Insomnia or Sleeplessness.
Insomnia or sleeplessness is defined as inability of an individual to fall asleep or stay asleep throughout the night. Insomnia is thus a sleep problem. Prevalence of insomnia is pretty high and if you are an insomniac you dread the fall of night when you have to lie in bed for hours tossing and turning and waiting for sleep to come.
Insomnia – A Sleep Problem.
If you are having a sleeping problem, it is quite frustrating even during the next day too, as your mood, energy and ability to function are adversely affected. Chronic insomnia can give rise to health problems such as high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes.
To rule out insomnia in a person, it is necessary to determine the quality of sleep. Different people require different hours of sleep and therefore even if you doze off for an hour but feel drowsy and tired the next day, you could be experiencing insomnia.
Insomnia could be short-term consisting of episodes lasting up to 1 week or it could be long-term (lasting for more than 4 weeks) in which case it is labeled as chronic. However most cases insomnia can be cured by just making a few adjustments in your lifestyle without resorting to medicine.
However, as an insomniac, you are in good company, though you cannot be congratulated for this.
Some famous people and celebrities who suffered from insomnia.
- Napoleon
- Sir Winston Churchill
- Sir Isaac Newton.
- Abraham Lincoln
- Theodore Roosevelt
- Benjamin Franklin
- William Shakespeare
- Charles Dickens
- Cary Grant
- Marilyn Monroe.
- Michael Jackson
- Madonna
- Jimi Hendrix
Statistics for Insomnia.
Insomnia is one of the most common complaints made by patients to the medical practitioner.
- Surprisingly the U.S. has the highest number of insomniacs followed by England and Germany.
- Insomnia is more common in adults than in children.
- Insomnia is 40% more common in women than in men.
- About 30% to 50% of the general population is affected by insomnia and 10% has chronic insomnia with day time effects.
In the US, 58% of the American adults experienced symptoms of insomnia for a few nights in a week. That is, on any given night more than half of the adult population of the U.S. suffers from some degree of insomnia. - Insomnia is more common among younger adults than in the elderly where insomnia is associated with medical conditions.
- Insomnia is more common in people who live alone, are unemployed and who belong to the lower socioeconomic status.
Your action step.
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