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Sleep and aging / Sleep Study /On the Noticeboard - Sleep Disorders in Asbestos-Related Diseases

Insomnia

Insomnia is a difficulty in falling asleep, repeated waking and early arousal. Some insomniacs have 24-hour insomnia, that is they are unable to sleep during the day and at night. Insomnia can be divided into two groups. The table below illustrates the differences between the two types of insomnia.

Types of Insomnia
	Transient	Chronic
Length	Less than 3-4 weeks	More than 4 weeks
Causes	Stressful lifestyle, jet lag, illness, sleep deprivation (due to new baby, emotional crisis)	Old age, medical or psychiatric issues.
Recovery	Rapid usually after the initial period of sleep disruption	See below

Table 1. Comparison between the two types of insomnia

Causes of Insomnia

Physiological factors	Environmental factors, discomfort, jet-lag, shift work, old age, naturally short sleep
Pharmacological factors	Alcohol, coffee, tea
Psychological factors	Stressful lifestyle, anxiety

The major complaints in patients suffering from insomnia include sleepiness, fatigue, lack of concentration, impaired memory and at times muscle aching and mild depression.

Chronic insomnia

This type of insomnia can be divided into three types, as described below.

Primary	Causes - Unknown
	Features - unexplained life-long fragmented short sleep, very early arousal. Day time fatigue, irritability, tension. This condition is often familial
Secondary	Causes - Medical, psychiatric, physiological, psychological problems, drugs
	Medical - A good percentage of chronic insomnias are associated with medical conditions. Metabolic disease may alter sleep structure, while pain, discomfort, cough, angina, shortness of breath may disturb sleep
	Physiological - these factors are usually easy to identify, ie. shift wok, jet lag. In older people insomnia is due to a combination of factors old age, illness, changes in sleep associated with age, etc.
	Psychological - Sleep is a learned habit and it is easily disturbed by increased arousal, anxiety and excitement. A number of studies have shown that people who are worriers tend to have a poor sleep pattern. Also frequent emotional and health problems as well as severe stress tend to predispose the development of insomnia
	Psychiatric - psychiatric disorders cause a greater disturbance of sleep pattern than any other cause of insomnia. Patients suffering from severe depression may sleep for long periods of time. Insomnia may precede all other psychological symptoms of depression, and its possible that restoration of sleep may be the first step to recovery
	Drugs - coffee, alcohol, tea, nicotine and some drugs interfere with sleep. Alcohol disturbs sleep more than coffee or tea, the degree of disturbance is related to the amount of alcohol consumed
Tertiary	Sleep difficulty associated with a sleep disorder

If the doctor suspects that the patient suffers from insomnia, he/she may recommend keeping an accurate sleep diary (copies of a Sleep Diary can be downloaded - look under resources). By keeping an accurate sleep diary (time you fall sleep, awakenings during the night, time of arousal) it will help your doctor assess the severity of the problem.

It is now well documented that sleep deprivation will have some impact on your health. People who suffer from insomnia may experience lack of energy, irritability, poor performance at work, impaired memory and lack of concentration. Also patients how lack sleep tend to have a high risk of heart disease, car accidents and even death.

Seek help!!!! If you experience sleepless nights more than 3 weeks and if have used sleeping pills for more than 3 weeks and cannot get a good night sleep without them.

 

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