Types Of Insomnia: Causes And Treatments

Did you know that there are different types of insomnia? In fact, they all require different treatments. So in this article we will focus on the different types of insomnia and their treatment.

Insomnia is one of the main reasons why people go to their doctor. It is a symptom of almost all psychological disorders.

As is the case with other common psychological problems (such as anxiety and depression), many people use the word insomnia incorrectly. For example, difficulty falling asleep for one or two days can not be called insomnia.

Being stressed and unable to fall asleep is also not insomnia. In the latter case, then insomnia is just a symptom of a stress episode.

Types of insomnia

Insomnia is formally called denominated primary insomnia, and is a sleep disorder with the following symptoms:

• Problems falling asleep for at least four weeks.
• Sleep problems that occur when trying to fall asleep, during sleep or in the last stages of sleep. And also the feeling that one has not got a proper sleep.
• There is no clear cause (traumatic brain injury, dementia or stroke) that can explain the sleep disorder (such as drug use, medication for certain problems, an illness, etc.).
• There is no sign of a psychological disorder such as anxiety or depression.

There are three types of insomnia:

• Sleep-onset insomnia, which is when it is difficult to fall asleep at the beginning of the night.
• Sleep-maintenance insomnia or fragmented sleep.
• Late insomnia or early-morning awakening insomnia.

To get a correct diagnosis of insomnia, you need to meet the above criteria. If you have some problems that can cause insomnia, then it will not help to just treat the insomnia.

You need to make sure that you deal with the main problem in order to reduce your sleep problems. Let’s dive a little deeper into these types of insomnia.

Sleep-onset insomnia: The most well-known of the various types of insomnia

It is one of the most common types of insomnia. It is an inability to fall asleep when you go to bed. If you are stressed and worried all day, then it will be very difficult for your head to disconnect and go into a sleep state.

In most cases , sleep-onset insomnia is the body’s response to psychological discomfort, which is the real cause of the inability to fall asleep. However, you may also experience these problems when you change your sleep schedule.

Treatment for sleep-onset insomnia

The recommended treatment for sleep-onset insomnia has different stages. First, take care of your sleep hygiene. When most people develop insomnia, they also develop unhealthy habits that can make sleep problems worse.

Therefore, as a first step, the person must follow certain guidelines to set proper habits and break the usual association: Go to bed → do not sleep → anxiety about not being able to fall asleep.

Then, if the sleep hygiene guidelines do not help, the affected person must resort to other techniques. These techniques try to break the connection between bedtime and the inability to fall asleep, as well as the discomfort that comes with it.

In each case, psychologists design specific techniques and set specific goals so that the person can make changes. However, all therapeutic techniques go after treating sleep-onset insomnia as the primary disorder.

Therefore, these techniques are used only when other sleep or psychological disorders, such as anxiety, depression, OCD, or bipolar disorder, have been ruled out.

On the other hand, if a patient is still unable to sleep after the psychological techniques have been tried, then medication is the next step. The best option here is to treat sleep-onset insomnia with sleeping pills such as nonbenzodiazepines.

These are psychoactive substances that act very quickly and for a short time without having any anti-anxiety or residual effects.

Either way, a doctor should always overlook treatment with such medications. They will decide which drugs are best for each person and how long a patient should take them.

Fragmented sleep or sleep maintenance insomnia

Sleep Maintenance Insomnia is the difficulty of staying asleep at night. In other words, a person suffering from this type of insomnia is able to fall asleep but they then wake up in the middle of the night and cannot fall asleep again afterwards. It makes the person suffering from it not feel rested.

To diagnose sleep maintenance insomnia , the specialist needs to rule out other organic and physiological factors that may be causing the problem. For example, hormonal changes that can cause a person to suddenly wake up.

Waking up in the middle of the night is very common when the thyroid gland is not functioning properly or, in the case of women, when there are changes in their hormonal cycle.

Treatment for sleep-maintenance insomnia

If any other health problems are causing sleep maintenance insomnia, then they need to be dealt with first. Once they have been managed or ruled out, the treatment for this type of insomnia is pretty much the same as for sleep-onset insomnia.

In this case, the recommended medication is a type of benzodiazepine that works throughout the night and lets the patient sleep without interruption. In addition, there is no effective psychological treatment to reduce fragmented sleep. However, the role of the psychologist is still fundamental.

Most people with fragmented sleep also have psychological problems such as major depression. Therefore, the short-term priority is to get the patient to sleep properly and then the goal is then to deal with the psychological aspect that is causing their insomnia through therapy.

Late insomnia or early-morning awakening insomnia: The lesser known types of insomnia

People with this type of insomnia are able to fall asleep and do not wake up in the middle of the night, but they can not sleep more than a few hours. For example, they set their alarm clock to ring at. 07:00, but they wake up at. 05:00 and can not fall asleep again. It makes them feel tired, anxious or sleepy during the day.

Early-morning awakening insomnia can be caused by depression and work-related stress. Depression can create changes in sleep cycles that result in the person waking up before they should and having difficulty falling asleep again. And one can also suffer from this when their work pressure increases.

Treatment for late insomnia

The treatment consists of a combination of medication to prevent the person from waking up prematurely and psychological treatment to deal with their emotions.

The psychological approach is very similar to the approach to the other types of insomnia. In this case, however, it is necessary to deal with stress and emotions.

While it may seem strange if you wake up before you should and can not fall asleep again, then you need to get up and walk away from your bed. This will help you to feel more tired and therefore it is a very effective method to help you fall asleep again.

Plus, you will break the connection between being in bed and the anxious feeling of not being able to sleep.

Although the treatment for insomnia is mainly psychological, a combination of medication and therapy is a better option for both sleep maintenance and late insomnia.