| Insomnia: What if I Have It? |
| By Darien Simon, M.S. |
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If you frequently or routinely have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, whether caused by a health problem, habit, behavior, or extreme stress or life changes, you probably have the sleep disorder called insomnia. If so, there are things you should know about how it is likely to impact your life and health, and more importantly, what you can do about it.
Insomnia leads to sleep debt in the very short term, but in the longer term, to sleep deprivation. Over a few days, insomnia can deplete your energy, cause you to feel sleepy during the day, and impact your reaction time or your mood. In the longer term, insomnia can lead to irritability, depression, an inability to pay attention at work or school, difficulty learning, faulty memory, a decline in work productivity and quality, as well as decreasing the energy you have to devote to family, friends, and recreational activities. It can also impact your health by decreasing the effectiveness of your immune system, or by decreasing your alertness and causing accidents at work, at home, or on the road. So, what should you do if you think you have insomnia? As with all potential health risks, it is a good idea to consult your health care professional to establish whether or not what you are experiencing is truly insomnia; if so, whether it is of the primary or secondary type; and to ensure that any measures you take to treat your insomnia will be the proper ones for your condition and its cause(s). But before you see your health care professional, you can examine your own habits and see if the cause is easy to identify, and the problem easy to solve. One treatment you may want to consider is a nutrient-based sleep enhancer like Dream Boost. Even if you don't find the solution that simply, your health care provider should ask you about your habits, behaviors, bedtime schedule and pre-bedtime activities, general life conditions, and so forth. If your sleep problem is still not easy to identify, your health care provider may want you to consider a polysomnogram, which is a recording of various body functions while you sleep. A polysomnogram requires you to sleep over at a special sleep center or laboratory, so it is not usually recommended unless other, simpler to identify factors, have been ruled out already. However, it may be required, if your health care provider suspects you have another type of sleep disorder, such as sleep apnea or restless legs syndrome. |
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