What is Insomnia

“Every human being is the author of his own health or disease.” Buddha

From your skin to your job to your relationships, sleep affects everything. But these days, more of us are sleep-deprived than not. It's such a big problem that the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) declared it a public health epidemic - similar to the warnings issued about smoking cigarettes decades ago.

Do you get enough sleep? When was the last time you had a full night's sleep? And how often do you wake up naturally, without an alarm? Do you sometimes lay awake at night and struggle to fall asleep? Do you wake up in the middle of the night and can't fall back asleep again? If you do, you're not alone. Millions of Americans who experience insomnia- you want to sleep, but you just can't! They sleep so poorly and feel exhausted during the day. And many say that poor sleep interferes with their daily activities. Sleep deprivation is very common, and if you're like many Americans, you probably get less than 6 hours of sleep per night.

Here in America, recent statistics indicate that 1 in 8 people have difficulty falling or remaining asleep. Many adults are turning to drugs such as Ambien that have reported side effects like amnesia, sleep walking and unconscious "sleep-eating" during the night. Even preschoolers have insomnia. Sadly, many parents - out of desperation and not knowing any other alternative - give their little ones melatonin supplements that were once only recommended for much older adults.

It's making you sick
After just one night of skimping on sleep, you'll experience changes in mood, headache, and hormone imbalances. One week of sleeping fewer than six hours a night can result in changes to more than 700 genes. Men's brains after not sleeping for just one night show changes indicative of brain shrinkage and damage similar to a brain injury. Yikes! Ongoing insufficient sleep is linked with a laundry list of diseases including heart disease, diabetes, depression, early death, and a higher risk for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, stroke, some cancers, and multiple sclerosis.

It's making you fat
Not getting enough sleep also contributes to packing on the pounds. After a night of insufficient sleep, people have higher levels of the hunger hormone and decreased levels of the fullness hormone. When people aren't getting enough sleep, they tend to reach for high-calorie carbs and don't have the impulse control to turn down that piece of cake.

It's making you stupid
Lack of sleep slows down your thinking, impairs your memory, concentration, judgment, and decision-making, and impedes learning. During sleep your brain is busy processing information, consolidating memories, making connections, and clearing out toxins. When asleep, your brain does its housekeeping and not having adequate time to do this could potentially accelerate neurodegenerative diseases. Not getting enough sleep may actually shrink your brain. Trouble falling asleep, tossing and turning, waking and falling back to sleep, getting up two, three, or four times at night to urinate, being alarmed awake from some minor noise, and many other sleep problems add up to insomnia for millions of Americans. Yet often the problem is not a bad bed, the prostate, the bladder, noise in the night. Insomnia indicates something is out of alignment. Insomnia has many causes, but the biggest is stress and nutritional deficiency.

Few symptoms are quite as disruptive as insomnia because it affects both physical health and mental health so dramatically. Your body is struggling to function, and it’s hard to stay sharp and focused when you’re perpetually overtired. Lack of sleep also jangles your emotions and can leave you feeling not at all like yourself.