Insomnia Therapies - The Causes and Cures for Insomnia.

There are 3 Types of insomnia and they are classified according to the duration of the problem:

Transient Insomnia.- Lasts less than one week, usually just a few days.

Short Term Insomnia.- Lasts anywhere from one week to three weeks.

Chronic Insomnia.- Lasts for three weeks or more.

Transient and Short term insomnia have many of the same causes and they are:

Short term stressful situations such as unemployment, marriage, divorce and any other problem that may keep your mind too occupied to let you fall asleep.

Jetlag or change of work shifts can disrupt your sleep clock and prevent you from having a good night sleep.

Excessive, loud and unpleasant noises can disrupt your sleep and give you a hard time falling back to sleep.

Some types of sicknesses may prevent your body's ability to fall asleep or to have a continuous night of sleep.

Alcohol, drugs or medication withdrawal can also cause insomnia.

Another cause of transient and short term insomnia is not being able to sleep in high altitude places.

Chronic Insomnia Causes are either psychological or physiological:

The most common psychological problems that may lead to insomnia include:

Anxiety.- Anxiety is a generalized mood condition that occurs without an identifiable triggering stimulus.

Stress.- Stress is a biological term which refers to the consequences of the failure of a human or animal to respond appropriately to emotional or physical threats to the organism.

Schizophrenia.- Psychiatric diagnosis that describes a mental disorder characterized by abnormalities in the perception or expression of reality.

Mania (bipolar disorder).- Severe medical condition characterized by extremely elevated mood, energy, unusual thought patterns and sometimes psychosis.

Depression.- Refers to a state of low mood and aversion to activity.

Physiological insomnia Causes are:

1. Chronic pain syndromes.

2. Chronic fatigue syndrome.

3. Congestive heart failure.

4. Night time angina (chest pain) from heart disease.

5. Acid reflux disease (GERD).

6. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

7. Nocturnal asthma (asthma with night time breathing symptoms).

8. Obstructive sleep apnea.

9. Degenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease (Often insomnia is the deciding factor for nursing home placement.)

10.Brain tumors, strokes, or trauma to the brain.

Any of these conditions need to be treated by a physician and need to be considered a priority before trying to cure your insomnia.

There is not such thing as Insomnia cures, even though there are medicines and treatments that claim to cure insomnia, the truth is that to avoid insomnia you need to treat the cause and not the actual insomnia. Medicines that put you to sleep not only can be very addictive but they do not help to cure the causes and in term you still don't rest well.

First you need to identify what kind of insomnia you are suffering from and then you need to have the adequate treatment for the cause of it. Since there are several types and causes for insomnia, each cause needs to be treated separately and in term the insomnia will disappear and you can actually get the rest that you need.