Reasons Someone Might Experience Sleep Disorders or Insomnia

Many people, especially younger people, often shrug off a few nights without decent sleep. They might even embrace it, considering themselves night owls. However, all of this nocturnal living, especially without catching up with sleep during the daytime, does have potentially negative consequences. In fact, many people might not even realize they are suffering from insomnia without considering some of the reasons they aren't sleeping.

For those who suffer from sleep disorders Novato or sleep apnea Novato, it is important to understand what some of the causes of insomnia, which include the following:

• Stress. Carrying worries about family, work, health concerns can feel overwhelming and can definitely wreak havoc on regular sleep patterns.
• Depression. Sufferers of depression usually encounter either excess amounts of sleep or, quite often, severe lack of sleep. Insomnia often exacerbates their depression, creating a vicious cycle.

• Anxiety. Whether anxiety of work or other everyday concerns, or if someone suffers from an anxiety disorder, a lack of sleep can make this condition worse. The person suffering from anxiety will often add their lack of sleep to their list of anxieties.
• Medical Conditions and Illness. There are many illnesses and physical conditions that can make getting a good night's sleep challenging, if not impossible. Those suffering from cancer and going through cancer treatments often experience side effects that make sleep nearly impossible. Other illnesses and conditions that make sleep difficult include heart disease, lung disease, diabetes, restless legs syndrome, arthritis, neuropathy, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, overactive thyroid, and gastroesophogeal reflux disease (GERD).

• Medications. Many prescription medications cause an alarming number of side effects, which often include insomnia. Anti-depressants often a major culprit, but patients taking medications for heart disease, attention deficit disorder, and high blood pressure might often find getting a good night's sleep difficult. Over-the-counter medications, such as decongestants and weight-loss products, can also cause problems.

• Excess Caffeine, Alcohol or Nicotine. Coffee, soda, tea, alcohol and cigarettes can all cause problems for those trying to get to sleep at night, especially if they drink any of these products or smoke cigarettes anywhere near bedtime. Those suffering from insomnia are probably drinking coffee, tea and soda too late in the afternoon. While alcohol is a sedative, it disrupts different phases in a person's sleeping patterns.

A few other reasons that people might experience insomnia include travel, eating too much and too late at night, and simply developing poor sleeping habits by staying up too late at night on a continuing basis.