A healthcare provider can diagnose insomnia using a combination of methods, especially by asking you questions about your health history, personal circumstances, sleep habits, symptoms and more. They may also recommend certain tests to rule out other conditions that could cause or contribute to insomnia.
Your doctor may diagnose you with insomnia if some or all of these things apply to you: It takes you more than 30 minutes to fall asleep. You wake up during the night and have trouble falling back to sleep. You wake up early in the morning and can't fall back asleep.
Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) can help you control or eliminate negative thoughts and actions that keep you awake and is generally recommended as the first line of treatment for people with insomnia. Typically, CBT-I is equally or more effective than sleep medications.
Look Out for These Symptoms
Difficulty sleeping. Waking up repeatedly or for long periods during the night. Waking up too early. Morning fatigue.
Insomnia is not a disease, so no specific test can diagnose it. But when you can't sleep well, it often has to do with some other cause. "Normal sleep" differs for each person, so checking your health and sleep history is an important first step to finding a cause for poor-quality sleep.
In the short term, it makes people feel tired, and tired people tend to be more irritable, less productive, and more prone to accidents. Long-term sleep loss, meanwhile, has been linked to a wide range of health problems, including diabetes, heart attacks, mood disorders, and weight gain.
However, when a lack of sleep results in an accident or other bodily harm, the patient might be admitted to the hospital for treatment of a condition resulting from insomnia. Worsening pain or increased difficulty breathing at night also may indicate a person needs to seek emergency medical care.
A lack of sleep can cause a bunch of health issues, such as higher blood sugar levels, liver problems, weight gain and severe depression. Chronic insomnia can increase the likelihood of some serious diseases and illnesses, including: Heart attack. Stroke.
Signs and Symptoms That Mean You May Have Insomnia
You can't fall asleep at night. Lying awake for 30 minutes or longer once you get into bed should raise a red flag. You wake up in the middle of the night and can't fall back to sleep within 30 minutes. You wake up earlier in the morning than you anticipated.
Call the Doctor About Insomnia If:
You are concerned about waking up many times during the night gasping for breath and are concerned about possible sleep apnea or other medical problems that can disrupt sleep. You have begun taking a new medication that could be interrupting your sleep.
One myth when it comes to insomnia is the misconception that people with insomnia do not sleep at all. “People with insomnia will report that they don't sleep at all, but that's physically impossible, as you can't go night after night without sleeping,” says Gerard J.
Anyone can get insomnia, but it affects more women than men. More than one in four women in the United States experience insomnia, compared with fewer than one in five men.
Acute insomnia lasts from 1 night to a few weeks. Insomnia is chronic when it happens at least 3 nights a week for 3 months or more.
Insomnia is rarely an isolated medical or mental illness but rather a symptom of another illness to be investigated by a person and their medical doctors. In other people, insomnia can be a result of a person's lifestyle or work schedule.
Although they're sleep deprived, they tend to feel more tired than sleepy. If you have insomnia, you might find it hard to nap. People with insomnia usually see a doctor because of fatigue and poor daytime functioning, not because they have trouble falling or staying asleep.
Call the Doctor if:
Symptoms of insomnia last longer than four weeks or interfere with your daytime activities and ability to function. You are told you snore loudly and/or have periods where you stop breathing for a few seconds. These symptoms may suggest sleep apnea.
Zolpidem (Ambien, Ambien CR, Edluar, Intermezzo, Zolpimist)
A sedative-hypnotic of the imidazopyridine class, zolpidem has a rapid onset and short duration of action. It is a good first choice for treatment of sleep-onset insomnia and produces no significant residual sedation in the morning.
Benzodiazepines (e.g., lorazepam) and non-benzodiazepine γ-aminobutyric acid receptor agonist agents (z-drugs, e.g., zopiclone, zaleplon, eszopiclone, and zolpidem tartrate) are the most commonly prescribed sedative-hypnotics for hospital-acquired insomnia [1,18,20].
Chronic insomnia is when a person experiences sleeping difficulties and related daytime symptoms, like sleepiness and attention issues, at least three days per week for longer than three months.
What is the difference between sleep deprivation and insomnia? Insomnia and sleep deprivation are closely related but aren't the same thing. Insomnia is when you're unable to sleep when you try. Sleep deprivation is what happens when you don't give yourself enough time to sleep don't get enough sleep or both.
Many people associate crying with feeling sad and making them feel worse, but in reality, crying can help improve your mood - emotional tears release stress hormones. Your stress level lowers when you cry, which can help you sleep better and strengthen your immune system.
Sexsomnia, also known as sleep sex, is a type of sleep disorder known as a parasomnia. Parasomnias refer to unusual sensations and behaviors, such as sleepwalking, that people may experience or exhibit while asleep, falling asleep, or waking up. In the case of sexsomnia, people engage in sexual behaviors.