INSOMNIA

INSOMNIA

• DEFINITION
  

Insomnia includes having trouble falling or staying asleep. It's one of the most common medical complaints. With insomnia, you usually awaken feeling unrefreshed, which takes a toll on your ability to function during the day. Insomnia can sap not only your energy level and mood, but also your health, work performance and quality of life.

How much sleep is enough varies from person to person. Most adults need seven to eight hours a night. More than one-third of adults have insomnia at some time, while 10 to 15 percent report long-term (chronic) insomnia.

You don't have to put up with sleepless nights. Simple changes in your daily habits can resolve insomnia and restore your needed rest.

• SYMPTOMS

Insomnia signs and symptoms may include:

• Difficulty falling asleep at night
• Awakening during the night
• Awakening too early
• Not feeling well rested after a night's sleep
• Daytime fatigue or sleepiness
• Irritability, depression or anxiety
• Difficulty paying attention or focusing on tasks
• Increased errors or accidents
• Tension headaches
• Gastrointestinal symptoms
• Ongoing worries about sleep

When to see a doctor
If insomnia makes it hard for you to function during the day, see your doctor to determine what might be the cause of your sleep problem and how it can be treated. If your doctor thinks you could have another sleep disorder, you might be referred to a sleep center for special testing.

• CAUSES

Insomnia most often stems from some other problem, such as a medical condition that causes pain or use of substances that interfere with sleep. Common causes of insomnia include:

• Stress. Concerns about work, school, health or family can keep your mind active at night, making it difficult to sleep. Stressful life events, such as the death or illness of a loved one, divorce, or a job loss, may lead to insomnia.
• Anxiety. Everyday anxieties as well as more-serious anxiety disorders may disrupt your asleep.
• Depression. You might either sleep too much or have trouble sleeping if you're depressed. This may be due to chemical imbalances in your brain or because worries that accompany depression may keep you from relaxing enough to fall asleep. Insomnia often accompanies other mental health disorders as well.
• Medications. Prescription drugs that can interfere with sleep include some antidepressants, heart and blood pressure medications, allergy medications, stimulants (such as Ritalin) and corticosteroids. Many over-the-counter (OTC) medications, including some pain medication combinations, decongestants and weight-loss products, contain caffeine and other stimulants. Antihistamines may initially make you groggy, but they can worsen urinary problems, causing you to get up more during the night.
• Caffeine, nicotine and alcohol. Coffee, tea, cola and other caffeine-containing drinks are well-known stimulants. Drinking coffee in the late afternoon can keep you from falling asleep at night. Nicotine in tobacco products is another stimulant that can cause insomnia. Alcohol is a sedative that may help you fall asleep, but it prevents deeper stages of sleep and often causes you to awaken in the middle of the night.
• Medical conditions. If you have chronic pain, breathing difficulties or need to urinate frequently, you might develop insomnia. Conditions linked with insomnia include arthritis, cancer, congestive heart failure, diabetes, lung disease, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), overactive thyroid, stroke, Parkinson disease and Alzheimer's disease. Making sure that your medical conditions are well treated may help with your insomnia. If you have arthritis, for example, taking a pain reliever before bed may help you sleep better.
• Change in your environment or work schedule. Travel or working a late or early shift can disrupt your body's circadian rhythms, making it difficult to sleep. Your circadian rhythms act as internal clocks, guiding such things as your wake-sleep cycle, metabolism and body temperature.
• Poor sleep habits. Habits that help promote good sleep are called "sleep hygiene." Poor sleep hygiene includes an irregular sleep schedule, stimulating activities before bed, an uncomfortable sleep environment and use of your bed for activities other than sleep or sex.
• 'Learned' insomnia. This may occur when you worry excessively about not being able to sleep well and try too hard to fall asleep. Most people with this condition sleep better when they're away from their usual sleep environment or when they don't try to sleep, such as when they're watching TV or reading.
• Eating too much late in the evening. Having a light snack before bedtime is OK, but eating too much may cause you to feel physically uncomfortable while lying down, making it difficult to get to sleep. Many people also experience heartburn, a backflow of acid and food from the stomach to the esophagus after eating. This uncomfortable feeling may keep you awake.

Insomnia and aging
Insomnia becomes more prevalent with age. As you get older, changes can occur that may affect your sleep. You may experience:

• A change in sleep patterns. Sleep often becomes less restful as you age. You spend more time in stages 1 and 2 of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep and less time in stages 3 and 4. Stage 1 is transitional sleep, stage 2 is light sleep, and stage 3 is deep (delta) sleep, the most restful kind. Because you're sleeping more lightly, you're also more likely to awaken. With age, your internal clock often advances, which means you get tired earlier in the evening and wake up earlier in the morning. But older people still need the same amount of sleep as younger people do.
• A change in activity. You may be less physically or socially active. Activity helps promote a good night's sleep. You may also be more likely to take a daily nap, which also can interfere with sleep at night.

