Most Common Insomnia Causes

Stress:

Nowadays, most of the people experience stress due to the busy hectic lifestyle. It may be work, money, health, or ill-health of loved-one may result in stress. Stress has a great effect of sleep. Worrying and thinking about these stressors will not allow the person to sleep for longtime in night.

Anxiety:

This is one more insomnia cause that can make a person stay awake in night. The anxiety disorders that can result into insomnia are day-to-day anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder, and panic attacks.

Depression:

A person who is depressed caused due to some worry or due to chemical imbalance in brain will accompany sleep disruptions. A depressed person will have troubled sleep or may sleep excessively.

Other Psychological Insomnia Causes:

Other psychological conditions like mood disorders, anger, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, seasonal affective disorders, etc can result into insomnia. Most of the mental disorders accompany insomnia.

Medical Conditions:

Medical conditions like COPD, asthma, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, heart disorders, diabetes, ulcers, hyperthyroidism, hormonal changes during menopause, arthritis, muscle pain, etc.., can make a person show insomnia symptoms.

Medications:

Medications used for treating some other disorders can also be one of the insomnia causes. Such medications include antidepressants, hormonal replacement therapy, asthma medications, hypertension medications, medication for epilepsy treatment, narcolepsy medications, stimulant drugs used for treating ADHD, etc.., can make a person stay awake in night.

Other Sleep Disorders:

Other sleeping disorders like sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, narcolepsy, etc are also causes of insomnia.

Alcohol and Others:

One of the main insomnia causes are alcohol consumptions, cigarette smoking, and using other drugs will also make a person to have troubled sleeping.

Jet lag:

Jet lag disrupts the person’s biological clock, which controls the sleep-wake cycle will result in acute insomnia. As soon as the person gets accustomed to changed biological clock, insomnia symptoms will go. [Overcoming Jet Lag]

Sleep Environment:

The bed, uncomfortable mattress, pillow, bright bed light, etc.., can also stand as insomnia causes. By changing these things will improve the sleep levels.

Apart from these insomnia causes, poor sleep habits like irregular sleep patterns, excessive daytime sleeping, consuming large meals or exercising just before sleep-time or having caffeine drinks, night shifts, etc.., can result into insomnia.

Natural insomnia relief methods can be a great option, if you are looking for curing of insomnia on long term basis. We all know that the main cause of insomnia is stress, depression and anxiety. There are few herbs that can help you in reducing depression, anxiety, and stress and thereby helping in having a good night sleep. Some of such herbs include Valerian, Passiflora incarnate (Passion Flower), Chamomile, Hypericum perforatum (St. John’s Wort), Lemon balm, and Kava kava.

Another natural insomnia relief technique is Homeopathy. Homeopathic medicines like Coffea C30 and Nux Vom can help you in having relief from insomnia, and maintaining a healthy sleep.

Acupuncture is another great natural insomnia relief method, you can opt for. This is a Chinese alternative technique used for treating many diseases and conditions. This technique too helps in relieving our body stress, depression, anxiety, and pain, and thereby helping us in having a healthy sleep.

Lifestyle Changes is also a Natural Insomnia Relief Method

Natural remedies not only include herbal treatments, or homeopathy, or aromatherapy, or acupuncture, etc, but also include lifestyle changes. We can have good night sleep regularly by making few lifestyle changes.

One such lifestyle changes include changing your bedroom into sleep enhancing environment. Bedroom changes include:

• Maintaining optimum temperature that is suitable for you.
• The less the brightness in your bedroom, more chances of enhancing your sleep. Try to avoid light destructions in your bedroom. You can go for sleep mask, if you cannot avoid the light destructions.
• Avoid sound destructions. Try to move all the sound making things such as clock, music system, etc, from bedroom.
• Television and your personal computer, or laptop can keep you awake till long hours in night. So, try to keep them away from your bedroom.
• Don’t forget to get a comfortable bed for you as without a nice comfortable, you cannot comfortable sleep.

Some more lifestyle changes that can enhance your sleep are

• Avoiding eating and exercise at least 3 hours before sleep.
• Maintaining regular time for going to bed and waking up.
• Taking a warm bath before your bed time.
• Exercise daily, at least for 30 minutes in a day.
• Avoid coffee or tea, at least 4 to 6 hours before bedtime.
• Don’t smoke or drink alcohol before going to bed.

Apart from these lifestyle changes, there are few more natural insomnia relief methods like meditation, yoga, etc.

A recent study found people who struggled to nod off had up to a 45 per cent greater risk of heart problems than those who slept soundly.

