Transient Insomnia - How to Diagnose Sleep Disorders

I want to talk about the differences and talk about some of the underlying reasons for insomnia that can make it last beyond just a week or two. Transient insomnia is something that most of us experience at various points within our lives. It's a response to stress. It's a response to grief or depression. It can also be a response due to a change in sleep schedule or work schedule. Sometimes, people experience transient insomnia because, for whatever reason, they've been consuming caffeine later in the day. Generally, people who drink caffeine only during the morning, for some reason will have a night of bad sleep. They'll need to pick up caffeine later in the day to make-up for that lack of sleep.

Then, the caffeine doesn't leave their body quickly enough, and whether they realize it or not, that extra cup of coffee or that glass of soda that you had around 5 o'clock is keeping you awake at night. Transient insomnia comes and goes. It'll usually go away in about a week or two, when you resolve the grief or stress, or when you treat the depression that's causing it. Chronic insomnia has its own causes. Sometimes chronic insomnia runs in families; rarely it does. It is a combination of not only genetic factors but a learned behavior.

If a child grows up knowing that "we don't sleep well, in this family", it can affect their own mental state as it relates to sleep. There is a strong connection between the psychology of the patient and the quality of their sleep. Sleep is not just a physical thing; there are a lot of psychological factors involved. There is a very rare type of insomnia called fatal familial insomnia and the incident of this is so rare that it is rarely mentioned outside of the corridors of sleep disorders facilities. As the title implies, it's genetic and it's fatal. It's caused by a lack of sleep that cannot be cured through any sort of sedation means.

It progresses to dementia and to death. I mentioned it only because it's something that gets mentioned in the popular culture, every once and awhile. Someone will read something on-line about fatal familial insomnia and they think, "Oh crap, I can't sleep. I have that". It's so rare that a doctor would have to tell you, for sure, whether you have it or didn't have it. It's not anything to be concerned about if you're having about of insomnia or if a number of people in your family have insomnia. I think that you would know if it were to be a fatal or terminal illness.