Insomnia can also mask serious mental disorders. It can leave you feeling as if you just can’t get enough done. Insomnia can result in missed work, which can cause you to become less productive and miss promotions. Insomnia can make driving unsafe as well. Stress can cause insomnia but insomnia also increases stress. Lack of sleep can make it seem as if you “got up out of the wrong side of the bed.” Early morning headaches and waking up feeling as if you never went to sleep can result in frustration. Not getting enough sleep can make you less productive, irritable, and unable to concentrate. Secondary insomnia is caused by symptoms that accompany a medical condition such as anxiety, depression, or pain. The most common form of primary insomnia is psychophysiological insomnia. Primary Insomnia is a chronic condition with little apparent association with stress or a medical problem. The two main types of insomnia have been described as Primary Insomnia and Secondary Insomnia. Another way is to identify insomnia by what is causing sleep deprivation. One way is to categorize insomnia by how often it occurs. Healthcare providers diagnose insomnia in several ways. Lack of stage 4 sleep is believed to be important in chronically painful conditions such as fibromyalgia.

Sleep in stages 1 and 2 are felt to be restorative as during this time the body repairs itself utilizing a hormone called somatostatin. As the night goes on, the periods of non-REM sleep become progressively lighter. During the deepest stages (3 and 4) it is hard to rouse a sleeper. The periods of REM sleep alternate with longer periods of non-REM sleep, when the body functions slow. Beginning periods last about ten to fifteen minutes but the periods get longer as the night goes on. REM sleep occurs four or five times during a night. In REM sleep, dreams occur, the eyes move under the closed lids and there is an increase in oxygen consumption, blood flow, and neural activity. We do know that sleep consists of two very different states: rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and non-REM sleep. Exactly why sleep is necessary for good health and efficient mental functioning is unknown. When it becomes dark, the pineal gland in the brain secretes a hormone called melatonin, which is thought to induce sleep. The mechanism that induces sleep is not known.

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