‘Sleep problems are common and fairly easy to treat,’ said lead researcher Dr Lars Erik Laugsand from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim.

‘So it’s important that people are aware of this connection between insomnia and heart attack and talk to their doctor if they’re having symptoms.’

The study, reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, looked at heart risks related to three major insomnia symptoms compared to people who rarely or never had these problems.

The authors found those who had struggled to fall asleep almost daily in the last month had a 45 percent higher heart attack risk.

Those who had problems staying asleep almost every night in the last month had a 30 per cent higher heart attack risk.

Lastly people who didn’t wake up feeling refreshed in the morning more than once a week had a 27 per cent higher heart attack risk.

Heart attack risk also increases with each additional insomnia symptom, researchers said.

The study was based on 52,610 Norwegian adults who answered questions about insomnia as part of a national health survey in 1995-97.

Researchers examined hospital records and Norway’s National Cause of Death Registry to identify 2,368 people who had first-time heart attacks during the following 11 years.

The researchers used survival analysis to adjust for factors that could influence the results such as age, sex, marital status, education level, blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, weight, exercise and shift work. They also considered depression and anxiety, both of which can cause insomnia.

Up to 33 percent of people in the general population experience at least one insomnia symptom, according to researchers.

Previous smaller studies have linked insomnia to heart disease, including high blood pressure and heart attacks. Each year in England, an estimated 111,000 people have a heart attack.

It’s unclear why insomnia is linked to higher heart attack risk. Some suggest sleep problems affect heart attack risk factors such as high blood pressure and inflammation.

Researchers didn’t adjust for obstructive sleep apnea, and results may not apply to Britons because their daylight hours and sleep patterns differ from Norwegians.

Source: Daily Mail

Last week’s column gave readers an overview of insomnia. This week, the topic will be who is at risk and some of the more common causes of this tiresome nighttime condition.

Some conditions make a person more prone to insomnia. A few are factors that can’t be changed, others can be. Women tend to suffer from insomnia more than men and often, hormones are to blame. The menstrual cycle and menopausal changes can trigger some sleepless nights.

Those over the age of 60 tend to suffer from insomnia more frequently than those in other age groups. Mental health disorders can also increase the likelihood that a person will be affected by night time wakefulness. Anxiety, bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder can all disrupt sleep. Depression is commonly marked by early morning awakening.

Stress can be blamed for countless physical symptoms, and insomnia is on that list. Sometimes the sleep disturbance is temporary, but if the stress continues for a period of time, the insomnia follows right along the same path. Interestingly, being poor or unemployed increases a person’s chances of suffering from insomnia. Working changing shifts or night shifts can be a risk factor for insomnia, as well as frequent travel across time zones.

There are several fairly common physical conditions that can keep a person from getting to sleep or staying asleep. One of these is sleep apnea, characterized by loud snoring, alternating with periods of time where there is no breathing at all. When the body gets deprived of oxygen, breathing will begin again, sometimes abruptly enough to awaken the sleeper many times during the night. Whether the person wakes up or not in the cycle of this disordered breathing, sleep is disrupted and the person may suffer the daytime effects of a lack of sleep.

Restless leg syndrome can keep a person from getting to sleep, wake them in the night, or both. This condition causes a tingling, crawling, burning or just plain very uncomfortable feeling in the legs or sometimes arms after periods of sitting or lying down, hence the insomnia connection.

Any type of chronic pain like arthritis can be a factor in how well a person sleeps. Other conditions including cancer, gastrointestinal reflux disease, heart failure, frequent nighttime urination, lung disease, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease can cause insomnia. Some of these illnesses can be treated to relieve the symptoms which will help improve the quality of sleep.

The side effects of certain medications can cause a person to lose sleep or sleep poorly. Antidepressants, heart and blood pressure medications, allergy remedies, stimulants and corticosteroids can all play a part in sleep quality. Over the counter meds, including some cold and allergy products, pain killers and weight-loss aids, can be the culprit in sleep issues.

Most people know that caffeinated drinks can keep one from sleeping well, but some people don’t realize how much caffeine is contained in soda and some other choices like sports drinks and bottled teas. The stimulant effect of nicotine can cause insomnia, as can alcohol, which is surprising to some. Alcohol can initially make one drowsy, but can also disrupt normal sleep patterns, causing early-morning wakefulness.

Eating too much late in the evening, especially for those with heartburn or GERD, can be a clear path to a sleepless night. Either refraining from eating for a few hours before going to bed or keeping intake to a light snack can help prevent this from happening.

