Everything you ought to know about Insomnia

Hey lovely readers 🙂!!! How are you all, Hope you all doing great. Welcome back, You must have got some ideas from the title itself, yes today’s topic is all about everything you need to know about insomnia.

Most grown-ups need around seven to nine hours of sleep per night, however, it varies from individual to individual.

Insomnia is nothing is a type of sleep disorder. Individuals with a sleeping disorder can’t nod off and do not get a night of sufficient relaxing sleep.

A sleeping disorder is a critical health issue. Over the long run, it could create certain medical conditions like type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and obesity.

Insomnia is a kind of sleep disorder where people will find difficulties falling asleep, disturbance of sleep, and waking up during the night frequently.

Types of Insomnia 🥺

There are two types of insomnia.

• Short Term Insomnia.
• Chronic Insomnia.

Short Term Insomnia

What exactly short-term insomnia means? Well, short-term sleep deprivation keeps going for a couple of days or weeks and is frequently set off by pressure, stress, depression, and anxiety.

Chronic insomnia

Chronic sleep deprivation is the point at which difficulties in sleeping happen something like three times each week for quite some time or more.

The doctor has also classified insomnia into two categories

• Primary
• Secondary

Primary Insomnia

It is an issue in itself and this kind of sleeping disorder is the restlessness that can’t be credited to current physical, mental, or social reasons.

Secondary Insomnia

Secondary sleeping disorder is when indications of sleep deprivation emerge from an essential clinical ailment, mental problems, or other rest issues.

in addition to these, it is further classified into three categories based on the severity of conditions such as:

• Mild Insomnia– It can prevent sleep, and due to lack of sleep a person may experience tiredness and laziness once in a while.
• Moderate Insomnia– due to poor sleep quality it might interrupt day-to-day life activities.
• Severe Insomnia– This is a severe issue that can disturb your daily functioning.

Causes of Insomnia😒

Now let’s discuss different reasons for insomnia, so basically it does not depend on one factor, there could be various possible reasons like physical, environmental, physiological, etc.

Most of the time symptoms may be temporary, however, in some cases, insomnia stems from an underlying medical condition.

Common Physical causes include:

• Unhealthy lifestyle.
• Lack of physical activities.
• Different chronic pain and diseases like arthritis, Rheumatoid, Cancer, pulmonary diseases, etc.
• Gastrointestinal disorders.
• Restless leg syndrome.
• Overactive thyroid glands.
• Oldage.
• Hormonal imbalances in women.
• Menopause in women.
• Pregnancy could be a reason.
• Neurological disorders.
• Different medications can also disturb the sleep pattern.

Common mental causes include:

• Stress.
• Tension.
• Anxiety.
• Depression.
• Bipolar Disorder.

These mental problems could happen due to different life situations like if you are having a hard time due to your relationship, job, money, etc.

Apart from the above causes, there is a rare genetic disorder known as fatal familial insomnia which can stop or make it difficult to fall asleep, sometimes it can be life-threatening.

Consquence of Insomnia🙇‍♀️

If you do not get proper sleep, obviously you will not feel good in terms of physical, mental like

• You will feel tired throughout the day.
• The person may experience memory problems.
• You may have difficulties focusing or concentrating.
• The person may feel depressed/stressed/irritated and sad without any reason.
• You may feel Extreme fatigue.

How Insomnia is diagnosed?🤔

So now let’s discuss how insomnia can be diagnosed! There is no specific test for insomnia, your doctor may ask some questions related to your sleep pattern if you are on any other medication for different health issues.

The doctor may ask the person about their sleep patterns if use any drugs and consume alcohol consumption.

Accordingly, the doctor may suggest for a blood test to know any underlying causes like thyroid, low level of iron, vitamin D, etc.

He/ she may want you to make a note of sleeping patterns like when you sleep! when you wake up! when do you take nap! etc? This note can help your doctor to understand patterns or behaviors that interfere with rest.

Other Health Complications due to Insomnia🤯

It is quite obvious lack of sleep can negatively impact physical as well mental health.

• Hypertension.
• Diabetics
• Cardio Vascular related diseases.
• Obesity
• Mood swings
• Depression

Treatment plans👨‍⚕️ ✍

if you have short-time insomnia, it gets better on its own with time whereas if you have a chronic problem then your doctor may suggest medications.

However, medicine should not be your first option because based on your condition doc will give you some sleeping pills only.

Taking sleeping pills for a short time could help you to fall asleep easily but this is not a permanent solution rather I would say lifestyle changes can do the wonder if follow them regularly.

Apart from pills, there is something called CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), it is like a structural plan which helps you to identify the series of thoughts, which trouble your sleep and replace it with positive thoughts.

There is another supplement known as melatonin, which controls the sleep-wake cycle and can make you sleep, but you should not take any medicine or supplement without consulting your doctor.

How to prevent Sleep disorder naturally😊

As I said before lifestyle changes can have a very good impact on your sleep, not only does it take care of your physical body but also your mental health. Lifestyle improvement can promote good and quality sleep.

• Cut back on caffeine before bed (including coffee, soda, chocolate, etc) these are very stimulating, and can prevent sleep.🙅‍♀️

• You can have a shower before preferably a cold water bath.🚿

• Take a light meal at night ( Preferably as early as possible).🥗

• Stay physically active. Include various exercises in your daily routine.🏊‍♀️🚶‍♂️

• Avoid smoking and drinking before bed.🚭

• Go to bed and get up at the same time each day. Maintain a routine.🛌

• Try to limit the screen time to at least 30 min before bedtime.📵

• You can watch your breathing pattern, which can help you to make sleep easily.🧘‍♂️

• Listen to any soothing music or read a book.🎵📚

• Use some essential oil, that may promote sound sleep.🪔

• Try mindfulness.🧠

• If possible try to meditate before sleeping. It will calm your mind eventually you will fall asleep.🧘‍♀️😴

Takeaway👍📝

Many people with insomnia feel better after changing their, lifestyle and nighttime routines.

If you’re having trouble with sleep, don’t hesitate to consult your doctor for help.

They may offer tips for managing issues that interfere with your sleep.

If the problem is chronic they may also suggest some medications or cognitive behavioral therapies as per the severity of the patient’s condition.

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