To understand what insomnia is let us first understand sleep and its disorders.
Sleep is a period of time in which the body and the mind rest. It has two separate stages. One of them is the rapid eye movement (REM) stage and the other is the non rapid eye movement stage (NREM) stage. Most of the dreams happen in the REM stage. The non REM stage starts with light sleep and it gradually moves on to deep sleep.
People afflicted with insomnia may be impacted in two ways. The first condition is the inability to enter into light sleep stage. Others suffering from insomnia may sleep fitfully. They may get light sleep but are unable to move to the deep sleep stage.
Insomnia can be transient, as one – two day inability to sleep or it may be long term or chronic. Temporary insomnia can be due to excessive intake of caffeine or alcohol, emotional difficulties or change of time zone due to long air travel. It may also be because of change of routine, such as extended work hours or irregular meals.
Long term insomnia can be caused by stress or underlying diseases. Else it may be due to sudden withdrawal from caffeine, nicotine or other stimulants like drugs. People who are suffering form schizophrenia or depression may too experience long term insomnia. In fact, insomnia and depression have strong correlation with each other and may reinforce each other.
Many a times doctors are unable to diagnose an exact cause.
There are millions of people the world over who are affected by this disease. About a third of the people have experienced short term insomnia or transient insomnia. It can be prevented by eating healthy food, maintaining regular work hours and meal timings, doing some basic exercises and taking some precautions while sleeping.
Happy sleeping!