Occasional Insomnia
What are sleep disorders?
Intermittent Insomnia — Is Occasional Sleeplessness Leading You Toward the Chronic Path? If you have intermittent insomnia, it means that you have episodes of insomnia that come and go. While it’s not a consistent pattern for you, it can still be disruptive. As the name implies, “ insomnia tends to be a very early symptom,” Mindel says. Progressively worsening insomnia is often the first sign that FFI has developed. As the patient’s experience of.
I have, just like my grandfather and my mother, always suffered from insomnia. My Doctor mentioned that it was also a really good medicine for insomnia. I had been taking 75 mg of Benadryl for many years to help me sleep. I was able to completely stop taking benadryl and the Elavil has cured my insomnia too. Approximately one in four reported occasional insomnia while 9% reported that their sleep difficulty occurred on a regular nightly basis. Plenty of treatment options for insomnia are available. Good sleep habits and a healthy diet can remedy many cases of insomnia. Behavior therapy or medication may be necessary in some cases.
Sleep disorders are conditions that impair your sleep or prevent you from getting restful sleep and, as a result, can cause daytime sleepiness and other symptoms. Everyone can experience problems with sleep from time to time. However, you might have a sleep disorder if:
- You regularly experience difficulty sleeping.
- You are often tired during the day even though you slept for at least seven hours the night before.
- You have a reduced or impaired ability to perform regular daytime activities.
There are more than 100 million Americans of all ages who are not getting an adequate amount of sleep. Sleep is very important. Not getting enough sleep can have untoward consequences on school and work performance, interpersonal relationships, health and safety.
How common are sleep disorders?
About 70 million people in the United States suffer from sleep disorders.
How many types of sleep disorders are there?
There are approximately 80 different types of sleep disorders. The top ones are:
- Insomnia.
- Sleep apnea.
- Restless legs syndrome.
- Narcolepsy.
How much sleep is necessary?
Experts generally recommend that adults sleep at least seven to nine hours per night, although some people require more and others require less.
A recent National Sleep Foundation Sleep in America poll found that adults (ages 18-54) sleep an average of 6.4 hours per night on weekdays and 7.7 hours on weekends. The poll showed a downward trend in sleep time over the past several years. People sleeping less hours tend to use the internet at night or bring work home from the office.
The National Sleep Foundation also reported that older adults (age 55-84) average seven hours of sleep on weekdays and 7.1 hours on weekends. Sleep is most often disturbed by the need to use the bathroom and physical pain or discomfort in older adults.
A downward trend in sleep time has also been observed in children. Optimal sleep time varies by age. An earlier Sleep in America poll found a discrepancy between recommended and actual sleep time in children, with actual sleep time 1.5 to two hours less than recommended. Caffeine consumption caused a loss of three to five hours of sleep and having a television in the bedroom contributed to a loss of two hours of sleep each week in children.
What happens when a person doesn’t get enough sleep?
Not getting the proper amount or quality of sleep leads to more than just feeling tired. Sleepiness interferes with cognitive function, which can lead to learning disabilities in children, memory impairment in people of all ages, personality changes and depression.
People who are deprived of sleep experience difficulty making decisions, irritability, have problems with performance, and slower reaction times, placing them at risk for automobile and work-related accidents. Sleep loss can also adversely affect life by contributing to the development of obesity, diabetes and heart disease.
Who is more likely to have a sleep disorder?
Disorders associated with daytime sleepiness affect females more than males.
What causes sleep disorders?
Sleep problems can be caused by various factors. Although causes might differ, the end result of all sleep disorders is that the body's natural cycle of slumber and daytime wakefulness is disrupted or exaggerated. Eight factors include:
- Physical (such as ulcers).
- Medical (such as asthma).
- Psychiatric (such as depression and anxiety disorders).
- Environmental (such as alcohol).
- Working the night shift (this work schedule messes up “biological clocks.”)
- Genetics (narcolepsy is genetic).
- Medications (some interfere with sleep).
- Aging (about half of all adults over the age of 65 have some sort of sleep disorder. It is not clear if it is a normal part of aging or a result of medicines that older people commonly use).
What are the symptoms of sleep disorders?
