OCCASIONAL INSOMNIA: A DISORDER THAT SHOULD NOT BE UNDERESTIMATED Kurts 2008

Nearly 12 million Italians are likely to spend a “sleepless” night with consequent impact on quality of life and physical and psycho-physiological functions.
Insomnia is nothing but an experience of inadequate or poor quality sleep, which can manifest as difficulty of falling asleep or staying asleep, and can be occasional or chronic, if it lasts more than a month.
It is important that insomnia is dealt with as soon as possible because, if left untreated, it tends to become chronic.
People that get little sleep, tend to gain weight more easily, with a weight gain of about 5 kg, because when sleep is regular the levels of Leptin (which controls the sense of hunger) remain very high, but when is troubled the levels of Grelin (which tends to increase appetite) increase.
Moreover, people that sleep less, have a risk of developing stroke 4.5 times higher than healthy people: the study of MORFEO, also verified that 56% of people, tend to often inappropriately self treat the insomnia. In this situation, it seems preferable to use non-benzodiazepine hypnotics (like Zolpidem), which improves all the parameters of sleep and has less risk of inducing dependence.
It is obvious that one can overcome this problem, but to do so, in addition to the necessary tranquility, it is important to ask for help from your doctor.
The www.morfeodormiresano.it website (Do you have occasional or transitory insomnia?) provides a test to understand the degree of insomnia, and if it is present or not.

REFERENCES

MEDICAL UPDATE April 2008 VOLUME 32 NUMBER 4