Insomnia becomes chronic when sleep problems persist for more than three weeks. We are talking about problems sleeping well, because many people do not recognize that they have an insomnia problem since they fall asleep as soon as they get into bed. However, they wake up several times a night and their sleep is very restless. If you have been waking up exhausted, confused and without energy for more than three weeks, you are suffering from chronic insomnia.
Before chronic insomnia
- Before insomnia becomes chronic, the first problems with sleeping appear. Then we go through a period of acute insomnia and, if we do not remedy it in time, insomnia will accompany our nights for a long time. That is why the first signs of insomnia should not be underestimated. We should not let it be because we are going through a period of stress and it will pass.
- Nor should we think that we will sleep well again when we find a job, when we have paid all the bills, when the problems with the couple have been resolved, or when our sister has recovered her health. Because if we wait, the sleeping problem will have turned into chronic insomnia, which is much more difficult to treat.
- The causes of chronic insomnia are very varied. We don’t always get this type of insomnia by not paying enough attention to our sleep cycle. Sometimes chronic insomnia is the result of some other illness and the medications we take to treat it. Although it’s most frequent cause is an emotional disorder, such as depression or anxiety.
Risks of chronic insomnia
- If we insist on the importance of treating any abnormality in the sleep cycle from the beginning, it is because chronic insomnia affects more and more people. And its consequences can be dire for health. When we say that the quality of sleep is directly related to the quality of life, many people take it as an abstract indication.
- The relationship between sleep and quality of life is not an abstraction. We can exchange quality of life for health and that way we will understand it better. A person who suffers from chronic insomnia is a person who sleeps badly, who does not rest, who wakes up exhausted, who does not perform at work, who is at risk of suffering an accident at work, who loses cognitive capacity, who suffers from nerves, who it is more vulnerable to infections, which is closer to depression.
- Chronic insomnia must be treated by sleep specialists and requires combined treatment with psychological therapy and drugs. But we can do little to deal with insomnia if we don’t take control of our own sleeping habits.