• A change in health. The chronic pain of conditions such as arthritis or back problems as well as depression, anxiety and stress can interfere with sleep. Older men often develop noncancerous enlargement of the prostate gland (benign prostatic hyperplasia), which can cause the need to urinate frequently, interrupting sleep. In women, hot flashes that accompany menopause can be equally disruptive.

  Other sleep-related disorders, such as sleep apnea and restless legs syndrome, also become more common with age. Sleep apnea causes you to stop breathing periodically throughout the night and then awaken. Restless legs syndrome causes unpleasant sensations in your legs and an almost irresistible desire to move them, which may prevent you from falling asleep.

• Increased use of medications. Older people use more prescription drugs than younger people do, which increases the chance of insomnia caused by a medication.

Sleep problems may be a concern for children and teenagers as well. Some children and teenagers simply have trouble getting to sleep or resist a regular bedtime because their internal clocks are more delayed. They want to go to bed later and sleep later in the morning.

• TESTS AND DIAGNOSIS

In addition to asking you a number of questions, your doctor may have you complete a questionnaire to determine your wake-sleep pattern and your level of daytime sleepiness. You may also be asked to keep a sleep diary for a couple of weeks, if you haven't already done so.

Your doctor will do a physical exam to look for signs of other problems that may be causing insomnia. Occasionally, a blood test may be done to check for thyroid problems or other conditions that can cause insomnia.

If you have signs of another sleep disorder, such as sleep apnea or restless legs syndrome, you may need to spend a night at a sleep center. Tests are done to monitor and record a variety of body activities while you sleep, including brain waves, breathing, heartbeat, eye movements and body movements.

• TREATMENTS
  

• Changing your sleep habits and addressing any underlying causes of insomnia can restore restful sleep for many people. Good sleep hygiene — simple steps such as keeping the same bedtime and rising time — promotes sound sleep and daytime alertness. If these measures don't work, your doctor may recommend medications to help with relaxation and sleep.

  Behavior therapies
  Behavioral treatments teach you new sleep behaviors and ways to make your sleeping environment more conducive to sleep. Studies have shown behavior therapies are equally or more effective than are sleep medications. Behavior therapies are generally recommended as the first line of treatment for people with insomnia.

  Behavior therapies include:

• Education about good sleeping habits. Sleep hygiene teaches habits that promote good sleep.
• Relaxation techniques. Progressive muscle relaxation, biofeedback and breathing exercises are ways to reduce anxiety at bedtime. These strategies help you control your breathing, heart rate, muscle tension and mood.
• Cognitive therapy. This involves replacing worries about not sleeping with positive thoughts. Cognitive therapy can be taught through one-on-one counseling or in group sessions.
• 'Stimulus control.' This means limiting the time you spend awake in bed and associating your bed and bedroom only with sleep and sex.
• Sleep restriction. This treatment decreases the time you spend in bed, causing partial sleep deprivation, which makes you more tired the next night. Once your sleep has improved, your time in bed is gradually increased.
• Light therapy. If you fall asleep too early and then awaken too early, you can use light to push back your internal clock. During times of the year when it's light outside in the evenings, you go outside for 30 minutes or obtain light via a medical-grade light box.

Medications
Taking prescription sleeping pills, such as zolpidem (Ambien), eszopiclone (Lunesta), zaleplon (Sonata) or ramelteon (Rozerem), also may help you get to sleep. However, in rare cases, these medications may cause severe allergic reactions, facial swelling and unusual behaviors, such as driving or preparing and eating food while asleep. Side effects of prescription sleeping medications are often more pronounced in older people and may include excessive drowsiness, impaired thinking, night wandering, agitation and balance problems.

Doctors generally don't recommend relying on prescription sleeping pills for more than a few weeks, but several newer medications are approved for indefinite use.

If you have depression as well as insomnia, your doctor may prescribe an antidepressant with a sedative effect, such as trazodone (Desyrel), doxepin (Sinequan, Adapin) or mirtazapine (Remeron).

Over-the-counter sleep aids contain antihistamines that can induce drowsiness. But antihistamines may reduce the quality of your sleep, and they can cause side effects such as daytime sleepiness, dry mouth and blurred vision.

• COMPLICATION

Sleep is as important to your health as a healthy diet and regular exercise. Whatever your reason for sleep loss, insomnia can affect you both mentally and physically. People with insomnia report a lower quality of life compared with people who are sleeping well.

Complications of insomnia may include:

• Lower performance on the job or at school
• Slowed reaction time while driving and higher risk of accidents
• Psychiatric problems, such as depression or an anxiety disorder
• Overweight or obesity
• Poor immune system function
• Increased risk and severity of long-term diseases, such as high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes