15 Causes of Insomnia You May Not Know
The term insomnia must be familiar to you, even you may have experienced it yourself. Yes, insomnia indicates a person who has trouble starting to sleep, wakes up frequently at night, or wakes up too early and can’t get back to sleep. If left untreated, insomnia can ruin your mood, causing serious health problems. So, to overcome this, you need to know the cause of the insomnia that you are experiencing. So, what are the causes of this health problem, huh?
Various causes of insomnia that you don’t expect
Reporting from the Mayo Clinic page, severe insomnia can cause complications, such as worsening work performance, and increase the risk of accidents, mental illness, hypertension, and heart disease. Therefore, you should not underestimate insomnia.
To overcome this, your doctor and you will work together to find out why it is difficult for you to sleep. That’s why doctors will consider the most appropriate way to cure insomnia.
The following are some of the causes of insomnia, one of which you may feel.
1. Increasing age
As you age, the risk of various diseases will increase. One of them is sleep disorders in the elderly, such as insomnia. This condition occurs because the circadian rhythm becomes weak with age.
The circadian rhythm is responsible for regulating the body’s biological clock, which is the clock that regulates the time for you to sleep and wake up. The weakening of the circadian rhythm disturbs the body’s biological clock and is very likely the reason you can’t sleep well.
2. Naps too long
The next unexpected, but very common cause of insomnia is taking a nap. Indeed sleeping during the day provides benefits for you, such as increasing alertness, reducing fatigue, making a better mood, and improving memory.
However, taking too long a nap can make it difficult for you to sleep at night. It is recommended that you take a nap for only 10-20 minutes, no more than that. The nap time should also not be later than 3 in the afternoon.
3. Drink coffee at the wrong time
Many people use coffee as a medicine to get rid of sleepiness. This is because coffee contains caffeine which is a stimulant, aka it can increase alertness.
Although, coffee is often a sleep aid during the day, consumption of this drink at the wrong time can be a cause of insomnia. The stimulant effect in coffee can appear within 15 minutes after consumption, and the body takes about 4-6 hours to disappear from the body.
Therefore, you are not advised to drink coffee at night, especially at bedtime. The best time to drink coffee is during the day.
4. Too many caffeinated drinks
Not only wrong timing, drinking too much coffee can also make it difficult for you to sleep. The reason is, the more coffee you drink, the higher your caffeine intake you will get.
Automatically, the effect on increasing alertness will be stronger and ultimately the cause of your difficulty sleeping. Caffeine intake for adults is 400 mg per day, or about 4 cups of brewed coffee.
If you drink more than 4 cups, not only will insomnia result, you may also experience headaches, a faster heartbeat, and frequent urination. Caffeine is not only contained in coffee, but also in tea, soda, energy drinks and soft drinks.
5. Drinking alcohol and smoking before bedtime
Not only coffee and sleep are related to each other. Alcohol and cigarettes are also linked to sleep, as they can cause insomnia. Cigarettes contain nicotine, which is a stimulant and can disrupt sleep.
While alcohol, it can make you fall asleep. However, this drink prevents a deeper sleep stage, so it is easy for you to wake up in the middle of the night.
Alcohol is also a diuretic, which means that it can make you urinate more frequently. This effect of alcohol can certainly disrupt your sleep in the middle of the night, because you need to go back and forth to the bathroom.
6. Not active during the day
Not physically active during the day, definitely makes you bored. If you are not doing activities that you enjoy, you may become sleepy. Well, a lack of activity during the day can make you take longer naps. As a result, it can be difficult to sleep at night.
The cause of insomnia most often occurs in the elderly because physical activity decreases at a later age. However, it is also possible for you, who are still young. Especially if you are on a long holiday.
7. Busy playing gadgets before bed
Today, cell phones, tablets, TVs and other gadgets are a part of life for many people. Starting from establishing communication to entertaining yourself with various kinds of games.
Unfortunately, this versatile function of the gadget makes people unable to get away from the cellphone, even playing it until bedtime.