You might have a sleep disorder if you experience one or more of the following symptoms. Do you:
- Fall asleep while driving?
- Struggle to stay awake when inactive, such as when watching television or reading?
- Have difficulty paying attention or concentrating at work, school, or home?
- Have performance problems at work or school?
- Often get told by others that you look sleepy?
- Have difficulty with your memory?
- Have slowed responses?
- Have difficulty controlling your emotions?
- Need to take naps almost every day?
What is insomnia?
Insomnia is a sleep disorder where people have difficulty falling or staying asleep. People with insomnia have one or more of the following symptoms:
- Difficulty falling asleep.
- Waking up often during the night and having trouble going back to sleep.
- Waking up too early in the morning.
- Having unrefreshing sleep.
- Having at least one daytime problem such as fatigue, sleepiness, problems with mood, concentration, accidents at work or while driving, etc. due to poor sleep.
Insomnia varies in how long it lasts and how often it occurs. About 50% of adults experience occasional bouts of insomnia and one in 10 suffer from chronic insomnia. Insomnia can occur by itself or can be associated with medical or psychiatric conditions. Insomnia can be short-term (acute or adjustment insomnia) or can last a long time (chronic insomnia). It can also come and go, with periods of time when a person has no sleep problems. Acute or adjustment insomnia can last from one night to a few weeks. Insomnia is called chronic when a person has insomnia at least three nights a week for a month or longer.
Short-term or acute insomnia can be caused by life stresses (such as job loss or change, death of a loved one, or moving), an illness, or environmental factors such as light, noise, or extreme temperatures.
Long-term or chronic insomnia (insomnia that occurs at least three nights a week for at least three months or longer) can be caused by factors such as depression, chronic stress and pain or discomfort at night.
A common cause of chronic insomnia is a conditioned emotional response. Thoughts about the sleep problem (e.g., 'What if I don’t fall asleep tonight?') and behaviors that develop around the sleep problem (e.g., sleeping in and napping, ruminating in bed) tend to prolong insomnia symptoms.
What is sleep apnea?
Sleep apnea is a potentially serious sleep disorder that occurs when a person's breathing is interrupted during sleep. People with untreated sleep apnea stop breathing repeatedly during their sleep.
There are two types of sleep apnea: obstructive and central.
- Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is the more common of the two. It is caused by a blockage of the airway, usually when the soft tissue in the back of the throat collapses during sleep. Symptoms of OSA may include snoring, daytime sleepiness, fatigue, restlessness during sleep, gasping for air while sleeping and trouble concentrating.
- In central sleep apnea (CSA), the airway is not blocked, but the brain fails to tell the body to breathe. This type is called central apnea because it is related to the function of the central nervous system. People with CSA may gasp for air but mostly report recurrent awakenings during night.
What is restless legs syndrome?
Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a sleep disorder that causes an intense, often irresistible urge to move the legs. This sensation is brought on by resting such as lying down in bed, sitting for prolonged periods such as while driving or at a theatre. RLS typically occurs in the evening, making it difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep. It can be associated with problems with daytime sleepiness, irritability and concentration. Often, people with RLS want to walk around and shake their legs to help relieve the uncomfortable sensation.
What is narcolepsy?
Narcolepsy is a neurological disorder of sleep regulation that affects the control of sleep and wakefulness. People with narcolepsy experience excessive daytime sleepiness and intermittent, uncontrollable episodes of falling asleep during the daytime. These sudden sleep attacks may occur during any type of activity at any time of the day. Some patients with narcolepsy experience sudden muscle weakness with laughter or other emotions.
Narcolepsy usually begins between the ages of 15 and 25, but it can become apparent at any age. In many cases, narcolepsy is undiagnosed and, therefore, untreated.
If you have intermittent insomnia, it means that you have episodes of insomnia that come and go.
While it’s not a consistent pattern for you, it can still be disruptive. Your insomnia isn’t chronic, but you might find that your tendency to have sleepless nights causes you quite a bit of misery.
I had intermittent insomnia before it became chronic. In fact, I can go back to teenage years to trace my tendency to have insomnia, even though I had it infrequently. Of course eventually it turned into a full-blown chronic insomnia condition.
