Insomnia
Insomnia is a sleep disorder which may be caused due to various factors, such as what situation one is in, medical reasons, such as if one is in physical pain and therefore not able to sleep. There may be psychiatric reasons, such as in case of some stress etc. where one is not able to be at ease to get sleep. Insomnia could be short term or long term. Short term insomnia may be caused due to changes in work timings, some unpleasant noise around, extreme weather conditions, and illness. Sometimes short term insomnia may even be caused due to high altitude especially at hilly areas or while travelling in an aircraft over long distances, causing jet lag.
Symptoms usually start showing in a person, when he is likely to suffer from insomnia, whether mild or serious. Such symptoms may include disturbed sleep, having problem falling asleep, waking up many times during sleep due to no obvious reason. People worsen their sleep related problems when they consume alcohol.
If a person is going through sleeplessness or inadequate sleep for a period less than a week, then it is termed as Transient Insomnia.
In case the condition of sleeplessness lasts up to three weeks, then it is called as Short Term Insomnia. There are certain medicines which cure common cold or High Blood pressure, but causes sleeplessness. There are other medicines for certain psychological disorders such as anxiety and depression which affect sleep adversely. Certain specific set of people who do not have regular shift timings may go through short term Insomnia. Pregnant women may also suffer from short-term insomnia because of hormonal changes occurring in their body and increased body weight. Women going through menopause also may suffer from Insomnia.
Any serious type of sleeplessness continuing for more than three weeks is called long term or Chronic Insomnia. In this type, most of the cases will be associated with the person’s psychological or even serious medical condition. Schizophrenia, stress and manic depressive disorder are few of the most common psychological reasons for long term or chronic Insomnia.
Insomnia is diagnosed after taking into account the patient’s entire medical history followed by a detailed physical examination. Whether the person has been taking alcohol or drugs will also play a role. Actigraphy is a technique of analyzing sleep disorders. This is a process which measures the muscle activity in the body. A combination of medical and non- medical measures proves to be the ideal treatment for insomnia.
Written by admin on September 13, 2011 under Sleep Disorders.
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