Sleepless Nights: Understanding the Science of Insomnia

Insomnia is a condition that affects millions, yet remains often misunderstood. In this blog, we will dive into the truth of this serious sleep disorder. Insomnia impacts different kinds of people, all on different levels, and it is so important to understand. This blog explores the causes, effects, and potential treatments for insomnia, based on recent research and expert knowledge to improve the sleep throughout our world.

What is Insomnia?

Insomnia is a common sleep disorder that can make it hard to fall asleep or stay asleep. This prevents people suffering from insomnia to not reach the much needed NREM-3 and REM sleep. According to the National Library of Medicine, insomnia is defined as the difficulty with sleep initiation, duration, consolidation, or quality, which occurs despite adequate opportunity for sleep. It can also cause people to wake up too early and not be able to get back to sleep. Insomnia causes people to feel extremely tired while it drains energy levels, affects mood, and impact parts of everyday life. Various studies worldwide have shown the prevalence of insomnia in 10%–30% of the population, some even as high as 50%–60%. Insomnia was found in 92 (33%) patients - 63 (68%) were female and 29 (32%) were male. Twenty-nine (32%) patients below the age of 35 had insomnia, of which 20 (69%) were female and 9 (31%) were male. Sixty-three (68%) patients were of age >35 years - of which 43 (68%) were female and 20 (32%) were male. It is most common in older adults, females, and people with medical and mentally ill health. These criteria specify that symptoms must cause clinically significant functional distress or impairment, be present for at least 3 nights/week for at least 3 months. This means one or two sleepless nights doesn’t necessarily mean the issue is insomnia.

Psychology Behind Insomnia Neurotransmitters like norepinephrine and epinephrine play significant roles in insomnia by keeping the brain in a heightened state of alertness, increasing activity, and preventing the onset of sleep. High levels of stress can cause the secretion of norepinephrine and epinephrine. Functional imaging studies suggest that patients with insomnia have smaller reductions in brain activity during NREM sleep relative to resting wake. Specifically, the frontoparietal cortex, medial temporal lobes, thalamus, anterior cingulate, precuneus, and brain stem arousal networks have been implicated. This constant brain activity during the night prevents people from entering deep stages of sleep.

Symptoms of Insomnia

The consequences of insomnia are significant, such as depression, impaired work performance, work- related/motor vehicle accidents, and overall poor quality of life. People who suffer from this sleep disorder have trouble during the day because of lack of sleep.

Common insomnia symptoms may include:

• Having a hard time falling asleep at night

• Waking up during the night

• Waking up too early

• Feeling tired or sleepy during the day

• Feeling cranky, depressed, or anxious

• Having a hard time paying attention, focusing on tasks or remembering

• Making more errors or having more accidents

• Having ongoing worries about sleep

What Causes Insomnia?

Sleep is so important to the body and its functions; however, the body is very sensitive and can react to things in negative ways. There are many different causes to insomnia ranging from stress, work, and even genetics. These bad sleeping habits wont impact the body right away, however consistent repetition of these activities can be causes of insomnia. Some of the many common causes of long-term insomnia are:

• Stress- Being stressed about work, school, health, money or family can keep the mind active at night, making it hard to sleep. Stress has also been associated with the activation of the Hypothalamic- pituitary- adrenal (HPA) axis, while cortisol, a product of the hypothalamus and the adrenal glands, are known to cause arousal to humans and animals. If this stress occurs during the night, controlling arousal becomes difficult, causing lack of quality sleep.

• Travel and Work Schedules- the body has an "internal clock," known as circadian rhythm, which controls things such as your sleep-wake cycle, metabolism, and body temperature. Disrupting these rhythms can lead to insomnia. Changing sleep schedule, time zones, or changing night-time habits can alter the circadian rhythm and cause impacts of insomnia.

·      Poor sleep habits- Going to bed and waking up at different times each day, taking naps, being too active before bedtime, and having a sleep area that is not comfortable or different are all bad sleep habits. Having bad and inconsistent sleep habits will impact the circadian rhythm. Being exposed to light, such as on a phone, computer, or TV, can alter the process of melatonin production from the pineal gland. The hormone melatonin plays a role in the sleep-wake cycle, disrupting this can impact natural sleep cycles.

·      Sleep Disorders- Other sleep disorders such as sleep apnea, somnambulism, or narcolepsy can disrupt sleep. These can prevent reaching deep levels of sleep and REM sleep. Lack of deep sleep can leave people feeling tired and restless.

·      Stimulants- Coffee, tea, sodas and other drinks that have caffeine are stimulants. Drinking them in the late afternoon or evening can keep you from falling asleep at night. Nicotine in tobacco products is another stimulant that can disrupt sleep. These stimulants will prevent deep levels of sleep and the best quality of sleep cannot be reached.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/insomnia/symptoms-causes/syc-20355167#:~:text=Insomnia%20is%20a%20common%20sleep,level%20and%20affect%20your%20mood.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5353813/#:~:text=Various%20studies%20worldwide%20have%20shown,medical%20and%20mental%20ill%20health.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/epinephrine#:~:text=EPI%20is%20rapidly%20released%20in,fight%2Dor%2Dflight%20response.