This is why you need to take intermittent insomnia seriously. Not only can it disrupt your life, but it can turn into chronic insomnia if you’re not aware of what causes your insomnia to begin with, or how to treat it.
The pattern begins…
The problem with intermittent insomnia is not the frequency. That’s usually nothing to worry about. Everyone experiences an occasional sleepless night now and then. It’s easy to make up for the lost sleep and the fatigue disappears with a couple of good nights. There are no serious health effects other than feeling tired the day after an episode.
No, the problem with intermittent insomnia goes much deeper than frequency. It’s the cause and correlation that you have to deal with. And what does that mean?
Well, if you have this condition, it’s quite likely that you can detect a definite pattern in it.
You might find, for example, that it’s associated with an event that gives you a lot of anxiety, such as an exam, starting a new job, starting school in the fall, attending a social event, getting a promotion at work, and so on.
The anxiety connection can be pretty strong in intermittent insomnia. I even heard about someone, a friend of a friend, who could not pass the bar exam because he could not sleep the night before.
The lack of sleep seriously affected this person’s cognitive ability. And as any lawyer knows, the bar exam is not a time when you can bluff your way through or “call it in,” so to speak. You have to be in good mental shape to pass.
Intermittent Sleep Disorder
Now, to me, this sounds like the perfect scenario for a sleeping pill. If the insomnia was so specifically related to a relatively rare event, why not just take medication and be done with it?
Acupuncture Points For Sleep
As it turned out, sleeping pills didn’t work, because while they did provide the sleep, they too caused mental sluggishness. No improvement.
When intermittent insomnia is caused by anxiety, it’s usually either anticipatory or performance anxiety.
Anticipatory anxiety means you fear an event because you are certain it won’t go well. This could be the case if you can’t sleep before a medical procedure or any event that holds importance for you or someone close to you.
Trazodone For Occasional Insomnia
A parent might not sleep well before their child starts school, for example, even though it’s the child who must face the ordeal.
Performance anxiety means you doubt your ability to pull off a good performance, whether work-related, school-related, family-related, friend-related, and so on.
So you won’t sleep the night before you must give a presentation or make an important sales call or start a new job or host an event you’ve organized.
As strong as the insomnia-anxiety connection is, there are still other causes of intermittent insomnia.
Occasional Insomnia
And not all of them are mental or emotional causes. They can also be physical and/or behavioral. Intermittent insomnia can be associated with drinking too much or eating the wrong foods, staying out too late or ignoring your need to sleep until you get your circadian rhythms out of whack.
And I think it’s also important to note that some mental or emotional causes might not necessarily be negative. You might find yourself becoming too excited or over-stimulated to sleep from events that happened during the day.
Even sheer happiness can cause occasional insomnia. Of course, we usually don’t mind that type. “Good” insomnia – that’s what I call not sleeping due to wonderful things happening in your life – is usually not anything to worry about… unless…
…it joins in with your pattern of intermittent insomnia and reinforces that pattern, and brings you more difficulty.
But I think it is getting clear by now that the most important thing is to find that pattern… which will then reveal the causes… so you can take steps now to treat your insomnia effectively and avoid more problems in the future.
And the pattern will reveal, in most cases of intermittent insomnia, your inability to “wind down” and “let go” of events, problems, worries, feelings, thoughts, and other realities of life at the appropriate time — at night or before you go to sleep.
My claim throughout this website is that you don’t need to “solve” all your life problems in order to sleep better.
- You don’t have to become a serene, calm, centered, happy person to sleep well.
- You don’t need to be worry-free, neurosis-free, anxiety-free, or problem-free in order to be insomnia-free!
- You simply have to learn the techniques and methods that good sleepers use, usually unconsciously, to feel that your day is finished, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet, and so you can let go, relax, and slip into blissful slumber.
As insomniacs, we have to apply those techniques deliberately and diligently, over a period of time, maintaining patience as we go along.
What Is Occasional Insomnia
Luckily, it is not difficult to do this. There are just two steps: practice good sleep hygiene, and follow the self-help tutorial.
Return to the Types of Insomnia homepage.