Among the people I see in my office probably 80% or more have significant sleep disturbances, common is "night owl" syndrome, people who can't get to sleep early enough to get adequate sleep when having to arise at 06:00 to take care of kids, dogs and get themselves ready for work.
The problem is often not lack of tiredness, but simply feeling "not sleepy" when one is "supposed to be". Their minds are active, they feel activated and can't settle down. Can be a tough problem to solve. Morning bright light treatment sometimes help. Melatonin before bedtime might help. Talk to you health care people find out the options.
But of course, anxiety and depression are top causes of insomnia. Various therapies are often quite helpful.
Worth pointing out that there are a huge range of conditions that cause sleep disturbances, and many are impossible to determine without specific evaluation. Some conditions are downright weird so don't be embarrassed if you feel freakish on that account. Believe me, I've heard many strange sleep histories, but I've not considered a single one of them to be unbelievable.
We should check out what's going on. I refer 2 or 3 people every week for sleep evaluations, afterwards almost all say, "hey that wasn't a bad experience at all."
Poor sleep can be lead to bigger health problems--it's a long list I won't go into it now, but a good part of the time helping sleep helps alleviate other conditions.
Basic healthy sleep rules: give an hour to wind down and to wake up. Avoid the "blue light" body snatching phones, computers and all the rest of those evil things ;) Especially in that PM winding-down time.
In any case, if you have frequent or continuous sleep disturbance, don't suffer silently, talk to your primary care doc, just describe the trouble, don't try to explain it, that's the doc's job. Don't underplay the problem, it may be serious. It's just taking good care of yourself, and since it is your top priority job, don't wait do it.
The problem is often not lack of tiredness, but simply feeling "not sleepy" when one is "supposed to be". Their minds are active, they feel activated and can't settle down. Can be a tough problem to solve. Morning bright light treatment sometimes help. Melatonin before bedtime might help. Talk to you health care people find out the options.
But of course, anxiety and depression are top causes of insomnia. Various therapies are often quite helpful.
Worth pointing out that there are a huge range of conditions that cause sleep disturbances, and many are impossible to determine without specific evaluation. Some conditions are downright weird so don't be embarrassed if you feel freakish on that account. Believe me, I've heard many strange sleep histories, but I've not considered a single one of them to be unbelievable.
We should check out what's going on. I refer 2 or 3 people every week for sleep evaluations, afterwards almost all say, "hey that wasn't a bad experience at all."
Poor sleep can be lead to bigger health problems--it's a long list I won't go into it now, but a good part of the time helping sleep helps alleviate other conditions.
Basic healthy sleep rules: give an hour to wind down and to wake up. Avoid the "blue light" body snatching phones, computers and all the rest of those evil things ;) Especially in that PM winding-down time.
In any case, if you have frequent or continuous sleep disturbance, don't suffer silently, talk to your primary care doc, just describe the trouble, don't try to explain it, that's the doc's job. Don't underplay the problem, it may be serious. It's just taking good care of yourself, and since it is your top priority job, don't wait do it.