Sleep Disorders: Report on Insomnia 

Sleep disorders are one of the common health issues that exist among university students. Sleep disorders are changes in the way that you sleep and one of the most common types of sleep disorders is insomnia. The National Institutes of Health estimates that roughly 30 percent of the general population complains of sleep disruption. According to guidelines from a physician group, insomnia is the difficulty of falling asleep or staying asleep, even when a person has the chance to do so. Anxiety is often related to insomnia among university students.

According to Nour Choueiry, Tracy Salamoun, Hicham Jabbour, Nada El Osta, Aline Hajj and Lydia Rabbaa Khabbaz (2016) insomnia is more frequent in first year students and anxiety is more frequent in those who suffer from insomnia. Insomnia can be categorized into two categories, acute insomnia and chronic insomnia. Acute insomnia is brief and usually happened because of life circumstances. For example, when you worry too much about the examination on the next day and you cannot sleep because of the worries. Most students have experienced acute insomnia because they tend to worry more on the assignments and tests given to them. Being a student, you cannot escape from worrying about your results too. Chronic insomnia is the disruption of sleeps that usually occurs three nights per week and last at least three months. A person with chronic insomnia needs to seek medical treatments from doctors. This is because chronic insomnia can be comorbid which means it can be linked to other health conditions such as a heart problem or psychiatric issues. Not just that, according to an article from the National Sleep Foundation, changes in environments, bad eating habits or work shift can also cause chronic insomnia.

Tension is one of the common causes of anxiety that can lead to insomnia. Too much tension can disrupt your sleeping pattern on a regular basis. Next is getting too caught up in past events or excessive worrying about future events. When your mind is too caught up in thoughts you brain could not stop thinking which makes it harder for you to fall asleep. In either case, the quiet and inactivity of night often brings on stressful thoughts or even fears that keep a person awake. It is not hard to see why anxiety can disrupt student’s sleep. When this happened for many nights or many months, you will start to feel anxiousness, dread, and panic at just the thought of not sleeping. This is how anxiety and insomnia can feed each other and become a cycle.

While anxiety is a problem to sleep disruption, unhealthy lifestyle is also one of the main reasons why it is hard to fall asleep at night. Confuse body clock because of the irregular sleeping patterns can cause insomnia. For example, you have been sleeping late for the past three nights because of your work shift or finishing up an assignment can make it hard for you to fall asleep the following day you want to sleep early. Not just that, what you eat during the day can also make you experience insomnia. For instance, caffeine is a stimulant. Most people understand the alerting power of caffeine and use it in the morning to help them start the day and feel productive. Caffeine in moderation is fine for most people, but excessive caffeine can cause insomnia.

A 2005 National Sleep Foundation poll found that people who drank four or more cups/cans of caffeinated drinks a day were more likely than those who drank zero to one cups/cans daily to experience at least one symptom of insomnia at least a few nights each week. Caffeine can stay in your system for as long as eight hours, so the effects are long lasting. If you have insomnia, do not consume food or drinks with caffeine too close to bedtime. Some cases of insomnia start out with an acute episode but turn into a longer-term problem. Instead of passing, it can become chronic. Once this happens, worry and thoughts such as, “I’ll never sleep”, become associated with bedtime, and every time you cannot sleep, it reinforces the pattern. This is why it’s important to address insomnia instead of letting it become the norm and part of your lifestyle. You should seek help if your insomnia has become a pattern, or if you often feel fatigued or unrefreshed during the day and it interferes with your daily life. For students, it usually affects your study and can cause your results to drop drastically.

You can start by taking a stroll in the park or talk to your friends if you are stress with your studies. If this cannot help you, arrange a meeting with your psychiatrist or a doctor. They will provide you with medicines such as anti-depressants pills or schedule a meeting with a therapist for you. There are also non-medical treatments for you. It all depends on how severe your insomnia is. The non-medical treatment for example is the relaxation training which involves breathing exercises and meditation techniques. As a conclusion, sleep disorders is a health issue that has become severe among university students. Responsible authorities need to focus more on this issue to ensure that students’ performance is maintained. Spreading awareness about the importance of healthy sleeping habits is a start to a healthier lifestyle.