Causes of Insomnia

Increasing evidence appears to show a correlation between good health and good sleep. Insomnia and other sleep disorders have especially been shown to occur in people who have existing medical conditions. And the more major medical conditions a patient has, the higher the chance that person will suffer with insomnia.

Patients who have chronic pain, gastrointestinal problems, cardiovascular disorders, asthma, obesity, or diabetes are at increased risk for disturbed sleep. Conversely, sleep disturbances can contribute to the development of, or increase the severity of these various medical disorders, again resulting in poor quality sleep. Additionally, many of the medications used to treat these medical disorders can also disrupt sleep.

It's been shown that more women than men experience insomnia. In addition to hormonal changes during menstruation and pregnancy, disrupted sleep during menopause can be caused by hot flashes, depression, and anxiety. There are also other physical health factors that can affect sleep in both men and women, such as insomnia, restless leg syndrome, and sleep apnea.

On the other hand, although more women than men have trouble sleeping, snoring occurs more often with men. Many times we hear that patients have trouble sleeping due to the snoring of their mate. So maybe one of the treatments to consider is to get rid of snoring spouses…okay, maybe not.

One's emotional health can also be related to insomnia. And insomnia can be a symptom of depression. In fact, 20% of insomniacs are likely to have depression and approximately 90% of people who do have depression also experience trouble sleeping.

Through science, we are gaining a new and better understanding about insomnia. This has led to improved behavioral therapies, and over the last four decades improved the safety of medications for insomnia. The next step, in the future, is to have an even better understanding of the reasons behind why people have trouble sleeping, so that doctors can provide more targeted therapy that more specifically treats the causes of insomnia.