Sleep is a healthy and necessary part of life that allows your mind to process experiences and your body to renew itself. The National Sleep Foundation says that adequate sleep is “essential for a person’s health and wellbeing.” Despite its physiological and psychological significance, however, millions of Americans suffer from more than 70 different sleep disorders; one of these is insomnia.

What Is Insomnia?

“Insomnia is a common sleep disorder” in which people have “trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or both,” says the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Over time, sleeplessness can affect a person’s mental and physical processes. Insomnia that is transient can be treated quickly if its root can be identified (such as caffeine, an ailment, or a medication). If insomnia is chronic, occurring for at least three nights a week over six months or longer, something must be done about it before it gets worse.

Insomnia can impact your life in a dreadful way. Many road and workplace accidents can be attributed to sleepy drivers and machine operators. Lack of sleep can also interfere with your cognitive processes, affecting your studies or intellectual performance. A study by Dr. Timothy Roehrs of the Sleep Disorders and Research Center at Henry Ford Hospital shows that “sleepiness does take a toll on effective decision making.”

Sleeping pills are an easy, but unhealthy option. There is a safer and healthier way to treat chronic insomnia: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I).

Breaking Sleeplessness: When to Call for Professional Help

Most people experience sleeplessness from time to time.
According to NIH, some of the key symptoms that accompany insomnia are:

• Lie awake for a long time before you fall asleep
• Sleep for only short periods
• Be awake for much of the night
• Feel as if you haven’t slept at all
• Wake up too early

Insomnia can also trigger other symptoms, a sign that the condition is worsening. You may feel too tired the following day to do important tasks. Lack of sleep can also make you irritable, unfriendly, unhappy, anxious, and uninterested in many things. It can affect your focus and performance, and increase your risk of accidents on the road.

Time to Get a Good Night’s Sleep

Getting a good night’s rest offers a bounty of benefits. It can lift your mood, spur your creativity, sharpen your memory and mental processes, and improve your focus. It can reduce stress, boost your immune system, and curb inflammation. If sleep is eluding you, all these benefits will slowly slip through your fingers. You may take a pill for a brief visit to dreamland, but this won’t be good enough in the long run.

If you suffer from chronic insomnia, you stand a good chance of defeating it with sleep therapy. Seeking help from a therapist contracted with Carolina Counseling Services – Southern Pines, NC, is a better solution than popping pills.

When counting sheep doesn’t work and your health seems to be flagging by the day, don’t wait for another sunset. Call Carolina Counseling Services – Southern Pines, NC, to work toward getting your “forty winks” again. Sleep isn’t just about dreams and banishing undereye circles. It is about living a longer, better life.