So, what is insomnia? Well in my own opinion, insomnia used to be a syndrome or disorder but today is just an excuse for a poor sleep. What do people say when they can’t sleep?…”I had insomnia” of course!

The definition that you’ll find most often of insomnia is that it is a disorder. It’s a disorder that prevents people from sleeping or to stay asleep for a “reasonable” amount of time. I think that can easily be interpreted into whatever you want. What exactly is a reasonable amount of time? That could range anywhere from between 4 and 10 hours!

Don’t get me wrong! I’m not saying that people don’t suffer from insomnia! I’m just stating that insomnia is now a blanket term used to describe so many sleep problems that should all be separate so that they can be treated properly.

Maybe part of the reason behind this are all of the drug companies pushing new sleeping drugs onto the market. After all, they need a market to sell to!

If you want to see how much of a blanket term insomnia is, apparently about 60 million Americans suffer from insomnia each year (according to the US Department of Health and Human Services). So basically what this amounts to is a huge market for drugs that really aren’t needed. I say that they’re not needed because in most cases they’re not and as we all know prescription drugs are hugely over prescribed.

If you suffer from infrequent insomnia, you may be a good candidate for drug therapy. Although, if you suffer from insomnia or another disorder frequently, you may want to stay far clear of drugs. It seems like an easy way out but what drug companies don’t want you to know is that a lot of sleep-aid drugs contain narcotics or other addictive ingredients. After using the drugs for several week, they will usually lose their efficacy. This will mean you will have to increase your dose as your body becomes more and more tolerant. Not only that, but now you will most likely have a dependency to it because of it being a narcotic (or addictive ingredients) and getting off of it will be a pain!…while staying on it is no longer benefiting your body or your sleep.

There’s actually a great article on insomnia. It includes treatment options, and frequently asked questions. It is also written by quite a credible source, you can check it out at The College of Family Physicians of Canada website. Also, if you maybe think you are suffering from insomnia and want a few more natural ideas to try to get some sleep, you can check out this list of insomnia cures and sleep aids.

So, before I get too much into this blog, I’ll give you an idea of the closest thing to my problem. I’ve been researching my problem for a while, both on my own and with doctors…nothing’s ever been conclusive. I’ve been to a couple of sleep clinics but for the most part I can’t fall asleep and when I do it’s for such a short amount of time that they can’t get any good data. I’m not sure why that is, since I can usually sleep anywhere, in any position (not on command that is, but when I’m over-tired, I wouldn’t say it’s hard). I’ve actually fallen asleep standing-up once! How many people can say that? (How sad!)

I’ve explained my problem to so many people that it’s become quite repetitive. Try to explain to your friends why you’re awake at 4am on MSN looking for a conversation. It used to be embarrassing…these days I could care less. However, it is still embarrassing to see friends call at 12pm or later and find out that you’re still sleeping. You have a sense of guilt…like you shouldn’t be allowed to do that. It’s not like you’re sleeping for hours on end, just that when you do get to sleep…you want to stay asleep because of how much effort went in to get you to that stage.

Getting back to my self-diagnosis (sounds dangerous, doesn’t it?). I was researching the Internet looking for every possible sleep disorder or syndrome I could find. I came across a couple of them that were quite interesting (well not just a couple, there were tons…but two I was interested in). One was called Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome/Disorder (DSPS or DSPD) and the other that is the opposite disorder is called Advanced Sleep Phase Syndrome/Disorder (ASPS or ASPD).

I am just going to focus on DSPS for now, I may include ASPS with other disorders and syndromes in future articles. DSPS is similar to what it sounds like. Everyone has a wake and sleep cycle, these can also be called phases. Think of when someone gets jet lag from traveling…their sleep times are all messed-up because they’re used to going to sleep and waking at certain hours. When you move someone from one time zone to another (usually more than a couple of hours of difference), it takes a few days for their internal body clock to adjust to the new time zone. DSPS is similar except that your internal body clock never adjusts to THAT particular time zone. It’s as if your internal clock is set to a time zone maybe +4 to +7 hours from where you actually are. The messed-up part is that DSPS doesn’t care what time zone you’re actually in. Some people may suggest just moving to a country +4 to +7 hours in a future time zone. That doesn’t work, I’ve tried it (not thinking that it would work, just out of coincidence ). Your body adjusts after a while, just the same as your body when you get jet lag. I think it takes on average a day per hour or something to that effect.

People who have ASPS have the opposite to DSPS. Basically they go to bed very early…maybe (as an example) around 6pm and wake-up around 4am or so. So, those of you on “regular” hours should count yourselves lucky! I almost think ASPS is worse than DSPS…although I can’t fairly say that since I haven’t suffered from it (let alone can say that I suffer from DSPS).

With all of that being said, no one (including myself) can say for sure if I suffer from a form or another of DSPS. I fit a lot of the diagnosis criteria but there are other things that I don’t fit. Also, the treatment often recommended of going to bed 15 minutes earlier and waking-up 15 minutes earlier each day until you’re on a proper sleep pattern sounds like BS. If only it were that easy. <sarcasm>I’m sure it’s easy for a doctor to come up with a treatment like this when they don’t even know what specifically causes DSPS or similar problems </end of sarcasm>.

If you want to read more on DSPS, I recommend the following two links for some general information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_sleep_phase_syndrome

http://www.sleepdisorderchannel.com/dsps/