Insomnia is one of the most common sleep problems, but it is also one of the most misunderstood.
When people hear the word insomnia, they often picture someone lying awake all night, completely unable to sleep. While that can happen, getting no sleep at all is a less common presentation of insomnia.
More often, insomnia looks like someone eventually falling asleep but regularly spending a long time trying to do so. Someone else may fall asleep quickly but wake several times throughout the night. Others may consistently wake earlier than they want and struggle to fall back asleep.
All of these can be forms of insomnia.
Insomnia is more common than you may think.
Sleep problems are incredibly common. Around one in three adults experience symptoms of insomnia, and roughly one in ten meet criteria for insomnia disorder.
Sleep difficulties are even more common among people experiencing mental health concerns. Research has found that problems falling asleep or staying asleep are especially common in people receiving mental health treatment.
So, if you struggle with sleep, you are far from alone.
So, what actually counts as insomnia?
Insomnia generally involves one or more of the following:
- Difficulty falling asleep
- Difficulty staying asleep
- Waking earlier than desired and having trouble returning to sleep
Importantly, these difficulties occur even when someone has an adequate opportunity to sleep.
There is also another important part of insomnia that sometimes gets overlooked: what happens during the day.
Insomnia is not just about having difficulty sleeping at night. Sleep problems may contribute to fatigue, difficulty concentrating, irritability, changes in mood, reduced motivation, or difficulty functioning at work, school, or home.
In other words, insomnia becomes especially important when nighttime sleep difficulties begin affecting daytime life.
What about the “30, 3, 3” rule?
A simple way people sometimes remember chronic insomnia is the 30, 3, 3 model.
This generally refers to sleep difficulties involving around 30 minutes or more of difficulty falling asleep or time awake during the night, occurring at least 3 nights per week, and lasting for approximately 3 months or longer.
This can be a useful shorthand for understanding chronic insomnia, although a formal diagnosis involves more than simply checking three boxes.
The important point is that insomnia is generally a repeated pattern, not just one bad night.
A bad night of sleep is not necessarily insomnia.
Everyone sleeps poorly sometimes.
You may have trouble sleeping before an important meeting, during a stressful week, while traveling, after being sick, or for seemingly no reason at all.
Even several bad nights in a row do not necessarily mean that you have insomnia disorder.
The concern becomes greater when difficulty sleeping happens regularly, continues over time, and begins interfering with how you feel or function during the day.
And again, you do not have to be awake all night for your sleep problem to “count.”
Someone who sleeps six hours but spends significant portions of the night awake, struggles to fall asleep most nights, or wakes much earlier than intended may still be experiencing insomnia.
When should you consider getting help?
If you regularly struggle to fall asleep, stay asleep, or wake earlier than you would like, and those difficulties are affecting your daytime functioning, it may be worth getting a professional assessment.
You also do not need to know for sure that what you are experiencing is insomnia before reaching out. Part of an assessment is figuring out what may be contributing to your sleep difficulties and whether insomnia is the best explanation.
If some of what you read here sounds familiar, or if you are simply unsure whether your sleep difficulties may be insomnia, I work with adults experiencing insomnia and other sleep related concerns. We can take a closer look at your sleep, identify what may be going on, and discuss whether treatment may be helpful.
Insomnia is common, but that does not mean it has to become your normal.
Wil Proffer, PLPC, currently has a few openings for clients with insomnia or other sleep-related difficulties. He is trained in the evidence-based approach, CBT-I (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia). Many people’s sleep starts to improve after only a couple of sessions. To learn more about Wil or schedule an appointment, check out his bio here.