book often helps people tune out of their day and drift off to sleep. Check out Lit2go for some free audio books.
- don't do anything 'activating' within half an hour to an hour of wanting to go to bed. This includes watching TV, engaging in stimulating discussions, worrying about your day etc.
- don't go to bed unless you feel tired.
- eat a healthy diet. A diet high in junk food can often leave people feeling tired, but still prevent them from having a good night's sleep.
- don't drink tea, coffee or hot chocolate, or have biscuits within a few hours of wanting to go to bed.
- keep your bedroom for sleeping...and being 'intimate'.. and nothing else i.e. no browsing the net in bed, eating in bed, talking on the phone etc.
- If you are on any medications, particularly if you have recently started them, talk to your pharmacist as many can cause trouble sleeping.

On the other hand, some medications can actually help you sleep, and these can be particularly useful, even if your problem has only been short-term. Taking one of these medications for a few nights in a week is often enough to help people get into a good sleeping pattern. You should see your pharmacist or doctor for more information and to assess if this is right for you. I hope this helps!
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Added: Hi Robert, I didn't mention this in my last answer, but I thought you might find it useful when we have daylight savings again. When I have trouble falling asleep I do one of three things and it usually works quite successfully
- get up, take a very warm relaxing shower and then go straight to bed.
- count backwards from 100 with my eyes closed. I try to imagine each number visually in my head which makes this long and slow; but I'm usually asleep before I get anywhere near 30.
- try to imagine the monopoly board and go through each and every piece of land in my head, in the right order. If I realise I've got somethng wrong, I go back to the beginning. This also puts me straight to sleep.

comments

Robert Tilt: Thanks, great answer! Will take into consideration. Stopping the laptops in bed will be hard!
1 year ago

The solution to stop sleeping is to drink heaps of coffee, get a really noisy dog and keep it near where you sleep. The problem is after a few days the lack of seratonin in your system will result in hallucinations. This may be a good thing based on your opinions. I personally think that getting sleep is a good thing and the condition getting worse (more sleep) is usually considered a good thing.

It seems that Insomnia is more often a symptom than the disorder itself. This is usually because Insomnia goes hand in hand with other medical or psychiatric disorders affecting the patient.

People experience Insomnia for many different reasons. For instance as people age they tend to sleep less, while younger people sleep more. Another reason can be the consumption of stimulating foods and drinks. Worrying and stress too can result in Insomnia.

In more extreme cases where a person suffers from Fatal Familial Insomnia (a rare disease) they can't sleep and eventually die due to extreme tiredness.

Hi every buddy,
In order to help you answer your question, first you may need to share some information about your sleep habits. This is called a sleep log that helps determine: (NPS)
• habits and patterns of getting ready to go to bed
• time of going to bed
• time of going to sleep
• time(s) of waking(s)
• time(s) to get back to sleep
• what the patient does when awake in the night
• features (if any) that help the patient settle
• features that tend to add to the patient's disturbance
• any daytime sleeping, times and duration.
The sleep log helps identifying factors that may be relevant to the insomnia..
Sleep hygiene as mentioned by Corrine above may all you need to do in order to improve your sleep.

I need more information...Do you have difficulty falling or staying asleep?

comments

Robert Tilt: the trouble is actually getting to sleep
1 year ago