Overcoming Insomnia
It is thought that about one in five people report recurrent sleeping difficulties. Most insomnia problems are to do with getting off to sleep or repeated waking in the night, followed by difficulty falling to sleep again. Some people also suffer nightmares or night terrors. No matter what the pattern or problem is, insomnia can be very distressing.
There are many possible causes for why a particular person is not sleeping well - some physical, some emotional - so sorting out the reasons for a person's insomnia can take a bit of trial and error. But there is a good chance that your sleeping difficulties will improve.
Three Common Myths about Sleep
Let's start by talking about some common myths about sleep.
1. The first is the belief that lack of sleep causes physical harm. Surprisingly there is almost no evidence for this. The worst that insomnia can do is to cause difficulties during the day with concentration, learning and remembering things. People who are lacking sleep also tend to have poor co-ordination which results in slow reaction times during activities like driving. Not surprisingly, sleepiness is the cause of many accidents. Also loss of sleep can magnify the effects of alcohol and this can cause its own problems. But although you may not perform your best after a bad night's sleep, and may feel pretty awful, it is reassuring to know that you have not been physicaly harmed.
2. The second common myth about sleep is that people need 8 or more hours sleep a night. The truth is that people vary a great deal in how much sleep they need, with most people being OK with between 4 and 10 hours, which is a wide range. Infants of cause need longer as do some teenagers.
3. The third common mistake is to believe that we are a good judge of how much sleep we are actually having. Most people with sleeping difficulties dramatically under-estimate the amount of time in which they are asleep. The problem here is that people quickly begin to worry that they are not getting enough sleep, are unaware of when they are asleep and end up trying so hard to get to sleep that they find it more difficult to do so.