According to the Cleveland Clinic website, there are factors that make cell phones the cause of insomnia, namely:
- Blue light from cellphone / gadget screens can suppress the hormone melatonin, a hormone that controls the body’s biological clock. The brain will catch the light and interpret it as a sign that it is still bright, so you are not sleepy. As a result, you cannot sleep at night.
- Playing gadgets makes the brain more active. This effect can make the brain busier, and you are more awake. Eventually, it becomes harder for your eyes to close.
- Browsing social media through your cell phone can disrupt your sleep, because you may feel anxious or upset after reading the news or seeing posts from friends that you envy. Feelings of irritation and anxiety can make it difficult to fall asleep.
8. Meals mostly at night
Eating before bed is one example of a bad diet. Moreover, if the food you enjoy, the portions are large enough to make your stomach full.
This full stomach does not make you sleep comfortably. Conversely, eating straight to bed can make it easier for stomach acid to rise up into the esophagus. As a result, you can experience heartburn or a burning sensation in your chest.
This disorder will get worse, if the food you eat tastes spicy. This is why eating too much can lead to insomnia that you may not even be aware of. If you eat at night, be sure to allow a gap of about 2 to 3 hours.
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9. Different hours of sleep during weekdays and holidays
Your body needs consistency. If you keep the same sleep schedule during the week, but are used to going to bed late on the weekends, don’t expect to be able to close your eyes easily.
This habit is dubbed “social jet lag” by experts, because you are effectively forcing your body to switch between two different time zones each week.
You can experience this jet lag when traveling to two places that have different time zones, working overtime, or working changing shifts.
10. You are under stress
Every day, there are many things you deal with including stress. You may be stressed with work, schoolwork, health, finances, to family. The existence of stress makes you better prepared to face various kinds of problems. However, not everyone can handle stress easily.
Stress that is difficult to deal with can be a cause of insomnia. The reason is, to be able to sleep soundly your brain and body must be calm and relaxed. Meanwhile, during times of stress, your brain becomes very active and this is what makes it difficult for you to close your eyes.
Stress and insomnia are related to one another. It can be difficult to sleep well when you are stressed. You will also feel even more stressed because you constantly have trouble sleeping.
11. Lack of sun exposure
Your body’s biological clock can be weakened due to your lack of sun exposure. You need to know that light plays an important role in regulating circadian rhythms, hormone production, and maintaining the sleep cycle.
In the elderly who are not exposed to sunlight, the quality of sleep is very poor. This condition can also happen to you, especially if you work at home because of the pandemic and you are not active outside the home, so the possibility of being exposed to sunlight is very small.
12. You have a mental illness
The most common cause of insomnia is mental illness. People who have anxiety disorders, depression, and PTSD may find it difficult to start sleeping, sleep well, or wake up very early and find it difficult to get back to sleep.
This condition occurs, due to their bad mood, trauma and fear that arise when they want to sleep, and a busy brain thinking about negative things because they feel very anxious.
13. Side effects of certain drugs
Every drug has side effects, one of which makes it difficult for you to sleep. There are several drugs that can cause insomnia, such as antidepressants, asthma medications, hypertension drugs that doctors prescribe.
In addition, there are also drugs that you can buy without a doctor’s prescription and cause you to have trouble sleeping, namely pain relievers, antihistamines, cold medicines, and weight loss drugs.
14. You have a chronic disease
Having a chronic disease, it is very possible to be the cause of insomnia. For example, people who have cancer, the symptoms of pain in the affected part of the body must make it difficult to sleep well.
Some examples of chronic illnesses that can make it difficult for you to sleep include:
15. Have a sleep disorder
Sleep disturbance is the most common cause of insomnia. First, sleep apnea, which can make a person stop breathing for a few seconds while sleeping. This condition makes the sufferer wake up gasping and shocked. Often times, they find it difficult to get back to sleep or it takes a long time to get back to sleep.
Second, restless legs syndrome, which causes a sensation of itching, burning, and tingling in the feet, which causes them to constantly move the legs and wake up from sleep. These symptoms will continue to appear, and will disappear if treated.
