Different Types of Insomnia

There are three types of insomnia: Transient , Acute and Chronic Insomnia

The three types of insomnia are categorized by the length of time you have insomnia for. Each type of insomnia has its own causes. If you don’t get your insomnia treataed,  relatively simple short term insomnia problem can develop into a more complex long term insomnia problem over time.

But no matter how long you have had insomnia for or how major the problem is , insomnia can in most cases be cured with the right treatment. 

Identifying your type of insomnia will put you in a much better position to understand what is causing it and what you can do against it.

The three different types of insomnia have different causes and characteristics:

 Transient Insomnia

Transient insomnia usually lasts for a few days to a week and can be caused by:

• Worries about a future event (eg. Job interview, exam)
• Stress from work
• A Relatioship problem
• Illness,e.g. flu with a blocked nose can make it harder to go to sleep)
• Jet lag (the longer the time difference, the bigger the jet lag usually)
• Sleeping in a new place, such as a hotel.
• Excitement about an upcoming holiday.
• Different than normal sleep pattern (e.g. during your holidays or during the Football World Cup

All these events are rather short term and you should return to your normal sleep once they have passed, i.e. within a few days. The best thing to do with transient insomnia is to keep calm, ty to keep a steady sleeping routine and not being too worried about going to sleep. It’s sometimes the worrying of getting to sleep that gets in the way of sleep.

 

Acute or Short-Term Insomnia

Acute or short-term insomnia is similar to transient insomnia, but can last for several weeks. It can be caused by:

• A longer illness (e.g. causing frequent nightly toilet visits)
• Being stressed or upset about a bigger or a recurring problem.
• Bereavement after the passing of someone close to you

While the causes are bigger than the ones mentioned for transient insomnia, they are still fairly short term, so your problem should also disappear in time.

 

Chronic Insomnia

Chronic insomnia is essentially long-term insomnia that can last for months and years. Chronic insomnia is surprisingly common, as it’s estimated that about 10% of people suffer from this type of insomnia. At this stage of insomnia you are likely affected by a range of sleep deprivation effects, becoming a fraction of the person you could be.

The causes of this type of insomnia could be

• Bad sleeping environment
• Regular nightly artificial blue light exposure
• Mistimed sleeping pattern
• Long-term health problems
• Long-term stress and anxiety

The causes of this type of insomnia are no longer short-term, hence the long-term nature of the sleeping pronlem.

Remember, insomnia can be cured. Stay tuned with our blog, as we will shortly write about how to conquer insomnia problems.