Seven: Sleeping Right
Many of us experience the occasional night of not sleeping without any severe consequences. It is when the occasional night here and there becomes a pattern of several nights in a row that you know you have a sleeping problem. Repeated loss of sleep affects all areas of your life: The physical, the mental, and the emotional. Sleep loss can affect your overall daily performance and can have a profound affect on your health. If your sleeplessness continues for a long period of time it can cause problems to your health, your relationships, and your professional life. It can become an endless cycle of worry and anxieties as you continue to lose sleep every night.
Insomnia and sleeplessness can be put into three main categories:
· “Initial” insomnia: where you have difficulty in falling asleep, generally taking 30 minutes or longer to fall into a sleep state.
· “Middle” insomnia: where after falling asleep you have problems maintaining a sleep state, often remaining awake until the early morning hours.
· “Late” or “Terminal” insomnia: where you awake early in the morning after less than 6 hours of sleep.
Recent studies show that approximately 25 million Americans suffer from chronic insomnia. Some reasons for insomnia include:
· Restless Leg Syndrome
· Circadian Rhythm Disorders
· Depression
· Alcohol and other drug abuse
· Life changes and/or accumulation of life stressors
· Anxiety
· Sleep Apnea