Source: Pam Maxson, Genesee Country Express

The research team, directed by Dr. Charles M. Morin of Université Laval’s School of Psychology, came to these conclusions following a study involving 3,485 people. The participants were asked to answer a telephone survey on their sleep quality and that of their immediate families. On three separate occasions in the 12 subsequent months, they filled out a mail-in questionnaire on the subject.

The data showed that 40% of respondents came from a family that had at least one member who is an insomniac. Most of them had one insomniac in the family (76%), but some had two (21%), or even three (3%). The risk of suffering from insomnia increased according to the number of family members with insomnia, i.e., 37%, 250%, and 314% for one, two, or three family members with insomnia, respectively.

“There is very probably a genetic factor behind the family aggregation we observed,” said Charles M. Morin. “However, we don’t know if the mechanism is a physiological process that interferes with sleep or a predisposition to anxiety.” Certain attitudes about insomnia conveyed by family members could also be involved, the researcher added. “When we see a member of our family react strongly to an episode of insomnia, we may have the same reaction when faced with the problem ourselves. This type of behavior can transform situational insomnia into a chronic condition,” he noted.

“Our study’s results suggest that early psychological treatment could benefit people from families with chronic insomnia sufferers,” concluded Dr. Morin.

Source: Jean-François Huppé, Université Laval, via EurekAlert

“The strong link between lens yellowing and age could help explain why sleep disorders become more frequent with increasing age,” Line Kessel, M.D., Ph.D., the study’s lead author, was quoted saying.

A group of 970 volunteers had their eyes examined by lens autofluorometry; a non-invasive method that determined how much blue light was transmitted into the retina. Blue light influences the sleep cycle by helping initiate the release of the hormone Melatonin, which tells the body when it’s time to go to sleep or stay awake.

82.8 percent of the volunteers that were considered to have a sleep disorder confirmed that they often suffered from insomnia or that they had purchased prescription sleeping pills within the last year. Researchers were able to find a link between blue light transmission and sleeping problems; people who had yellowing of the eye lens, which causes less blue light to come into the retina, had a greater risk of sleep disturbances. Higher rates of sleep disorders were reported by older participants, smokers and women.

“The results showed that while age-related lens yellowing is of relatively little importance for visual function, it may be responsible for insomnia in the elderly,” Kessel was quoted saying.

Cataract surgery could be the solution to end those sleepless nights. Kessel, who is a senior scientist in the Department of Opthalmology at Glostrup Hospital in Denmark, said that sleep quality has been shown to improve after cataract surgery.

“The transmission of blue light currently cannot be improved by any other method than cataract surgery,” She was quoted saying.

Source: Ivanhoe, via EurekAlert

Insomnia is costing the average U.S. worker 11.3 days, or $2,280 in lost productivity every year, according to a study in the September 1 issue of the journal Sleep. As a nation, the total cost is 252.7 days and $63.2 billion.

“We were shocked by the enormous impact insomnia has on the average person’s life,” said lead author Ronald C. Kessler, Ph.D. “It’s an underappreciated problem. Americans are not missing work because of insomnia. They are still going to their jobs but accomplishing less because they’re tired. In an information-based economy, it’s difficult to find a condition that has a greater effect on productivity.”

The results were computed from a national sampling of 7,428 employees, part of the larger American Insomnia Study, which was led by Kessler and funded by Sanofi-Aventis Groupe. Participants were asked about sleep habits and work performance, among other things. Previous estimates have relied on smaller consumer panels and on medical and pharmacy claims databases focused on treated insomnia patients, the study said.

The estimated prevalence of insomnia in the AIS sample was 23.2 percent among employees. Insomnia also was found to be significantly lower (14.3 percent) among workers age 65 and older, and higher among working women (27.1 percent) than working men (19.7 percent). Clinical sleep medicine experts independently evaluated a subsample of AIS respondents and confirmed the accuracy of those estimates.

Kessler said accurate estimates on the costs of insomnia in the workplace might justify the implementation of screening and treatment programs for employees. Because insomnia is not considered an illness – the kind that results in lost days at work – employers tend to ignore its consequences, he said.

“Now that we know how much insomnia costs the American workplace, the question for employers is whether the price of intervention is worthwhile,” said Kessler, a psychiatric epidemiologist with the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School. “Can U.S. employers afford not to address insomnia in workplace?”

Roughly speaking, the average cost of treating insomnia ranges from about $200 a year for a generic sleeping pill to up to $1,200 for behavioral therapy, according to study co-author James K. Walsh, Ph.D., executive director and senior scientist at the Sleep Medicine and Research Center at St. Luke’s Hospital in Chesterfield, Mo.

