Insomnia and its main causes

Sleep is as essential to us as food, air and water. Sometime in your life you may have difficulty sleeping - many people do. Anyone can suffer from insomnia, although sleeping problems are more common among women (especially menopausal), the ill, the elderly, smokers, and alcoholics. Sleep problems are, however, surprisingly common among young people. While it is not an illness and is in no way life-threatening, insomnia can be very distressing, frustrating, exhausting, depressing and at worst it can make you feel like you're going crazy.

Types of Insomnia

There are two broad categories:

Chronic insomnia - lasting for several weeks, months or even years
Transient insomnia - lasting for a few nights or weeks only, usually connected to a stressful event e.g. an exam, a bereavement.

Within these broad categories insomnia usually takes one or more of the following forms:

Difficulty falling asleep - more common among young people
Sleeping lightly and restlessly, waking often, lying awake in the middle of the night - more common in people over 40. In younger people it may be associated with depression.
Waking early and being unable to get back to sleep - this is more common in older people and anyone worrying about something in particular.

Common Symptoms

If you ...