Insomnia is a sleep disorder in which a person sleeps less than usual and has difficulty maintaining sleep. It can range from tiredness during the day to trouble falling asleep at night.
Different things, including stress, depression, medication side effects, or other health conditions such as breathing disorders or heart problems, can cause insomnia.
Some common side effects of insomnia include:
Difficulty falling asleep.
Excessive daytime sleepiness.
Difficulty concentrating and thinking clearly.
Headaches.
What is Insomnia?
Insomnia is a stable pattern of the inability to sleep, which can affect your ability to function in the daytime. Insomnia is a common disorder affecting as many as 30 million Americans annually. Primary insomnia is the most common type, which occurs when you don't fall asleep despite having adequate opportunity and motivation to do so.
In addition to primary insomnia, there are many other types of insomnia, such as secondary insomnia, which occurs when you have difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep due to an underlying medical condition like pain or anxiety.
Tertiary insomnia occurs when the symptoms of both primary and secondary insomnia combine together.
Symptoms of Insomnia
Insomnia is a tricky condition to diagnose. If you're experiencing insomnia symptoms, you might think, "I can't fall asleep! I'm always exhausted and feel like I'm running on empty."
If this sounds familiar, there's a good chance you suffer from insomnia, which could be costing you adversely. Insomnia can cause poor performance at work and school and even affect your relationships with others. If you don't treat your sleep issues as soon as they appear, they could escalate into more serious problems.
There are some signs that point toward possible insomnia:
Difficulty falling asleep at night.
Waking up too early in the morning.
Experiencing tiredness throughout the day or after waking up from a nap (even if you had one earlier in the day).
How At-Home Sleep Studies for Insomnia Help
If you're having trouble sleeping, try an at-home sleep study.
At-home sleep studies or home sleep apnea tests are a great way to objectively assess your sleep habits and patterns without the hassles of being in a lab or hospital. All you have to do is spend some time in your home and let the machine do the work for you!
You can do an at-home sleep study by spending a few nights in a quiet room with the machine on, recording your movements and sounds as you go about your day.
This information will be processed by the machine, producing a report showing exactly what's going on with your sleep patterns. You'll learn whether or not there are any problems with your sleep or wakefulness, and if so, what they might be.
You'll also get an idea of how well these issues are being treated—or if they don't respond well enough to treatment, whether or not there's anything else going on that might contribute to sleeplessness.
Is it Possible to Treat Insomnia?
The good news is that there is effective insomnia treatment available online. The most common treatments for insomnia include antidepressants, cognitive-behavioral therapy, exercise, and sleep hygiene instruction.
Antidepressants
If you take an antidepressant before bedtime, you may be able to treat insomnia effectively if you take it before you go to sleep. One study found that patients with insomnia who were given an antidepressant were more likely to fall asleep and stay asleep than those given a placebo pill.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy
Cognitive behavioral therapy has been shown to help with the symptoms of chronic insomnia by teaching patients how to manage their thoughts and behaviors better while sleeping.
Exercise
Regular exercise is another effective way to treat insomnia. Studies show that people who exercise regularly have lower rates of sleep disorders than those who don't.
Sleep hygiene instruction
In addition to treating insomnia, instruction on sleep hygiene can also help you establish healthy sleeping habits so that you are able to sleep well.
Conclusion
You may have tried other methods of treating your sleep apnea before, but they haven't worked as well as they should have. That's because they don't address the root cause of your symptoms—and that's why SleepRx is so reliable!
We know how difficult it can be to get back to sleep after a restless night plagued by symptoms like heavy breathing, pounding heartbeats, and gasping for breath—but we also know that these symptoms can be managed effectively with our unique technology.
At SleepRx, we know that sleep medicine can be hard to navigate, and we want to take all the stress out of finding a doctor. Our sleep doctors in Jacksonville, FL, can help you consult a doctor online, so there's no need to make an appointment or wait in the cold for hours.
SleepRx's sleep medicine doctors also have the expertise and experience to diagnose and treat sleep disorders like snoring, sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, and other conditions that affect your quality of life.