What Are the Types of Insomnia?
Insomnia can greatly diminish your daily activities – both at work and play. Call our dedicated sleep team today at Koala® Center For Sleep & TMJ Disorders or visit us online to book an appointment. Discover options “you can live with.” We have convenient locations across the U.S. in Bloomington IL, Peoria – Dunlap IL, Mishawaka IN, Kansas City MO, El Paso TX, and Wausau WI.
Table of Contents:
How do I know if I have insomnia?
What are the 3 types of insomnia?
How many hours do insomniacs sleep?
How bad can insomnia get?
The term insomnia gets thrown around casually when people experience a bad night’s sleep, whether it is because they couldn’t fall asleep, they had trouble staying asleep or they couldn’t get back to sleep after falling asleep. In addition to these main symptoms of insomnia, people could actually experience anxiety, depression, irritability, struggle to focus, pay attention or remember information, feel tired throughout the day and see an increase in simple errors and accidents.
These are all signs of insomnia, and people who describe their troubles with sleeping as having insomnia are often not wrong. Insomnia can occur in people as an acute condition that resolves itself after a couple of days or weeks. In these situations, insomnia is usually the result of a stressful or traumatic event that is causing the sufferer to have trouble with sleeping. When people have ongoing sleep problems for several weeks or months, the condition is classified as being chronic or long-term and should be checked out by a doctor.
Insomnia has been categorized into three different types, determined by how long a person has been experiencing the condition. The three types of insomnia are acute, transient, and chronic. The causes of each type will vary, but all three can lead to more complex, serious conditions if left untreated. Determining which type of insomnia a person is suffering from can help to pinpoint the cause, and from there, determine the right treatment plan.
Broken down, each type of insomnia is characterized as follows:
– Transient insomnia is the shortest of the three, typically lasting for a week or less. It is usually the result of a change to circumstances that is causing additional stress, such as a future event, stress, relationship problems, illness, jet lag, sleeping in a different environment, excitement or a change to your normal sleep pattern. In this case, the condition will typically clear up on its own once the stress has passed or your normal sleep routine returns.
– Acute insomnia is similar to transient insomnia but can last for a longer period of time, typically several weeks. It can be the result of an extended illness, stress or worry about a bigger, recurring, or ongoing problem, and the death of a close friend or family member. The causes of acute insomnia are typically bigger scale issues than transient insomnia causes, but in most cases, the condition can resolve itself with a solid bedtime routine and a refocus of your mindset.
– Chronic insomnia can last for months, and in some people, even for years. At this point, sleep deprivation may greatly impact your life, including your work and normal activities with friends and family.
– Chronic insomnia can also be the result of a bad sleep environment, mistiming of your sleep, health conditions, and ongoing stress, anxiety, or depression.
As a general rule, adults should get between seven and eight hours of sleep per night. However, we know that everyone’s bodies are different, and therefore their needs, are different. While some people are good with seven to eight hours, other people may need more than that and others function perfectly well on less. The same goes with insomniacs; every one who suffers from insomnia is going to experience the condition at different amounts of sleep.
For someone who needs more than the recommended hours of sleep per night, they may experience the negative symptoms of insomnia while still getting five or six hours of sleep. For others, insomnia may only allow them to get an hour or two of sleep per night. The sleep that insomniacs get can also be choppy, meaning that they aren’t able to achieve deep REM sleep as they don’t stay asleep long enough for their body to reach that state. The inability to reach this state can be just as impactful as not being able to get enough sleep.
Insomnia can get as bad as people let it. Everyone is different in how insomnia affects them and how much or little sleep they need in order to remain functional at their normal levels. When left undiagnosed and untreated, insomnia could actually have a negative impact on all aspects of your life. When a person is experiencing insomnia their ability to focus and remember important details and information is greatly hindered, which can impact their performance at school and work, as well as their attendance.
On the social aspect of their life, insomniacs can struggle with their personal relationships due to a lack of energy to go out, due to often feeling tired. If you think you are suffering from insomnia, make an appointment with the team at Koala® Center For Sleep & TMJ Disorders. We will help you guide you to get back to sleep before it negatively impacts your personal and professional life.
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