Causes of Insomnia

Common insomnia causes include:

Stress.
Concerns about work, school, health or family can keep your mind too active, making you unable to relax. Excessive boredom, such as after retirement or during a long illness, may occur and also can create stress and keep you awake.

Anxiety.
Everyday anxieties as well as severe anxiety disorders may keep your mind too alert to fall asleep.

Depression.
You may either sleep too much or have trouble sleeping if you're depressed. This may be due to chemical imbalances in your brain or because worries that accompany depression may keep you from relaxing enough to fall asleep.

Stimulants.
Prescription drugs, including some antidepressants, high blood pressure and corticosteroid medications, can interfere with sleep. Many over-the-counter (OTC) medications, including some pain medication combinations, decongestants and weight-loss products, contain caffeine and other stimulants. Antihistamines may initially make you groggy, but they can worsen urinary problems, causing you to get up more during the night.

Change in your environment or work schedule.
Travel or working a late or early shift can disrupt your body's circadian rhythms, making you unable to get to sleep when you want to. The word "circadian" comes from two Latin words: "circa" for "about" and "dia" for "day." Your circadian rhythms act as internal clocks, guiding such things as your wake-sleep cycle, metabolism and body temperature.

Long-term use of sleep medications.
If you need sleep medications for longer than several weeks, talk with your doctor, preferably one who specializes in sleep medicine.

Medical conditions that cause pain.
These include arthritis, fibromyalgia and neuropathies, among other conditions. Making sure that your medical conditions are well treated may help with your insomnia.

Behavioral insomnia.
This may occur when you worry excessively about not being able to sleep well and try too hard to fall asleep. Most people with this condition sleep better when they're away from their usual sleep environment or when they don't try to sleep, such as when they're watching TV or reading.

Eating too much too late in the evening.
Having a light snack before bedtime is OK, but eating too much may cause you to feel physically uncomfortable while lying down, making it difficult to get to sleep. Many people also experience heartburn, a backflow of acid and food from the stomach to the esophagus after eating. This uncomfortable feeling may keep you awake.

Insomnia and changes of aging

Insomnia becomes more prevalent with age. As you get older, changes can occur that may affect your sleep. You may experience:

A change in sleep patterns.
Sleep often becomes less restful as you age, but a lack of restful sleep isn't a normal consequence of aging. You spend more time in stages 1 and 2 of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep and less time in stages 3 and 4. Stage 1 is transitional sleep, stage 2 is light sleep, and stages 3 and 4 are deep (delta) sleep, the most restful kind. Because you're sleeping more lightly, you're also more likely to wake up. With age, your internal clock often advances, which means you get tired earlier in the evening and consequently wake up earlier in the morning.

A change in activity.
You may be less physically or socially active. Activity helps promote a good night's sleep. You may also have more free time and, because of this, drink more caffeine or alcohol or take a daily nap. These things can also interfere with sleep at night.

A change in health.
The chronic pain of conditions such as arthritis or back problems as well as depression, anxiety and stress can interfere with sleep. Older men often develop noncancerous enlargement of the prostate gland (benign prostatic hyperplasia), which can cause the need to urinate frequently, interrupting sleep. In women, hot flashes that accompany menopause can be equally disruptive.

Other sleep-related disorders, such as sleep apnea and restless legs syndrome, also become more common with age. Sleep apnea causes you to stop breathing periodically throughout the night and then awaken. Restless legs syndrome causes unpleasant sensations in your legs and an almost irresistible desire to move them, which may prevent you from falling asleep.

Sleep problems may be a concern for children and teenagers as well. In addition to many of the same causes of insomnia as those of adults, some children and teenagers simply have trouble getting to sleep or resist a regular bedtime because their inherent (circadian) clocks are more delayed. When the clock on the wall says it's 10 p.m., their bodies may feel like it's only 8 p.m.