Insomnia is a serious and pervasive health condition that lowers overall life satisfaction and can lead to an increased risk of depression, anxiety, and substance abuse. Insomnia has an estimated incidence of 15% in the general population which translates into millions of affected people across the country. Insomnia manifests as difficulty getting to sleep, staying asleep, waking too early, or sleep that is experienced as nonrestorative. People with insomnia do have adequate opportunity for good sleep to occur (i.e., 8 hours at night in a dark, quiet room) but cannot despite these good conditions. As people with insomnia know, problems at night always lead to problems during the day. Common daytime problems include fatigue, difficulties with attention and concentration, difficulty with work or school performance, irritability, daytime sleepiness, headaches, decreased motivation, and worries about the inability to sleep and its consequences.
It is very important to emphasize that an insomnia that occurs in response to a time limited stressor, or in the context of another disorder such as depression, anxiety, or pain can turn into a chronic problem, if counterproductive sleep habits are allowed to develop. These habits can lead to a state where one is actually conditioned to be awake in the presence of the bed and bedroom and can, over time, foster the development of faulty and catastrophic fears about the consequences of sleep loss which then only serves to increase the severity of the insomnia. This is why it is so important, in many cases, to regard insomnia as an independent disorder and to treat it aggressively.
Insomnia is a very complex problem that needs to be differentiated from and taken in context with psychiatric. medical, and other sleep disorders. For this reason it is important to see a health provider who is a specialist in the assessment and treatment of disorders of sleep.