Have you already watched your favorite movies over and over until you can effectively deliver, with intonation and all, 90 percent of the dialogues? Do you find yourself idly procrastinating and doodling the night away? Yes. You may be an insomniac.
In its simplest form, insomnia is merely lack of sleep. Don’t confuse the occasional late night barbeque with the boys or girls night out as insomnia. Insomnia usually refers to a persistent lack of sleep vacillating between the number of hours or quantity of sleep to the rest derived from the sleep itself or quality of sleep. That being said, insomnia can be of different types lasting for a week, transient insomnia; insomnia that lasts for several weeks, acute insomnia, and the more disturbing chronic insomnia, that can last from several months to languidly long years.
Now that you know where you stand, the next step is to identify the symptoms that will help you detect insomnia.Most symptoms of insomnia are psychological, such as depression or anxiety, prolonged tiredness, awakening during night, and weariness or lethargy during every day activities resulting in errors and omissions.
This brings us to the focus of this article – the causes of insomnia vary from medical oriented caused by an intake of drugs or medicine, to changes in lifestyle, to psychological factors, a selection of medical conditions, hormonal changes and other instances.
Tackling one cause of insomnia at a time, let’s begin with drug intake –related causes. Are you drinking coffee like water? Well here’s a secret, or not, caffeine is one of the major causes of sleep deprivation. While at times you really need that cup of coffee to get you going and it is the intended effect, note that a consistency in caffeine intake will develop some sort of insomnia for you.
Other drugs such as weight loss medicine, stimulants and especially anti-depressants can also be one of the many causes of insomnia. Nicotine (found in cigarettes) as well as drugs like Cocaine can make you more susceptible to sleeplessness.
Insomnia is also caused by changes in setting. Moving into a new house, being in a plane soaring a high altitude, noisiness or changes in weather (cool and dry to hot and humid) may very well disrupt your sleeping cycle. While these are often neglected, it is important to understand, that the rest derived from sleep occurs in familiar, comfortable settings and sudden changes in them may cause Insomnia.
Psychological conditions such as stress (a common trait in most people of the 21st century), anxiety (will he text or will he not text), and depression may be one of the causes of insomnia for you. So remember before you hit the sheets, put away all your worries and troubles and try to sleep with a calm mind. Don’t ponder over insignificant things and bring the focus of your life into resting and rejuvenating yourself.
Other causes of insomnia may include simply sleeping next to a loud snorer. Parasites may keep you up at night by sneaking into your bed at every opportunity they can find and ambushing you. And overactive mind or even hormonal changes such as periods might have your twisting and turning all night. Whatever the causes of insomnia may be, always remember that sleeping is a choice. There’s no such thing as “I can’t sleep.” Evaluate your diet, lifestyle, setting and toss your idle thoughts away as you lay down to rest. Something must be going wrong in your life cycle that is feeding insomnia. Make a genuine effort to sleep.
