What Does It Mean to Be an Insomniac?
Living As an Insomniac – What Is It Like?
Can’t sleep?
Perhaps you suffer from insomnia. After all, it is the most common sleep disorder affecting millions around the globe. Insomnia is difficulty falling or staying asleep more than three nights each week for at least three months. Someone would be considered an insomniac if this was happening to them.
But there’s more to it than that. If you believe insomnia is all about not getting enough sleep, you are slightly off the mark. While sleepless nights are the result of insomnia, a feeling of dissatisfaction with your sleep is frequently the true culprit.
What It’s Like to Live with Insomnia
When we don’t get enough sleep, the next day can be full of challenges. Typically, you will wake up with brain fog, fostering a sour mood and negative attitude. Our brain is not ready for the day and its challenges.
For many, the daytime is fraught with anxiety about the sleep they did not get the night before and facing another night of tossing and turning while trying to achieve that precious sleep. These beliefs and self-talk only serve to worsen our plight.
We are not as productive as we would like at work or school, and by the end of our workday, all we want to do is hit the easy chair for a nap. Unfortunately, that nap we will likely take also reduces our sleep pressure again, threatening an unpleasant night.
The immediate and day-to-day impact of sleeplessness on an insomniac’s life is vexing and problematic. However, the long-term consequences of insufficient restorative rest can be frightening.
The Health Impact of Insomnia
When we sleep, our brain restores itself by eliminating unnecessary input from that day and flushing out toxins and other elements that build up throughout the day. Suppose we don’t get adequate quality rest, allowing our brain to go through its daily step-by-step process of cleansing and restoring its capacity and functionality. This lack of sleep compromises critical biological elements and actions.
Without sufficient rest, we cannot function at normal levels, let alone excel. Long-term health risks include:
- A Weak Immune System
- Heart Disease
- High Blood Pressure
- Stroke
- Chronic Inflammation
- Obesity
- Diabetes
- Seizures
- Asthma
You can look forward to all these and more if you continue to suffer from insomnia.
Mental Health and Insomnia
Insomnia has dire health consequences for your mental health as well as physical. While insomnia can have medical or physical causes, fear and anxiety are the usual suspects.
Worrying about sleep, or sleep anxiety, often perpetuates a racing mind and hyper-arousal that supercharge insomnia’s grip and keep you awake. Often people choose to make adjustments in their life around this fear and anxiety, whether by design or subconsciously. But, these efforts will often exacerbate the problem rather than resolve their issues.
Can Anything Good Come of Insomnia?
Insomnia is a challenging condition with severe consequences for your daily life and long-term well-being. Anyone enduring insomnia recognizes that it brings nothing pleasant or beneficial to their life. No one wants to feel tired and sluggish during the day when they want and need to be active and engaged with the world.
And while it may be true that insomnia offers us nothing good, overcoming our fears and sleep anxiety can be a great gift. Insomnia will dissolve when we find a way to shift our unhealthy, negative beliefs and perceptions toward healthier attitudes and insights.
Replacing the anxiety and fear that prevent sleep with appropriately optimistic, reality-based beliefs is a freeing experience.
The single best thing that can come from insomnia is its cure.
How Do You Fix Insomnia?
The primary treatment for reversing insomnia is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I). This non-pharmacological discipline helps people recognize and remake their damaging beliefs that keep them awake. It is highly effective and science-based.
Many CBT-I elements make it an effective tool for battling this insidious sleep issue. However, some aspects are more helpful for particular clients than others. For instance, sleep Restriction Therapy (SRT) explicitly targets those with Sleep Maintenance Insomnia and may not be appropriate for everyone.
But fixing insomnia is not as difficult as it might seem. With a quality program and professional support, individuals enduring insomnia turn their fortunes around every day. The key is finding a treatment plan that matches your specific needs and offers ongoing professional support to aid you in achieving your sleep goals.
Final Thoughts
Living with insomnia is both challenging and dangerous. Your daily life, mental and physical health will suffer. There is no way around this; lack of adequate sleep and restorative rest are serious problems that deliver equally serious health consequences.
Escaping insomnia takes concerted effort, commitment, consistency, and a positive outlook toward resolving your sleep issues. Doing this yourself is more than challenging; finding the right program and support can be priceless.
Sleep Science Academy’s uniquely empowering Dynamic Sleep Recalibration (DSR) program incorporates various proven, science-based methods and techniques to craft a treatment plan specifically for you and your situation. Our program is not one-size-fits-all but a customizable program to fit each individual. After all, we are each different, aren’t we?
At Sleep Science Academy, every client works with their certified professional holistic health/sleep coach, who supports and guides them through the process to achieve a lifetime of restful nights and productive days.
And SSA goes one step further with its 100% money-back guarantee.
If moving past insomnia for a lifetime of sleep, you can only dream of now sounds appealing, contact us today and schedule your complimentary sleep consultation with one of our professional sleep coaches.
Discover the Sleep Science Academy Difference and never worry about sleeping again.