It’s not just that we need sleep, it’s that we also need to sleep well to ensure a good quality of life. That is why sleep problems are so important and that is why we must seek treatment as soon as possible. But to defeat the enemies of the dream, we must first know what we are up against. Because insomnia presents itself in different ways, we establish the types of insomnia that we can suffer from.
Classify insomnia
- It is still difficult to establish a typology of insomnia. Insomnia consists of a reduction in the time and quality of sleep that can be caused by very different causes, from an illness to a sentimental breakup, going through any stressful situation such as economic, work or family problems.
- Obviously not being able to sleep because the neighbors spend the night arguing loudly is not the same as waking up because your partner has had a nightmare, than being unable to fall asleep because worries do not give you a break even when you get into the bed. But in any case, the result of that insomnia is the same: physical and mental exhaustion.
- In our attempt to overcome insomnia we have wanted to define the types of insomnia, although the classifications are very varied. Some people establish three types of insomnia depending on the amount of sleep. That is, the initial insomnia is when we take a long time to fall asleep; intermediate insomnia, when we wake up frequently during the night; and terminal insomnia, when we wake up much earlier than we should and are unable to get back to sleep.
Types of insomnia according to the duration of the problem
- We can also classify insomnia based on the duration of the problem. Thus, transient insomnia is when we cannot sleep occasionally. That is, for some reason we do not sleep a wink all night, but the next day we can sleep well. For its part, acute insomnia is when we cannot sleep for a couple of weeks, but then we return to our usual sleep cycle. And chronic insomnia is when sleep problems have been present every night for at least three weeks.
- Therefore, to know what type of insomnia we have, if it is serious or there is a risk of it becoming chronic, it is best to keep a diary where we write down the incidences of each night, if we have woken up several times, since when we find it very difficult to fall asleep or if we wake up with the feeling of not having rested at all.
- In any case, insomnia has many treatment possibilities that we must decide together with a medical professional based on its possible causes, its type and its duration. The important thing is to first identify the problem and then find the most appropriate solution.
