How Do You Get Insomnia | What Is Insomnia

I was surprised to discover that loads of people were asking in forums / Q&A sites “how do you get insomnia?” because I assumed that everyone knows about it, which is, in retrospect, a silly thing to do and proves to me yet again that assumptions will only get me to make mistakes. The good thing is that insomnia is not a taboo subject and people don’t have a problem to openly discuss it with colleagues, friends and family. I say that’s a good thing because some other conditions remain in the bad state they are in because people are reluctant to talk about them and companies often push people to work while suffering instead of helping.

What is Insomnia?

The word insomnia, as you may suspect, comes from Latin like many other medical terms and is built of “in” and “somnus” which mean “not” and “sleep”, but that does not mean that insomnia is just not sleeping, it is slightly more complex than that.

Insomnia, like any other problem, has mild to chronic variations and so when it haunts a person for just a short time, a few days, it is called transient insomnia. When the person suffers from it some weeks they call it acute and finally someone suffering on an ongoing long term basis is said to have a chronic condition.

Demographics – Who Insomnia Affects?

Nobody is immune from insomnia. Absolutely everyone can and will likely suffer from one or another type of insomnia. However, because of the types of things which trigger insomnia it is much more often observed in adults. Just to give you an idea stress is a major factor and, as you know, kids have far less stress than adults.

So How Do You Get Insomnia?

Just for the sake of making it easy to read I want to break down this section into 2 parts – things which you do that cause insomnia and things that happen to you, although it is not so black and white, but I think it makes it easier to digest.

Your own actions which could make you get insomnia:

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  Stressing about all kinds of problems is a major source of insomnia. A lot of people just can not help but think about their and loved ones’ problems at night. This type can definitely lead to the dangerous chronic insomnia. Included inside this category of stress are all the various conditions which generate stress in the body such as being depressed, having a phobia, mania, worrying, mourning, suffering, etc.

• What you eat and drink matters a lot. Those who drink stimulants like coffee, energy drinks or those taking drugs (legal or illegal) or those who drink a lot of alcohol or eat a lot of junk food can all get insomnia because of all the damage (direct or side effects) done to the body, so internally the body is far from being “at peace”. On the contrary it is working hectically to sort out all the damage you have done.
• If you travel, for pleasure or business, you are likely to be affected by jet lag, which can prevent you from having a good night sleep – this, however, is a short term effect and we readjust rather quickly (Circadian Rhythm Disruption).
• Working during the night shift and especially alternating day and night shifts will wreck havoc on your body clock and can facilitate insomnia (Circadian Rhythm Disruption).
• Crazy sleep hours, such as staying up all night one day then sleeping during the following day and keeping up a random sleeping pattern, the can surely result in insomnia (Circadian Rhythm Disruption).

Things that happen in and around you which can trigger insomnia

• A common problem is noise from the neighbour, street clutter and other city noises. Naturally we are built to sleep when it is quiet and peaceful (and not when the dinosaur is chasing us :P) and so our body does not really know the difference between lurking dangerous animals or sounds of the city. Luckily this one is easy to fix either by moving out or using sound and ear plugs; check out Snore Calm Foam Ear Plugs REVIEW and Sleeplessness Remedies | Marpac SleepMate White Noise Machine | REVIEW

• 

  Chronic pain or conditions in various parts of the body prevent you from being relaxed and peaceful and will fight against you having quality sleep. This can surely lead to chronic insomnia and if you get insomnia as a result of chronic health issues it will be very hard to fix this.

• Various biological events occurring inside your body (illnesses, hormonal changes, menstrual cycle, etc) because of one or another health problem you may be suffering from will also make it difficult to relax and sleep.
• Temperature is very important for sleep. If it is hot outside or you cranked up the heating you are likely to sweat and have either trouble sleeping or have a bad quality sleep. Likewise, if you are freezing, you will have similar troubles. The best temperature for sleep is slightly on the cold side so we feel cuddly inside our sheets.

What Insomnia really is! It is not a Disease!

Actually, if you are a good observer, you may have noticed that insomnia is actually your body telling you that you have done something wrong or that something abnormal is happening on the inside. Insomnia is a language of communication. It is as though I would tell you “I feel sad” – the body is telling you “I need your help”.

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Final words on How Do You Get Insomnia

I hope the “How Do You Get Insomnia | What Is Insomnia” article was as helpful to you and that now you have all the knowledge to understand the language of your body and take actions to prevent insomnia happening to you.