Chapter Two

Types of Insomnia

Having looked at what insomnia is, complications accompanying it and some things that could
cause it, it is only right to move on to the various types there are.

Insomnia is a very broad topic which is evidenced by the various types there are. Different
scientists who have carried out research on the topic have come up with various types of
insomnia according to their findings. Although these findings have different names and
somewhat different explanations, upon closer inspection, they can be said to all be the same
thing.

In order to arrive at a consensus of research, the most common types of insomnia were said to be
5 in number and were given the following tags:

1. Acute Insomnia
2. Chronic Insomnia
3. Comorbid Insomnia
4. Onset Insomnia
5. Maintenance Insomnia

Let’s take a look at all of them one after the other in this chapter.

1. Acute Insomnia

People who suffer from this type of insomnia experience difficulty sleeping for a brief spell or
period of time. It is said to be caused by a significantly joyful or troubling event that occurred or
is about to occur in a person’s life.

These events could come in various forms. For instance, anyone who has recently lost an
immediate family member would most likely find it extremely difficult to get some sleep or stay
asleep for some days, weeks, or months, as the thoughts, the memories and regrets would plague
their nights.

In the same veil, someone who is to begin a new job, has a very important interview, or is
meeting a long-term friend for the first time might find it hard to fall asleep or stay asleep as the
excitement, rehearsals, and thoughts of all the possible things that could go right or wrong would
significantly hamper the person’s ability to fall asleep.

There is a strong argument that acute insomnia is usually as a result of stress. This is because
while there are many things that can facilitate stress, thoughts are one of them. Thus an
individual who has something really disturbing on their mind might end up developing stress and
as has been talked about in the last chapter, stress has the capability to induce insomnia.
A person suffering from this type of insomnia would, in all likelihood, return to their normal
sleeping habit before long. To hasten this relief, one should try to stop thinking about the event
that is giving you sleepless nights. Doing distracting things and going for therapy are some
things that could help someone suffering from acute insomnia.

2. Chronic Insomnia

As the name suggests, chronic insomnia is the most serious type of insomnia. People who suffer
from this type of insomnia suffer sleepless nights for really long durations of time rather than the
few days of being unable to sleep people suffering from other types of insomnia experience.

A case of insomnia is said to be chronic when the person suffering from it experiences bouts of
not being able to sleep or not being able to fall asleep for a minimum of 3 nights a week
consistently, for a duration of 3 months or longer.

Research has shown that people suffering from chronic insomnia have a long history of problems
falling asleep or staying asleep. What this means if this finding is anything to go by is that
chronic insomnia doesn’t just happen overnight. An individual suffering from it must have been
experiencing sporadic bouts of sleepless nights for a long period of time, possibly ignoring them
and deeming them nothing till it worsens and get to the chronic stage. Most people tend to ignore
or not notice the signs and symptoms of any condition till it worsens and possibly become
untreatable or takes a lot to treat. The same way a bacteria or virus works.

Chronic insomnia can arise from quite a number of causes. As a matter of fact, every single thing
that can cause insomnia is a possible cause of chronic insomnia including stress and depression.
As long as the underlying cause exists, so does the disorder.

To cure this form of insomnia, it is important to find the underlying cause. Once the cause has
been discovered, it would be easier to cure the condition and relieve the sufferer from all the
complications that come with it. Depending on the cause, this process can take a long time.

3. Comorbid Insomnia

This type of insomnia arises as a result of another condition, which could be a psychiatric or
medical condition.

Psychiatric conditions that are known to be causes of insomnia include depression and anxiety.
Anxiety can be said to be a state of restlessness and agitation often caused by concern over an
uncertain or unfortunate event. It is a disorder that puts one in an unpleasant mental state of
nervousness.

