Insomnia is the second most searched-for sleep issue in the UK, with 112,215 Google searches each month. Affecting an estimated one in three people, insomnia leads to difficulty in getting to or staying asleep.
At some point, many adults have short-term insomnia. This can last for days or weeks. Short-term insomnia is usually due to stress or a distressing event. But some people have long-term insomnia, also called chronic insomnia. This lasts for three months or more. Insomnia may be the main problem, or it may be related to other medical conditions or medicines.
What are the symptoms of insomnia?
Insomnia has several potential symptoms, which fall into a few categories:
When you have trouble sleeping.
Daytime effects.
Chronic insomnia characteristics.
When you have trouble sleeping
When you have trouble sleeping is an important symptom of insomnia. There are three main ways this happens, and people commonly shift between them over time:
Initial (sleep onset) insomnia: This means you have trouble falling asleep.
Middle (maintenance) insomnia: This form makes you wake up in the middle of the night but you fall back asleep. It’s the most common form, affecting almost two-thirds of people with insomnia.
Late (early waking) insomnia: This form means you wake up too early in the morning and don’t fall back asleep.
Daytime effects
Because you need sleep to be your best, disruptions like insomnia commonly cause symptoms that affect you while you’re awake. These include:
Feeling tired, unwell or sleepy.
Delayed responses, such as reacting too slowly when you’re driving.
Trouble remembering things.
Slowed thought processes, confusion or trouble concentrating.
Mood disruptions, especially anxiety, depression and irritability.
Other disruptions in your work, social activities, hobbies or other routine activities.
Chronic insomnia characteristics
The characteristics of insomnia symptoms are also important. If your symptoms have certain characteristics, you may have chronic insomnia. The characteristics include:
Circumstances: A chronic insomnia diagnosis requires insomnia without circumstances that would interfere with your ability to sleep (such as changes in work schedule, life events, etc.). Diagnosing insomnia requires having sleep difficulties despite having time and the right environment to do so.
Frequency: Chronic insomnia requires you to have insomnia frequently, at least three times per week.
Duration: Chronic insomnia lasts for at least three months.
Explanation: The insomnia isn’t happening because of substances or medications (including both medical and nonmedical drugs) or other sleep disorders. Other medical or mental health conditions also can’t fully explain why you’re not sleeping.
What are the risk factors for insomnia?
Insomnia is also more likely to happen in people with the following characteristics or circumstances:
Light sleepers.
People who use alcohol.
People who don’t feel safe in their homes (such as situations involving repeated violence or abuse).
Medications that help you fall or stay asleep
Many different types of medications can help you fall or stay asleep. Many of these are sedative or hypnotic drugs — both prescription and nonprescription — as well as mental health medications, and certain herbs and supplements.
Sedative drugs: These get their name from a Latin word that means “to settle.” They reduce nervous system activity.
Hypnotic drugs: These get their name from Hypnos, the Greek god of sleep. These make you sleepy.
Soursop: Serotonin is a key hormone for bodily functions as well as stabilizing moods, feelings of happiness, and wellness. It also helps with sleeping because your brain needs serotonin to make melatonin, a hormone that regulates your sleep-wake cycle. Drinking soursop tea or consuming powdered Soursop fruit promotes the release of serotonin which helps in calming the body. In the West Indies, Soursop is commonly used as a calming agent. In the Netherlands Antilles, the leaves are brewed to make a beverage that enhances sleep. The leaves can also be put into one's pillowcase to enhance sleep. For this reason, a soursop leaf tea can be a great natural supplement to relieve the body of stress and sleep deprivation.
Soursop leaves contain anonaine and asimilobine, compounds that work to offer a soothing action to the central nervous system.
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