What is insomnia: causes of insomnia, types, treatment, doctor's advice
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Loading... - rory theta
- 18 Jul 2022
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Sleepless nights are an unpleasant but very common occurrence. Usually sleep returns to normal quickly, but in some cases the problem can develop into a serious illness - chronic insomnia. In addition, lack of sleep can be a symptom or consequence of many other illnesses.
· What
· Kinds
· Symptoms
· The reasons
· How to get rid
· How are they treated
What is insomnia
Insomnia is a common sleep disorder in which a person either cannot fall asleep or sleeps poorly and wakes up too early and then cannot sleep again.
This disease can affect anyone, but teenagers, the elderly and pregnant women, as well as people with neurological and mental disorders [1] , [2] , [3] most often suffer from it . In addition, up to a quarter of cases occur in diseases of the stomach, when heartburn, pain or reflux interfere with sleep [4].
Insomnia and insomnia are basically the same thing. But the concept of "insomnia" in everyday speech, people often use in relation to any sleep disorders. Whereas the term “insomnia” is more often used by doctors when they talk about a disorder that is called non-organic insomnia in ICD-10, that is, when it has no obvious causes. For example, if you drank coffee at night, you may experience insomnia, then it will be unambiguously organic. At the same time, although only the concept of “insomnia” is used in the ICD-10, in a more accurate and detailed Russian version of the international classification of sleep disorders , only the term “insomnia” is used.
Chronic insomnia is a very dangerous condition. It can greatly undermine the immune, endocrine, cardiovascular and nervous systems of a person, as well as his mental health. Chronic insomnia today is associated with a constant general physiological overexcitation of the body - hyperactivation. In people with frequent sleep disturbances, many studies have shown increased levels of stimulant hormones, including cortisol, a stress hormone, increased heart rate, and an increased metabolic rate [5] .
All these phenomena that occur as a result of sleep problems further exacerbate the situation - every night a person becomes more and more overexcited and it becomes more and more difficult for him to fall asleep. As a result, the brain and nervous system, working without rest and more and more intensively, are overstrained so much that other, more serious diseases develop.
“Chronic insomnia can be fraught with the development of emotional burnout, depression, anxiety disorders, reduced social adaptation and other psychological problems. First of all, the weakest point of the human psyche will be aggravated - the one where resources and stability were already insufficient.
At the same time, acute insomnia, which manifests itself against the background of stress, is considered a different disorder. With it, sleep disturbances cause only psycho-emotional, but not physiological overexcitation. In this case, insomnia, as a rule, passes by itself and much faster [6] .
Types of insomnia
According to the duration, insomnia is divided into two types - chronic, which torments more than three months, and non-chronic, which lasts less. Insomnia is diagnosed when a person experiences severe sleep disturbances at least three days a week. According to some studies, 8-10% of all people suffer from the chronic form [7] , [8] .
A distinction is also made between primary and secondary insomnia. Primary (non-organic insomnia) - when sleep problems are not associated with other diseases or conditions. Secondary insomnia is a consequence of other phenomena, such as depression, heartburn, or substance use. In ICD-9, it was divided into caused by drugs, mental disorders and somatic (bodily) diseases.
Also, insomnia can be classified according to its manifestations:
· insomnia falling asleep - when you can not fall asleep;
· sleep maintenance insomnia - when a person falls asleep, but wakes up in the middle of the night and sleeps poorly;
· mixed - when it is difficult to fall asleep and maintain sleep;
· paradoxical - when it seems to a person that he slept much less than he actually did, and he feels sleepy;
· insomnia of unclear etiology, or idiopathic - when a person sleeps poorly and little due to a general temperamental predisposition;
· childhood behavioral insomnia is a specific type of insomnia in children, in which, for example, they cannot fall asleep without the presence of their parents.
“Unlike adult patients, it is often difficult for children to correctly express and update their complaints, especially when it comes to infants. If we are talking about acute sleep disturbance, then most often it is necessary to look for somatic pathology (gastroenterological, pulmonological, traumatological). In the case of chronic sleep disturbance, life-threatening conditions, such as epilepsy and primary alveolar hyperventilation syndrome, should be excluded first. Often the cause of sleep disturbance in children is stress, it can occur against the background of problems within the family or when the child interacts with society.”
Symptoms of insomnia
Insomnia is not only the inability to sleep. Its manifestations also include:
· complete lack of sleep;
· long falling asleep;
· problems with maintaining sleep, constant awakenings;
· early morning awakening - a person wakes up long before the alarm clock, and then cannot fall asleep;
· poor-quality sleep that does not lead to recovery.
