You may say to yourself, I have insomnia so give me some good medication! Right? Well, unfortunately it's not that easy. Insomnia is a general term that covers different conditions and variations of sleeplessness. You need to make sure your doctor determines what type of insomnia you have in order to prescribe the right type of medication.
Insomnia can be classified according to what part of the night you are having trouble, how long the sleeplessness lasts and what is the cause of your sleeplessness. It could be you are having trouble falling asleep when you initially go to bed or maybe you wake up in the middle of the night for a spell or maybe you wake up too early and lay awake until it's time to get up.
Sleep Onset Insomnia
This type of insomnia could be caused by factors related to stress or your environment, like a room that is too hot, or a medical condition like depression. There is also a condition known as circadian rhythm disorder or delayed sleep phase syndrome (DSPS) when a person's internal biological clock is out of sync to the external environment. Whatever the cause, the longer you go without falling asleep right away, the worse the problem becomes.
Sleep Maintenance Insomnia
If you fall asleep easily, but continually wake up throughout the night and fall asleep again within 30 minutes, you have sleep maintenance issues. Perhaps you have a snoring problem or sleep apnea that is keeping from sleeping all the way through the night or maybe it's bad dreams. This type of insomnia results in poor quality of sleep and can leave you feeling very groggy the next day.
Early Morning Awakening Insomnia
Some people wake up too early with only 4-5 hours of total sleep and cannot get back to sleep until it is time to get up. This is also called terminal insomnia because it happens at the "terminal" or the end of the sleep cycle. You awake with a strong feeling of gloom and doom and as a result can't get back to sleep again no matter what you do. The result is not enough hours of sleep which you leave you feeling very fatigued and tired the next day.
Insomnia is also classified by how long the symptoms last. Chronic insomnia is considered the worst and can last a month or longer. Transient insomnia is generally caused by an extraordinary event such as a childbirth and may last a few days, but no more than a few weeks. An OTC sleep aid can help in those situations. Short term or intermittent insomnia can last several weeks and usually comes on because of stressful situations such as job loss or financial difficulties.
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