California Center for Sleep Disorders

When we have difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep or problems with waking up during the night we are suffering from insomnia. Almost everyone experiences difficulties with poor sleep when facing problems such as a family crisis, the death of a loved one or the loss of a job. These are common situations to have difficulty with sleep.

Most of us experience this at least occasionally. The important thing is to try and break the pattern before we become severely sleep deprived and before the pattern becomes a chronic one. You can try several things to help yourself in this situation.

Try not to become anxious as this tends to only make the problem worse. You should never TRY to fall asleep, learn to ALLOW yourself to sleep. Trying to sleep is almost always counterproductive and actually increases anxiety about sleep.

For those who have occasional difficulty falling asleep, the best advice is to do whatever helps and avoid whatever makes matters worse. There are many reasons why someone may have trouble falling asleep ranging from 'nerves', to trying to sleep at the wrong time in the body's daily wakefulness-sleep cycle. So, sleep aids that work for one person may do nothing at all for someone else.

Practice good sleep hygiene.

Studies have shown that cognitive behavioral therapy can be very helpful and avoid the use of sleeping pills in some patients. This involves some changes in sleep schedule that may seem contradictory. Many insomniacs lay in bed awake, trying to sleep, which is almost always doomed to failure. This technique involves a few steps, which may seem difficult at first but have a high success rate.

Despite these measures, you may not be able to reestablish good sleep. For you and with professional help, sleep-promoting medication, sleeping pills, can be very helpful. While there is no perfect pill, some medications, particularly newer ones, are quite safe and free of major side effects. These kinds of drugs are safe and effective when used as directed. In fact, short-term use during a crisis may prevent a chronic insomnia problem from developing. They can also be helpful in long term problems as a short-term aid to reestablishing a good sleep pattern.

Another common question is whether the bed itself is crucial. In general, people sleep best on the surface that feels most comfortable to them. However, the best sleep research available shows that, after a night or two of adaptation, most people can sleep as well on a thin pad over a concrete floor as they can on the most elaborate mattress available. Of course, this is only true for people who do not have muscle or skeleton problems that require particularly soft or particularly firm surfaces to avoid discomfort. The bed should give enough support that your muscles do not have to actively hold you to maintain a comfortable position.

Insomnia is caused by many factors, but the common denominator is poor sleep and an impact on daytime function and well being. You do not have to accept insomnia as something you must live with. There is help available, either from your family physician or from a sleep specialist. In the majority of cases improvement does occur. Seek help early before the problem becomes even more difficult to treat.