What is insomnia? - Symptoms and causes
What is insomnia? - Symptoms and causes
Insomnia is defined as a sleep disorder in which the patient suffers from inability to sleep, or the inability of a person to stay asleep at night, and the associated symptoms: staying awake for long periods at night, interrupting sleep periods, waking up early with loss of sleep activity, or even losing sleep mainly, and there are many causes of insomnia disorder, and have different types depending on those raisers
There are a lot of people who constantly suffer from insomnia and sleep disorder, especially if a person has a problem or thinks about a particular subject, which reduces the number of hours of sleep, feels real suffering with insomnia, and cannot sleep normally. In the following article, let's find out what insomnia, symptoms, types and risk factors are
What is insomnia?
Insomnia is experiencing difficulty sleeping, can be for a short time, or a long-term (chronic) period. Insomnia lasts from one night to two weeks, and chronic insomnia occurs 3 nights a week and for 3 months
So. What are the symptoms of insomnia
A person has difficulty exercising daily tasks, including
Having trouble sleeping
Waking up more than once during the hour
Fatigue and fatigue all the time
Lack of cognition and concentration
Do not complete daily tasks
grief and gloom
What are the types of insomnia
There are two types of insomnia, namely primary and secondary
Basic insomnia
This type of insomnia is not associated with any problems or health conditions that a person has.
Secondary insomnia
Secondary insomnia occurs that a person experiences sleep problems due to a health condition or disease such as (asthma, depression, arthritis, drug use).
What are the risk factors and complications of insomnia
Women suffer more than men, older than their young, and include insomnia risk factors that make a person suffer from
Mental health problems.
Night shifts.
Long-term disease.
Its complications include:
The body needs to sleep so that it can exercise its daily tasks well, but if insomnia enables its life, it is likely to be exposed to
High risk of some health problems, such as
Obesity, depression and high blood pressure.
Lack of focus.
Anxiety disorder.
Slow reactions.
What are the causes of insomnia in women
Women are more likely than men to develop insomnia, with many studies and estimates indicating that women are more than 40% more likely to develop insomnia for life and that more than 64% of women take sedatives that help them sleep
There is no clear cause of insomnia in women, but researchers believe they are associated with some hormonal and psychological factors, the genetic composition of women, and some of these factors
Period during pregnancy.
Menopause and menopause.
Depression, anxiety and stress.
Lack of vitamin D and calcium needed by the body.
Psychological and emotional problems
What is the anxiety test
Anxiety test is a question your doctor asks to treat insomnia, in order to reach a diagnosis, including these questions
Medical conditions.
Social environment
Psychological state.
The last date of sleep is good.
This information helps identify the hidden causes of sleep problems, as your doctor sometimes requests
Keep your sleep record.
Record timing when he falls asleep.
Note cases where he wakes up frequently.
Inform your doctor about when he wakes up.
The opinion of one of the psychiatrists in insomnia and its types
At first, the psychiatrist, a consultant psychiatrist and addiction treatment, member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, says that insomnia is difficult to get into sleep, difficulty communicating in sleep, or early waking. Insomnia suffers most people due to life pressures, exams, or work, insomnia causes a decrease in the number of hours of sleep, this affects the body, or the quality of sleep, and this affects the brain, both of which directly affect low mood, sadness, fatigue, lack of concentration, and inability to sleep. to do the work.
The doctor adds, insomnia is divided into two types, primary insomnia, and suffers from "people who sleep lightly", secondary insomnia, in which the person suffers from organic diseases such as rheumatism, joint pain, back pain, urinary incontinence, and there are those with respiratory obstruction or "snoring" diseases during sleep, or suffer from mental diseases most famously stress and depression, and secondary symptoms of insomnia as well, drug abuse, because it affects the central system responsible for sleep, most people who use drugs suffer from insomnia.
Tips for improving sleep
Getting rid of insomnia requires knowing the main reason for not being able to sleep and then working on it, and your doctor may recommend some sleep-stimulating medications, as well as resorting to cognitive behavioral therapy, and the following are the most important tips that can help you sleep better at night:
Sleep schedules: Avoid long or short sleep and maintain fixed sleep schedules.
Relaxing before bedtime: using relaxation and meditation methods.
Monitoring the amount of food and drinking before bedtime: it is not recommended to go to sleep in case of hunger or too much satiety.
Reducing sleep periods during the day: Taking a long nap during the day may result in you not being able to sleep at night.
Get rid of anxiety: It is recommended to get rid of anxiety before bedtime by organizing time or calming yourself.
Daytime exercise: Daytime exercise helps regulate sleep at night, and be careful to avoid such exercises before bedtime, because they have negative effects on the ease and ease of being able to go to sleep.