The SLEEP study also found a lower than average insomnia prevalence among respondents with less than a high school education (19.9 percent) and among college graduates (21.5 percent). Those with a high school education (25.3 percent) or some college education (26.4 percent) showed higher rates of prevalent insomnia. The AIS survey was conducted in 2008 and 2009.

Source: Doug Dusik, American Academy of Sleep Medicine, via EurekAlert

Postural instability, also referred to as body sway, increases with age and is considered to be an important risk factor for falls and fracture among hypnotic drug users.

The study objective was to evaluate the effect of Circadin on postural stability in older adults awakened in the middle of the night; 24 healthy volunteers (age 55-64) completed a single-dose, three-way crossover study of postural stability (body sway) after bedtime administration of Circadin 2 mg (melatonin), zolpidem 10 mg, or placebo with 7-10 days of washout between treatments.

Subjects were tested for postural stability 15 minutes before drug administration (at bedtime) and after 1.5 and 4 hours. Subjects were asked to stand on a stabilometric platform with their eyes closed and open. Parameters tested were the area of the 95% confidence ellipse enclosing the Center of Pressure (COP [A95]) and length of the COP path. Adverse events were recorded throughout the study.

No significant differences were found between Circadin and placebo in body sway as measured by the A95 parameter and by the length of the COP, except minor differences at 4 hours under open eyes conditions. Zolpidem, on the other hand, significantly increased body sway as measured by the A95. The results indicate that Circadin does not impair postural stability during mid sleep awakening, while the positive control zolpidem validated the study by significantly increasing postural instability under these conditions.

“This data confirms that Circadin does not raise the risk of falls, which is a major concern with hypnotic drugs use,” said Dr Tali Nir, VP of clinical and regulatory affairs at Neurim Pharmaceuticals. “Our study confirms prior evidence that zolpidem has a negative effect on postural stability that is causally related to the increase in risk of falls and injuries in patients aged 55+ years.”

Source: Sleep Review Mag

The findings “point to the fact that sleep, including insomnia symptoms, are a really big problem for cancer patients,” said Carol Enderlin, who studies sleep in breast cancer patients at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock.

“Many of them may think this is just something they have to deal with,” Enderlin, who was not involved in the new research, told Reuters Health.

But the message for patients, she said, is “to be aware of sleep and the importance of sleep, to report changes in sleep to your healthcare provider before they become severe (and) to not be afraid to bring them up.”

Canadian researchers, led by Josee Savard of the Laval University Cancer Research Center in Quebec, asked close to 1,000 patients getting surgery for cancer whether they had trouble falling asleep at night or staying asleep. Then, they regularly followed up with the same patients to see if their sleep and sleep symptoms changed over the months after treatment.

Patients were between 23 and 79 years old, and most had early-stage cancer, including breast and prostate cancers.

At the time of treatment, 59 percent of patients reported symptoms of insomnia, and about half of those were severe enough to qualify as insomnia syndrome, a collection of persistent symptoms such as requiring more than half an hour to fall asleep at least three nights per week. That rate was three times higher than insomnia syndrome rates in the general population.

One and a half years later, 36 percent of the participants reported insomnia symptoms.

While patients were generally less likely to report insomnia as time went on, one in seven developed symptoms for the first time in the months after surgery.

In another study published concurrently in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Julienne Bower of the University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues found that close to two-thirds of recently treated breast cancer patients suffered from fatigue and poor sleep quality.

It’s only in recent years that sleep has been recognized as a problem for cancer patients, researchers said.

“There was a shift in attention a decade ago as cancer survivors were living longer,” Bower said. “Oncologists were beginning to notice that they actually were having these persistent side effects and symptoms, and fatigue has probably been the most common.”

Staying active during cancer treatment and maintaining a positive outlook could help ward off some of those symptoms, Bower said.

Her research team has been testing the effectiveness of yoga as a treatment for fatigue and tai chi for insomnia. Cognitive behavioral therapy, which has helped other people with insomnia, might also work for cancer patients with fatigue or insomnia, she said.

“If you try to change the way you’re thinking about your fatigue, try to change your behaviors, that may be helpful,” Bower said. “You can usually tolerate having some fatigue while you’re going through treatment, but you really don’t want to have it for the next 10 years,” she added.

Enderlin said she hopes doctors and nurses will start routinely asking cancer patients about sleep and addressing sleep-related symptoms.

“When people are faced with stress, when they are faced with challenges, they do much better on a good night’s sleep,” she said. “It’s very important, never more so than with cancer patients.”

