The True Reasons for Insomnia

Have you ever experienced wanting to sleep so badly, and you just couldn’t? How about lying in bed the whole night, but sleep just won’t come? You might have thought the sandman went on a long vacation that time. It’s normal for us to have a couple of sleepless nights once in a while, but it’s not normal anymore if you’re having those episodes 3 times in a week.

Insomnia is being incapable of sleeping, to the extent that we start to hate bedtime, because we know we won’t be able to properly rest. Some insomniac simply can’t fall asleep, while other can. The latter kind has problems with waking up too soon afterwards. People suffering from insomnia may either have poor amount of sleep or poor quality of sleep.

Sleeping is vital to us. Just because we close our eyes and lie down in bed for a couple of hours, doesn’t mean we’re not doing something useful. Our bodies need rest and time to regenerate.

When people have less sleep, they are usually cranky, out of focus, impulsive and hot tempered. The effects of insomnia aren’t limited to behavioral symptoms either. Long term sleep deprivation can lead to diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity and depression. Our bodies won’t work as efficiently. To stop insomnia, we need to know what we’re doing wrong first, so we can address it.

There are a lot of reasons for insomnia. Each individual have different causes because we have different rituals and habits. Generally all causes or reasons for insomnia can be categorized into 3. I have itemized them all so read on.

Anxiety: People diagnosed with anxiety disorder report they have trouble sleeping. When you are anxious, your heart and mind work twice as fast. Your senses are all hyped up and ready to do battle. You can’t really sleep with adrenaline circulating through your blood. You brain would be too alert for you to be able to sleep. So if you're suffering from anxiety attacks a lot, then this might be a cause.

Depression: Depressed people also reportedly often suffer from insomnia. Depression related insomnia often takes the form of waking up a lot, or hours before your alarm is set to go off, and not being able to fall asleep again.

If you are taking anti-depressant pills, talk with your doctor. Doctors need to know what you are feeling too. Some anti-depressants are known to cause insomnia. Your doctor may offer you a different medication or an adjunct therapy.

Environment change can put a strain on your psyche. It can give you feelings of anxiety. A good example here is when you’re traveling.

When you’re traveling, the environment you are in is not like your home, so you’re not in your usual comfort zone. Jet lag is also something you should consider because the flight screwed up your circadian rhythm (a.k.a. your body clock). You’ll eventually adjust to this though, or it may just really be a short term travel so you’ll bounce back to normal the minute you’re back home.

Sleep apnea: This condition means that you repetitively have episodes wherein you stop breathing for small periods of time. This is a dangerous condition that you should report to your doctor. Your body needs oxygen (especially your brain) to function normally. When you are deprived of the oxygen you need, you’ll tend to wake up.

Physical pain:  Pain is a helpful sign, even thought it hurts you. It gives us fair warning that something isn’t right. Even though you are asleep, it doesn’t mean you’re totally immune to the stimuli around you. If you accidently hit your sore toe on the bed railing, chances are that you’ll wake up from it.

Decreased melatonin: Melatonin is a hormone that helps us sleep soundly. When we get old, production of melatonin decreases. That’s the reason why our grandparents wake up a lot earlier than we do.

Hormonal change: This is fairly a common occurrence in people approaching menopause. Estrogen is the hormone responsible for maintaining sleep. Also, a lack of testosterone in females may cause episodes of sleep apnea and snoring.

Drugs: Some drugs have insomnia as a side-effect. An example of such drugs are anti-depressants. Also, alcohol, nicotine and caffeine can interrupt and/or block the effects of the substances secreted for sleeping. Drug withdrawal can also cause insomnia, but only temporarily. 

These are all the reasons I have found for insomnia. If you have any more, then be sure to leave them in the comments.