Insomnia:  A common sleep disorder that take the form of difficulty initiating sleep, maintaining sleep with frequent periods of wakefulness, waking up too early and not able to get back sleep and/or nonrestorative or poor sleep quality.

Prevalence:

• Approximately 30% of adults present symptoms.
• Approximately 10% have severe enough insomnia to affect their daily activities.
• Less than 10% of adults are likely to have chronic insomnia.

Effect:

Effects include fatigue, moodiness, daytime sleepiness, irritability, lack of concentration, reduced hand eye coordination, memory loss, headaches or tension, mistakes or accidents at work or while driving.

Treatment:

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): CBT can have beneficial effects that last well beyond the end of treatment.
• Cognitive therapy: Changing attitudes and belief towards sleep.
• Exercise: Exercising at an appropriate time of day.
• Diet: Eating foods that promote sleeping and staying away from those which do not.
• Relaxation training: Relaxing mind and body.
• Sleep Hygiene training: Correcting bad habits that contribute to poor sleep.
• Sleep Restriction: Severely limiting and the gradually increasing your bed time.
• Stimulus Control: Going to bed only when sleepy, waking at the same time daily, avoiding naps, leaving the bed when not able to sleep and using the bed for sleep and sex only.