Source: Genevra Pittman, Reuters Health

Insomnia can be defined as a disorder in which a person finds it difficult to sleep. There are various patterns of insomnia. Sleep onset insomnia is one of them. As the name suggests, sleep onset insomnia can be termed as the inability to sleep at the beginning of the night, that means at the onset of sleep. A person may lie down for ten hours but sleep only for five hours. In medical terms, sleep onset insomnia is not a disease but a symptom in itself. Normally, an individual requires 10 to 15 minutes to fall asleep. If this time is delayed abnormally, then it is termed that the person is an onset insomniac. Sleep onset insomnia can be mild, acute or chronic. At times, it can merely last for a day, or may even last for as long as a month.

Insomnia not only deals with lack of sleep but also how a person feels the next morning. The severity of sleep onset insomnia may vary depending upon the lifestyle of a person and his habits. Sleep requirements for an individual may differ from one another. Sleep onset insomnia, if cured in time is completely harmless. But, if delayed and ignored, can cause major health problems. Insomnia can be categorized into three types:

• Transient: It lasts for less than a week
• Acute: It lasts for less than a month
• Chronic: It lasts for more than a month.

The Symptoms for Sleep Onset Insomnia

These are the symptoms that are frequently observed in sleep onset insomniacs. At times, these can also be the after effects of onset insomnia.

• Lack of concentration
• Frequent irritation
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Fatigue
• Mood swings
• Unpleasant behavior.

Causes of Sleep Onset Insomnia

Sleep onset insomnia is caused due to the changing behavioral patterns observed these days. ‘Restless leg syndrome’ is considered to be one of the most common causes of sleep onset insomnia. When a person tries to sleep, his restless leg syndrome robs him off his sleep. Problems at the workplace and in relationships might also result in onset insomnia. Many a times, onset insomnia can be a side effect of the medicines prescribed for depression. It can also be caused due to excessive consumption of coffee, over-exercising, stress or consumption of aerated drinks, at night, which compels a person to sleep late. It is observed that some people find it difficult to sleep at the right time just because they are over energetic and thus, the body simply refuses to sleep at the onset. Sometimes, women between the age of 45-60 years tend to suffer from onset insomnia as they are in their menopausal phase. It can also be as a result of certain hormonal imbalance in the body. Environmental factors such as temperature and seasonal changes also have an effect on the body which may result into onset insomnia. Effects of lack of sleep can be very harmful for your body. Hence, care must be taken to regulate the sleeping hours to avoid onset insomnia.

Doctors suggest that a person must sleep for minimum of seven hours and maximum of ten hours. If a proper diet with a limited amount of exercise is followed, then onset insomnia can very well be prevented, or even cured at times. A person can be a patient of onset insomnia from childhood itself. Most of the times, parents make it a habit to sleep beside their children. But, they tend to forget that a child may get habituated to it which may land him in trouble in the near future.

Remedial Measures for Sleep Onset Insomnia

Research shows that people suffering from insomnia, of any pattern, usually tend to avoid to go to a doctor. Because of this, most of them remain deprived of right diagnosis at the right time. Medication differs from person to person depending upon the severity of the disorder. Also, it depends upon the root causes of onset insomnia in the patient. Combination of both, medical and non-medical treatments, have proven to be better than mere medicinal prescriptions. Doctors say that simple home remedies, at times, work better than strong sleeping pills. Such simple remedies of insomnia are as follows:

• Make your bed a calm and quiet place to sleep
• Listening to soft music can help you sleep in a better way
• Yoga works wonders
• Having a bath with warm water can make you feel sleepy
• Drink a glass of warm milk
• Do not sleep in the afternoon especially after having lunch
• Get a relaxing oil massage
• Follow a proper cycle of sleeping hours wherein you sleep early and wake up early.

These techniques can surely make a difference and help you out. If it is found that the problem persists, even after following the above mentioned tips, then you must visit a doctor without any delay. After all, diagnosis at the right time can save you from entering the severe phase of onset insomnia.

Treatment for Sleep Onset Insomnia

• Benzodiazepines and non-benzodiazepines are mostly recommended to treat sleep onset insomnia.
• Certain behavioral therapies, mainly Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) is given to treat sleep onset insomnia.
• Acupuncture, herbal and natural therapies are given.
• Homeopathic treatments also do a good job at times.

One thing must be remembered that any treatment has to be taken only under a doctor’s supervision. Sometimes, self help is not the best help!

Hence, onset insomnia can be cured with the help of simple home remedial measures as well as proper medical treatments. One must keep in mind that one who has good health, has hope. One who has hope, has joy. One who has joy, has contentment. Lastly, one who has contentment, has everything! Take care!

Source: Neha Deshmukh, Buzzle