Insomnia Causes

Insomnia causes are generally broken down into the following three categories:

1. Due to some type of sleep disorder.

2. Because of a physical, medical disorder.

3. Due to a psychiatric disorder.

1 – Insomnia related sleep disorder.

Psycho-physiological insomnia

Difficulty initiating and maintaining sleep (DIMS) is called psycho-physiological insomnia; this term refers to the connection between the mind (psychological) and the body (physiological). These individuals have trouble sleeping due to their reaction to physical illness or stress with increased physiological arousal. These insomnia causes are mainly a result of the person not resolving whatever the stress inducing factor is in their life. This may cause learned associations as well as bodily dysfunction that prevent sleep. Naturally, the one environmental factor that is meant to rebuild and soothe the body is going to be undermined by anxiety and stress. This usually results in the activities associated with sleep, whether they are brushing the teeth or turning off the lights, displacing the original stress factor and leading to insomnia. It can result in these individuals actually obtaining more rest in unfamiliar environments such as a friend’s home or a hotel room, where the familiar sleep associated factors are absent.

Misperception of sleep-state

Individuals that actually get adequate sleep but feel that they do not are suffering from sleep state misperception. A discrepancy exists between the individuals subjective analysis of their nights sleep and the objective measurement of the same obtained during a session at a sleep clinic. Normally this individual actually underestimates their total sleep time as well as over-estimates the amount of time it takes for them to fall asleep. This is thought to occur because of a difficulty in distinguishing waking from sleep and a rather unclear perception of their consciousness. Most often testing will show that they underestimate the amount of time they slept by almost one half.

OSA (Obstructive Sleep Apnea)

This insomnia cause is a case where an individual’s airway will collapse during sleep because of a lack in muscle tone. Normally people with OSA will awaken from an apnea during the early morning and are unable to go back to sleep, it does not usually cause sleep onset insomnia nor does the individual usually recall the awakenings. However, some sufferers do complain of daytime drowsiness due to the repeated sleep disturbances.

CSA (Central Sleep Apnea)

This condition is generally associated with old age, congestive heart failure and a cerebral vascular condition. There is not an obstruction in the air flow rather during sleep the stimulus to breathe is not always received so breathing stops and the person awakens in order to continue breathing. Normally this condition does result in a higher rate of insomnia and daytime sleepiness than those with obstructive sleep apnea.

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