Insomnia

Insomnia is the most common sleep complaint. It occurs when you have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep even though you have had the opportunity to get a full nights sleep. The causes, symptoms and severity of insomnia varies from person to person. Insomnia may include:

• Difficulty falling asleep
• Difficulty staying asleep throughout the night
• Waking up too early in the morning

Insomnia involves both sleep disturbance and daytime symptoms. The effects of insomnia can impact on nearly every aspect of your life. Studies show that insomnia negatively affects work performance, impairs decision making and can damage relationships. In most cases, people with insomnia report a worse, overall, quality of life. Everyone has the occasional poor nights sleep, but In many cases this is due to staying up too late or getting up too early. This does not mean you have insomnia, it just means you didn’t allow enough time for an adequate duration of sleep.

As many as 30 to 35 percent of adults complain of insomnia. It is more common in groups such as older adults, women, people under stress and people with certain medical conditions such as Sleep Apnoea.

There are two types of insomnia based on the regularity and duration of the sleep disturbance and daytime symptoms:

• Short-term insomnia: This type of brief insomnia lasts for up to three months. It occurs in 15 to 20 percent of people
• Chronic insomnia: This type of insomnia occurs at least three times per week and lasts for longer than three months. About 10 percent of people have chronic insomnia