Causes and Treatments for Insomnia

Adrienne Rizzuto
Salt Lake Community College

Author Note
Adrienne Rizzuto, Psychology 1010, Salt Lake Community College.
Adrienne Rizzuto is a student at Salt Lake Community College.

There are many people in the world who suffer from sleeping disorders every night and
one of the disorders a person could be suffering from is insomnia. Insomnia is a sleeping
disorder that causes difficulty in falling asleep or even staying asleep. According to our textbook
authors (Schacter, Gilbert, & Wegner, 2011), about 15% report about having severe or frequent
insomnia problems and another 15% report about having mild or occasional insomnia issues. A
study done by the Mayo Research Clinic found that there are many different causes of insomnia.
The first most commonly found cause is from stress, whether this concerns your personal life,
work life, school life, or even a changing life even; it all takes some sort of toll on your stress
levels. Next, you will find that anxiety and depression will also be found among the causes of
insomnia. Both of these causes are likely to be more of a mental problem that could come from
post-traumatic stress disorder or other mental disorders that a person can be struggling with.
More causes of insomnia can come from medical conditions, changes in a persons environment
or work schedule, previously known poor sleep habits, medications, caffeine/nicotine/alcohol,
and even from eating too much later in the evening (Diseases and Conditions-Insomnia: Causes,
1998-2014). There are many other possibilities that can factor in to why people have suddenly
started to have insomnia and another reason could be because they are aging. As a person ages,
their health starts to deteriorate and more than likely this could be the reason behind their
restlessness. Women are also more likely to have insomnia because of their constant hormonal
fluctuation during the menstrual cycles; they also have problems sleeping to due to discomfort
when they are pregnant and even when they are going through menopause because of the
sweating and hot flashes that they receive throughout the night (Diseases and ConditionsInsomnia: Risk Factors, 1998-2014). There are many treatments out there for insomnia, but the
first thing for every person to try is to rid themselves of the contributing factors that are causing

the initial sleeping problems (Morin & Bellevile, 2008). This could prove as an alternative for
many other practices that will likely require another individual to interfere in a persons life; for
example, a doctor, spouse, etc. Research shows that there are three different ways for a person to
treat their insomnia: psychological and behavioral interventions, through prescribed medications,
and lastly through herbal and dietary supplements.
The first treatment for insomnia is through psychological and behavioral interventions.
This method calls for the person to identify the causes for the insomnia, so they know how to
better approach the situation. After the cause has been identified, there are five different
approaches to treating the insomnia this particular way. This can be done through sleep
restriction, which tricks the brain into reducing unwanted wake time or by trying cognitive
therapy to alter dysfunctional and inadequate sleep processes. Another way is to use stimulus
control therapy to regulate the amount of time it takes for you to fall asleep and wake up; you
can also do relaxation-based interventions that helps target your brain and reduces anything that
arouses your mind at night. Lastly, learning how to better peoples sleep hygiene can immensely
change their sleeping routine. By doing this, they learn about their lifestyle, daily habits, and
environmental factors that can affect their sleeping cycle every night, which should ultimately
assist in ridding themselves of the bad habits that are causing the insomnia (Morin & Bellevile,
2008).
Medications are the most common way for people to try and overcome their insomnia.
These can either be prescribed or over-the-counter medications and will work varying on the
person who is trying them. The FDA, Food and Drug Administration, only approves of two
different classes of medication, which are benzodiazepine-receptor agonists (BRA) and
melatonin-receptor agonists. Both are found to be effective short term treatments for insomnia,

but it is possible that after continuous use your body can start fighting off the chemicals that
were original working to put/keep you asleep. Even though there isnt much data on sedating
antidepressants, these also have been prescribed for insomnia, but could also have the same
effect as the other drugs by being good for short term, but after a while they wont continue to
work. (Morin & Bellevile, 2008)
The third most commonly found treatment for insomnia would be through herbal and
dietary supplements. This would include a large number of natural products that assist as sleep
aids. Because there is not enough evidence to prove the efficiency of these products, they are not
often prescribed to everyone as an option. If such products were to be used, they could try
melatonin, valerian roots, passionflower, chamomile, and L-Tryptophan (Morin & Bellevile,
2008).
Insomnia is found in many different peoples lives throughout the world and most of the
reasons it is caused is because of negative psychosocial, economic, and health problems. (Morin
& Bellevile, 2008). Even though there are three options for treatments of insomnia, only two are
supported by science and the government, which are the psychological and behavioral
interventions and the medications (prescribed or over-the-counter).

References
Morin, D. C., & Bellevile, D. G. (2008). Insomnia. Retrieved December 2014, from
ScholarPedia: http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Insomnia#Treatment_options
Schacter, D. L., Gilbert, D. T., & Wegner, D. M. (2011). Introducing Psychology (Vol. Second
Edition). New York, New York, United States of America: Worth Publishers.
Staff, M. C. (1998-2014). Diseases and Conditions-Insomnia: Causes. (Mayo Foundation for
Medical Education and Research) Retrieved December 2014, from Mayo Clinic:
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/insomnia/basics/causes/con-20024293
Staff, M. C. (1998-2014). Diseases and Conditions-Insomnia: Risk Factors. (Mayo Foundation
for Medical Education and Research) Retrieved December 2014, from Mayo Clinic:
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/insomnia/basics/risk-factors/con20024293