Depression on the other hand is a state of mind in which a person thinks him or herself not good
enough or of low morale. Depression lasts for weeks, months, and even years, and is usually
accompanied by grave sadness and possibly the idea and thoughts of committing suicide.
When any of these conditions prevent one from being able to sleep or stay asleep, it is safe to say
the person is suffering from comorbid insomnia. Anxiety causes restlessness which makes the
sufferer uneasy, over think, and lose the willingness and ability to sleep. Depression plunges the
sufferer into a train of demeaning and troubling thoughts which could affect the sufferer’s ability
to stay or fall asleep.

Medical conditions are also capable of causing comorbid insomnia. Various medical conditions,
most especially the ones that are accompanied by pain, can prevent or hamper a person’s ability
to fall asleep or stay asleep. For instance, someone who has arthritis or back pain would find it
difficult to fall asleep due to the pain in their back. Per adventure they manage to fall asleep, they
would find it difficult to enjoy such sleep as when next it kicks in, the pain disrupts the sleep.

Medical conditions that are facilitators of insomnia can be kept at bay by certain medications. In
the case of arthritis or back pain for instance, the pain an individual experience can be reduced
by taking painkillers.

To fully free a person from the shackles of comorbid insomnia, the condition that is causing the
sleepless nights should be tackled and treated.

4. Onset Insomnia

People suffering from onset insomnia are those who find it difficult to fall asleep at the
beginning of the night. These set of people have no problem whatsoever sleeping later during the
night but no matter how hard they try, they never seem to be able to sleep at the ‘onset’ of the
night.

This type of insomnia has various possible causes ranging from psychiatric conditions to medical
conditions. An individual might be suffering from a mild anxiety that prevents them from falling
asleep at the onset of the night. Mild pains could also initially prevent one from falling asleep at
the beginning of the night, however as the night grows, the person might begin to feel some form
of relief (and adaptation) and would find it much easier to sleep.

One of the more likely causes of this type of insomnia is the way in which the body of the
sufferer is programmed. For instance, someone who (maybe due to work or other
responsibilities) sleeps very late in the night on a daily basis, might find it very difficult to sleep
at early hours of the night.

This is because such a person’s body has been programmed that way and is used to going to bed
at late hours such that it finds it really hard to go back to sleeping during normal hours. In cases
like these, what such a person has to do is practice sleeping at normal hours for a long period of
time. It might take some forcing and quite a while but it will provide the required result.
What people suffering from this type of insomnia have to do to return to their normal sleeping
habit is to understand their body and sleeping patterns and try their possible best to correct them.
Alternatively, they can try visiting a therapist or doctor should the condition persist.

5. Maintenance Insomnia

The last type of insomnia on this list is maintenance insomnia. People who are said to be
suffering from this type are those who have problems staying asleep. They don’t have any
problem whatsoever falling asleep. Where the problem comes in is their inability to stay asleep.

When a normal individual goes to bed, barring noise from the next-door neighbors, he or she
sleeps throughout the night. The only break that may occur in that stretch is when they wake up
to urinate, after which they go back to bed. Unfortunately however, this isn’t the case for
individuals who are suffering from maintenance insomnia. After successfully falling asleep when
they go to bed, they always find themselves waking up a few minutes or hours after.

This form of insomnia has so many things that could cause it. One of them is the programming
of the body where the person wakes up a few hours after going to bed such that the body is used
to that routine.

Another possible cause could be the state of mind of such a person. A person who has a lot on
his mind would most likely find sleeping throughout the night really difficult. This can be as a
result of nightmares stemming from the troubled mind or more advanced conditions such as
anxiety, depression, and even stress.

To cure this type of insomnia, one needs to fish out what exactly is causing the condition. If it is
a problem of body programming, such a person should make sure they change their sleeping
habits and try to adapt to the new method. If it happens to be a problem of conditions such as
anxiety and depression, then they should look for ways to rid themselves of these conditions such
as visiting a therapist or a doctor.

One sure way of helping people suffering from this form of insomnia is sleeping pills. Before
sleeping pills are administered however, it is important to know the side effects, prescriptions,
and all other necessary information.