Insomnia Tough to Shake Once Started, Research Finds
A new Canadian study found among 3,000 adults surveyed for five years, 37.5 percent of those who began the research with insomnia still had it after five years. The condition's persistence was found to be higher in participants who had worse insomnia once started.
Researchers also found that almost 14 percent of participants without insomnia started developing the condition by their five-year follow-up.
According to Charles Morin, a study author and psychology professor at Quebec City-based Laval University, "We know that when insomnia persists all the time," that it may be linked to numerous adverse health effects.
Sleep experts describe insomnia as a condition that may include "falling asleep or staying asleep at night," or waking up very early in the morning.
According to an expert, people develop nearly an obsession with their sleep, as well as with an apprehension of not being able to sleep, and the ‘daytime consequences of insomnia.’
Previously Good Sleepers Can Have Insomnia, Too
Morin also said they "wanted to document the natural origin of insomnia," knowing it was a typical condition. However, there was no understanding of how such a condition progressed over time.
Additionally, to understand that path, the study might provide details on the probability that insomnia would occur even in previously good sleepers.
Explaining their study findings that were published in the JAMA Network Open journal on November 6, Morin explained, he thinks "that we were quite amazed to see how persistent" insomnia is for so many people.
"We have long thought," he added, this condition is more often than not, a situational problem, "and if you leave it alone," it disappears on its own.
But what the researchers discovered in their study, Morin added, "It really goes against" what a lot of people believe that insomnia is a fairly situational problem. That is why the study suggested that it is important to determine and intervene early.
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Insomnia, Linked to Other Health Conditions
According to an American Academy of Sleep Medicine board member, Jennifer Martin, insomnia can result in or occur along with an array of other health conditions like depression, diabetes, hypertension, anxiety, and heart disease, among others.
Martin, who is also a medicine professor at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine added, insomnia can also lead to suicide.
One of the things Professor Martin said she sees "clinically and in my own research is that" by the time most people come to get treated, they have already been suffering from the condition for a very long time.
The professor also said he thinks research like this one will help health care providers understand further that, as such, they should probably be asking people instead of waiting until people come to them for help.
'Cognitive Behavioral Therapy'
Fortunately, both Martin and Morin said, there is hope, as they talked about CBT or cognitive behavioral therapy, "as a first-line therapy" for the condition.
CBT is a type of psychotherapy that can concentrate on changing poor sleep habits, scheduling of sleep, as well as the manner people who have insomnia are thinking about sleep.
Sometimes, Morin explained, people develop nearly an obsession with their sleep, and with the apprehension of not being able to sleep, and the "daytime consequences of insomnia."
With CBT, the study Martin said, people, come in for between four and eight sessions with an experienced specialist. More so, 70 percent of the people are experiencing considerable response.
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Nov 11, 2020 10:00 AM EST
