The fear of dying due to lack of sleep is one of the common worries of many insomnia patients. But the fact is that it is highly unusual for anyone to have a complete absence of sleep for more than a few days just because of insomnia. But there is an extremely rare genetic disorder which is known as fatal familial insomnia, or F.F.I., may lead people to die from insomnia. This has caused undue concern for lots of people who tend to suffer from poor sleep. This genetic disorder leads to panic, anxiety, besides hallucinations, rapid weight loss, as well as complete sleep loss, dementia which eventually leads to death. This is a disorder which is due to a neurological degeneration of the brain. It is linked to a rare abnormal protein known as a prion. Fatal familial insomnia tends to begin in midlife and people may progress to die from insomnia within one to two years.
It is important to remember that fatal familial insomnia is extremely rare. Unless a family member has died of insomnia, you are not likely to have any kind of predisposition to this disorder.
Rather, for a vast majority of people, chronic insomnia will not lead to death directly. But the fact remains that lack of sleep can put you at a much greater risk for developing various other serious medical conditions which do have increased the rate of mortality. Also, sleeping for less than six hours a night on a consistent basis has been linked to various impairments in cognitive functioning. These include a loss of concentration, memory as well as hand-eye coordination. Patients having chronic insomnia have reported problems while performing daily tasks. They tend to have increased absenteeism from work and school. Poor sleep has also been linked to increased vehicle and workplace accidents.