Disturbance in sleep patterns is the leading cause of inability to recover from acute or chronic stress. Inability to deal with or recover from stress leads to fatigue and frequently depression. In other words properly treated insomnia improves mood and energy.
Insomnia in any patient will present with one or all of the following symptoms: difficulty in initiating sleep, difficulty in maintaining sleep, waking up to early, or sleep that is chronically non-restorative or poor in quality. These symptoms persist even though there is adequate opportunity to sleep.
Although insomnia is experienced by nearly everyone at some point in time for a day or two, here and there, however, if symptoms persist longer than a month, insomnia often results in the following daytime impairments: 1.) Fatigue or malaise, 2.) Attention, concentration, or memory impairment, 3.) Social or vocational dysfunction or poor school performance, 4.) Mood disturbance or irritability, 5.) Daytime sleepiness, 6.) Motivation, energy, or initiative reduction, 7.) Proneness to error/accidents at work or while driving, 8.) Tension, Headaches,or gastrointestinal symptoms in response to sleep loss, 9.) Concerns or worries about sleep. Of course these symptoms are common to many diseases, but any observation in disturbance of sleep must be evaluated and properly treated. Excepting for the diagnosis of an obstructive sleep disorder such as sleep apnea, many alternative therapies can be of great assistance in restoring quality sleep.
