Insomnia Meaning?
We’ve all heard it and might have wondered what Insomnia really means. Insomnia meaning: the inability to obtain sufficient sleep. We’ve all had it to a certain degree and approximately 48% of adults said they had some degree of insomnia. There are complications of having insomnia as well such as: obesity, psychological, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and poor immune system. Some of the symptoms of insomnia are:
- Difficulty staying asleep
- Difficulty falling asleep
- Not feeling refreshed in the morning
- Waking up too early in the morning
Healthy sleep is vital to keeping our bodies in optimal order. Poor sleep can lead to lack of motivation, decreased attention span, mood disturbances, unable to concentrate, low energy and fatigue.
Three Forms of Insomnia
- Mild Insomnia – Lasts only a few days and there is little if any impairment
- Moderate Insomnia – Difficulties last less than a month at a time. Irritable and fatigue may be present.
- Chronic – Lasts longer than a month, severe impairment during waking hours, strong feelings of irritability, anxiety, restlessness and fatigue.
Sleep Disorders
- Insomnia – Not able to sleep or remain asleep
- Sleep Apnea – A persons breathing passages become temporarily blocked. Sometimes excessive snoring can be a sign of sleep apnea.
- Chronic Sleep Apnea – This happens because of a neurological disorder when the brain forgets to tell the body to breathe.
- Narcolepsy – Where sleep and drowsiness can’t be controlled throughout the day.
- Parasomnias – This is when sleep walking and night terrors happen during sleep.
- Hypersomnia – This is when your sleep actually increases by over 25%
- Restless Leg Syndrome – Uncomfortable sensations in legs or feet just before they fall asleep.
Women have a higher degree of insomnia than men. After a woman has had a baby she develops more sensitivity towards her baby’s noises, making her wake more frequently when her baby cries or coughs. Even in later years when her children are grown and gone studies have shown that women still carry that same sensitivity toward nighttime noises. It has also been proven through studies that women that have never had a child sleep better throughout the night. Also, women going through constant hormonal changes during PMS have a more difficult time sleeping. Add this with the cramping and back pain that can accompany going through their period makes sleep difficult. Once women begin menopause the have to contend with sweating at night caused by hormonal swings and hot flashes the good news is that once they are post menopause this usually goes away allowing them to sleep better.
Depression and Insomnia
One of the major symptoms of depression is insomnia. More than 90% of patients diagnosed with depression have also reported trouble with: staying asleep, falling asleep, or both. If diagnosed early proper treatment can help resolve these issues, the longer you an individual stays in a state of insomnia the more difficult it can be to treat.
An odd statistic is that worldwide the United States leads in the number of insomniacs. Next is Germany then the United Kingdom. The average number of hours of sleep someone with insomnia gets is 6. With women leading men 40% to 30% on who gets it. And the average age is large is 15 to 55 years old. So if you’re a woman in the United States between the ages of 15 and 55 and get 6 or less hours of sleep you are a prime candidate of having insomnia.
Don’t let this scare you as there are many things we can do to naturally fix this. Please see other articles I have written on stopping insomnia they might help you figure out what works for you. Each of us are different and react a different way to drugs and remedies, I personally always try to find a natural way to overcome things before I would resort to prescription drugs.
