Most people experience some kind of sleep disorder, which can be short or long term. Insomnia is a common problem for many adults. It could mean a problem falling asleep, staying asleep, or just poor quality sleep.
Dr. Colon at Lee Memorial's Sleep Disorder Center says, "Some people have difficulty sleeping because something is bothering them and what's bothering them, is that they're not asleep. So the harder that someone tries to sleep, the more awake they become."
It's common enough, it has a name , psycho physiological insomnia.
What do you do? Colon says, "The first attempt is that we try to help with different sleeping hygiene practices and associations in our room, something called stimulus control. There are also different relaxation training, such as mindfulness-based stress reduction or even diaphragmatic breathing that can be helpful."
Dr. Colon cautions that the first line of treatment for sleep should not be medication. Rather, you might want to consider working with a therapist to retrain sleeping patterns. Sometimes, it might call for a sleep study to rule out other issues like sleep apnea. For more on sleep hygiene, click here.
