Insomnia

Insomnia, you'll suffer from it

Insomnia (insomnia) is a sleep disorder, in which you have poor sleep and thus do not experience normal sleep, accompanied by daytime functioning complaints. You speak of normal sleep when you sleep an average of 8 hours. On average, you need about fifteen minutes to fall asleep. Waking up two to three times a night is normal unless it takes a long time to fall back asleep.

There are three forms of insomnia: difficulty falling asleep, frequent and/or premature waking. These three forms can also occur simultaneously.

At least 10% of people in the Netherlands suffer from it. In chronic insomnia, the symptoms occur three or more nights a week and persist for more than three months.

Chronic insomnia is the most common sleep disorder. Women suffer from it twice as often as men. Sleep problems are also more common later in life.

Symptoms of insomnia

If you suffer from insomnia, you feel like you have had too little sleep. The symptoms that may indicate insomnia are related to the different forms of this sleep problem:

• poor sleep
• Frequent waking at night (sleeping lightly/not sleeping well)
• wake up early
• insufficient refreshing sleep

When you suffer from sleep problems, you may experience the following symptoms during the day:

• fatigue
• concentration problems
• memory problems
• lethargy
• irritability
• feel drowsy

What are the causes

In most cases, there are no obvious causes of insomnia. Sometimes light or no sleep may be caused by tension or daytime events. Insomnia can also be learned behavior. The cause then falls away, but the learned behavior remains, so the it does not disappear.

Possible causes of insomnia are:

• mental disorders, such as depression, anxiety and stress.
• physical conditions, such as itching or pain due to allergy, asthma or rheumatism
• sleep apnea
• age
• traumatic events
• alcohol use
• external causes, such as an uncomfortable sleeping place, noise or light pollution
• menopause can also cause insomnia