What is insomnia?

Video Overview

What is insomnia? Insomnia is basically the inability to obtain enough sleep to allow for normal daytime functioning. The causes for insomnia range from physical causes such as pain, or psychological problems such as anxiety, or other sleep disorders such as sleep apnea or restless legs syndrome. At times we cannot find a cause for the insomnia and must assume that the sleep center in the brain is not functioning properly. This often runs in families. How do we treat these disorders? We first assess the patient’s home environment and make appropriate recommendations for change, sometimes we use medication, other times we use cognitive behavioral therapy.