Many children are afraid of the darkness and the monsters that inhabit them, are under the bed, will kidnap you when you sleep soundly or be frightened when you get up in the middle of the night, luckily these childhood monsters are imaginary but there is a real monster that appears in children’s lives and more often in adult life : insomnia.
We can understand insomnia as a sleep disorder. In sleep disorders we can find dyssonias and parasomnias. In the first case, the change relates to the quantity, quality and duration of sleep; while in the second case abnormal movements and nightmares occur during sleep, causing alterations in the healthy resting pattern, so insomnia is in dysonias.
“If a person had as many ideas during the day as during insomnia, he would be rich. “
-Griff Niblack-
Although there are different sleep patterns, there are clear indicators that a person suffers from insomnia, the most common, and at the same time the most obvious, is the tiredness that the person feels from lack of sleep, a sleep difficult to fall asleep because of several factors, usually related to their own habits.
To differentiate between temporary difficulty sleeping and insomnia, experts say it should occur three nights or more a week for at least three months.
There is a persistent difficulty or inability to start and maintain sleep. People with insomnia can also wake up very early, even if they haven’t been able to sleep well at night.
As we have already said, insomnia is found in sleep disorders called dyssonia, the person sleeps normally, there are no strange phenomena, but has problems with quantity, quality and sleep times.
To differentiate primary insomnia from other sleep disorders it is necessary to know the causes, insomnia can have many reasons, so it is necessary to differentiate treatment, here we will see some of these causes:
Once you have ruled out all of these possibilities, it is clear that your insomnia is primary, i. e. it is not caused by another organic cause or other psychological disorder. Sometimes insomnia can occur as a result of depression; this is not the main problem, just a symptom.
Lack of sleep negatively affects the lives of people with insomnia: it is not only fatigue, but accumulated fatigue causes apathy, lack of concentration and irritability, not getting enough sleep affects our energy and hinders our performance at work, our marriage and our relationships with friends.
Lack of sleep also affects our ability to react, learn, and memorize. Although many celebrities define themselves as “noctámbulos”, make no mistake. They don’t sleep at night, but they probably get enough sleep during the day, although this is true. is not the usual pattern of the population.
It should also be noted that some jobs have flexible schedules. For example, not sleeping to write can be inspiring; not sleeping and working as a bus driver can have fatal consequences.
If you experience an episode of severe insomnia and can’t sleep for days, you should see a doctor, who is initially prescribed benzodiazepines or hypnotics, who are more practical for this problem and lead to less dependence.
Are these medications simply a palliative? For insomnia, as this problem depends on several causes and the behavior of the individual, so it is best to consult a clinical psychologist with cognitive behavioral training in the fight against insomnia. Commonly used techniques are: