An overview of insomnia, a common sleep complaint.
This paper provides an insight into the disorder of insomnia, the inability to sleep or the feeling that sleep is not adequate to give the body energy during the day. It discusses the difficulties in diagnosis as there is no proven clinical test and many clinical variations exist among patients and how it is often associated with another underlying condition. It provides details of common treatments and describes how medications to increase seratonin levels have been effective as has cognitive therapy and many complimentary treatments, such as yoga, in treating insomnia.
“The diagnosis of insomnia is subjective. There are many different forms and severity levels of insomnia. There are differences in how people react to insomnia as well. Some people are unable to function with a mild case of insomnia, while others can function quite normally with a very severe case of insomnia. These individual differences make it difficult to diagnose insomnia. Some people may sleep a full 8 or 9 hours and still feel as if they have not slept at all. People go through many different stages and levels of sleep throughout the night. The deepest stage of sleep is called Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. If a person sleeps, but is unable to experience REM sleep, they will wake up feeling sleep deprived (Kryger, et al. p. 637). There is no truly clinical test to measure insomnia. ”