Fun With Insomnia Blog

Can’t sleep?

You’re not alone.

An estimated 30-50 percent of the general population is affected by insomnia symptoms and 10 percent has chronic insomnia symptoms, according to www.emedicinehealth.com.

insomnia symptoms is a sleep disorder characterized by difficulty falling and/or staying asleep.

Whatever its definition, it can be frustrating.

People with insomnia symptoms have symptoms such as difficulty falling asleep, waking often during the night and having trouble going back to sleep, waking too early in the morning or feeling tired upon waking, according to www.webmd.com.

Dr. Daryl Doorenbos, a family practice doctor at Floyd Valley Hospital Family Medicine Clinic-Le Mars, thinks the most common form of insomnia symptoms is not being able to fall asleep.

And, he said, that phenomenon can be related to a lot of factors.

“Going to sleep is, in part, learned,” Doorenbos said. “We learn to prepare ourselves for sleep by some of the bedtime activities we like.”

Those may include watching TV, reading, listening to music or soaking in a hot bath, he said.

By following those nightly routines people learn to anticipate when they feel tired and look forward to sleeping in bed, Doorenbos said.

“When that procedure is interrupted in some way by stress or something that interferes with falling asleep, then it’s upsetting to you,” he said.

Then, often, the next night the same things happen because of worry about whether sleep will happen, Doorenbos said.

“You kind of unlearn this ability to sleep,” he said. “You have to interrupt that cycle.”

insomnia symptoms may also be the result of a psychological or medical problem, said Rachel Valentine, a licensed mental health counselor at Plains Area Mental Health Center in Le Mars.

For example, she said some people have trouble falling asleep because they can’t turn off racing thoughts.

“They tend to have more of a psychological phenomenon going on,” Valentine said. “It might be linked to more anxiety issues, depression issues.”

When it comes to waking in the middle of the night, that might be due to a physical or organic problem like hormonal changes, sleep apnea or frequent trips to the bathroom, Valentine said.

There are two types of insomnia symptoms: primary and secondary.

Primary means that a person is having sleep problems not directly related to a health condition or problem, according to webmd.com.

Secondary insomnia symptoms means a person can’t sleep because of something else like health conditions, pain, medication or a substance abuse like alcohol.

Those types of insomnia symptoms also relate to how often a person has trouble sleeping, Valentine said.

“Primary is people who have always had sleep difficulties, so this is not just a once in awhile thing,” Valentine said. “Generally those people just say ‘this is a constant battle for most of my life.’”

Secondary insomnia symptoms is a more sudden occurrence with people complaining of sleep difficulties in just the past few weeks, Valentine said.

When it comes to treating insomnia symptoms, Doorenbos and Valentine shared several ideas from checking for physical ailments to medication to behavioral therapies.

It may help to take sleeping pills occasionally, but long-term use is not recommended, Doorenbos said.

“A lot of times when people have not learned how to fall asleep they use sleeping pills,” Doorenbos said. “Using them long term they loose their effectiveness and contribution to sleep.”

Using medication does not teach you how to sleep, Doorenbos said.

“The drug doesn’t know when it’s time to wake up,” he added.

In addition to those potential solutions, Valentine also offered suggestions as to ways people can change their behaviors, or sleep hygiene, to fight insomnia symptoms.

For example, eliminating daytime naps, exercising — but not close to bedtime — and sticking to a consistent wake/sleep cycle even on the weekends are helpful, Valentine said.

“We all accumulate a sleep deficit during the day which is satisfied at night when we sleep,” she explained. “So people who nap during the day disrupt this sleep deficit and thus may have difficulty sleeping at night.”

And when it comes to exercise, it doesn’t have to be heavy, physical exercise. It could be a 30-minute walk, Valentine said.

She also said people should use their beds for sleeping, not for eating or watching TV, and should get out of bed if they can’t sleep.

“A lot of people toss and turn and watch the clock and the hours go by,” Valentine said. “The best thing people can do is get out of bed and do an activity that’s fairly sedate such as reading the newspaper or doing a crossword puzzle.”

She and Doorenbos also recommended people avoid drugs such as alcohol or nicotine when they can’t sleep.

In addition to the professional advice, several locals shared their own unique tricks to help when sleep is elusive.

One man said he gets up and drinks a glass of cold milk and eats a handful of crackers.

“Your stomach feels full so blood runs to the stomach and you start to feel tired because blood leaves the brain,” he said.

Another man said he drinks hot decaffeinated herbal tea — sometimes he leaves out the tea bag and just drinks hot water.

A local woman does exactly what the doctor ordered and gets out of bed when she can’t sleep.

“I don’t lay there and wait,” she said. “I get up and do something like write in my journal, read a book or listen to music.”

Valentine encourages insomnia symptomscs to ultimately follow the advice of medical professionals — because sleep is necessary for good mental health.

She said sleep deprivation makes people more susceptible to depression, and severe cases could lead to symptoms of psychosis like delusions and hallucinations.

“If you are having trouble several nights a week and have tried sleep hygiene and over-the-counter medications, I would say you want to see a psychiatrist or medical doctor,” Valentine said.