TRAVERSE CITY — Everyone eats and sleeps. Failure to do either inevitably leads to health problems. But some people suffer from insomnia, an inability to sleep sufficiently.
"Chronic insomnia is a huge issue," said Mary Beth Hardwicke, M.D.
She recently spoke about insomnia at a Grand Traverse County Senior Center Network gathering. The talk, titled, "What You Should Know About Insomnia," drew 28 people.
"It was very popular," said Ericca Hovie, program coordinator at Senior Center Network. "It far exceeded my expectations. For (a program on) heart disease we might get maybe eight people."
Heart disease is an important topic, she said, "but there's so much information about it. And you can still get a good night's sleep."
"There are a lot of insomnia sufferers out there," Hovie said. "There's a lot more research coming out about it."
Hardwicke presented some of that new research to the group gathered by the Senior Center Network. Hardwicke, a specialist in internal medicine, put her medical practice on hold in 2013 to care for her elderly mother, an Interlochen resident. She volunteers one day a week at a health clinic and frequently speaks on various medical issues for local groups.
Has she treated patients with insomnia?
"Oh yeah," Hardwicke said. "It affects probably 10 percent of the population."
Chronic insomnia usually continues for three months or more. Acute insomnia, which can last anywhere from one night to several weeks, can be caused by factors like stress and can resolve on its own. Insomniacs either have trouble falling asleep or wake too early or frequently.
"I tell my patients that one sleepless night is not the end of the world," Hardwicke said.
But people who experience insomnia over a long term find that their ability to function is affected. Health can suffer. Long-term, cumulative effects of sleep deprivation and sleep disorders have been associated with a wide range of problems, including an increased risk of depression, stroke, heart attack, obesity, hypertension and diabetes.
"Insomnia is not a sleep disorder per se," Hardwicke said.
Sleep disorders include sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, narcolepsy and REM sleep behavior disorder. Each of those involves specific treatments. Some sources do define insomnia as a sleep disorder, but take pains to differentiate between long-term sleeplessness and temporary problems.
Physicians must evaluate each patient to determine whether he or she is suffering from acute insomnia, chronic insomnia or another sleep disorder. If other causes of sleeplessness are ruled out, typically during an overnight sleep study, treatment for insomnia may begin.
But people who are just having some temporary trouble getting to sleep can try many of the same things physicians would recommend.
"A lot of this is common sense," Hardwicke said. "We just don't do it."
Try to make the bedroom atmosphere relaxing — quiet and dark. Avoid watching television near bedtime. Avoid using cellphones or tablet computers near bedtime — the wavelengths emitted by their LCD screens have been proven to interfere with the body's ability to fall asleep, Hardwicke said. Try to think pleasant thoughts.
If 20 minutes of lying in bed doesn't bring sleep, Hardwicke recommends spending 20 minutes in a different room doing something soothing and inactive, like listening to music. Then return to bed and try again.
People with trouble sleeping should try to maintain a consistent sleep schedule. It is particularly important to rise at the same time every day, seven days a week, she said, to maintain the body's circadian rhythm.
Hardwicke said she begins treating insomnia patients with recommendations like those. If they prove unsuccessful, she may move on to behavioral therapy and a sleep study to rule out specific sleep disorders as the cause of sleeplessness. Only after those fail, she said, might she resort to short-term treatment with medication in parallel with other therapies.
Source: Sleepless nights a common problem for many
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