What health problems cause insomnia?

Every per­son expe­ri­ences sleep prob­lems from time to time, but there should be much more grounds for diag­nos­ing insom­nia. Insom­nia is indi­cat­ed by fre­quent awak­en­ings dur­ing the night, prob­lems with falling asleep and wak­ing up, a feel­ing of super­fi­cial sleep, etc. Poor sleep can­not be left unat­tend­ed, because it wors­ens health, and your own inac­tiv­i­ty is fraught with a loss of time that could be spent on vis­it­ing a doc­tor and treat­ment of dis­eases that caused insom­nia. What is this about?

Anxiety neurosis as one of the causes of sleep problems

Prob­lems at work or in the fam­i­ly hap­pen to every­one, forc­ing a per­son to wor­ry about this and sleep bad­ly. But it is impor­tant to dif­fer­en­ti­ate ordi­nary anx­i­ety and overex­ci­ta­tion from gen­er­al­ized anx­i­ety dis­or­der or anx­i­ety neu­ro­sis, since in the lat­ter case, a per­son needs the help of a spe­cial­ist. If per­sis­tent anx­i­ety, ner­vous­ness and ten­sion are observed over a long peri­od of time — sev­er­al weeks, or even months, this is a rea­son to see a doc­tor. Due to the con­stant ner­vous­ness and overex­ci­ta­tion, it is dif­fi­cult to fall asleep, and if a per­son wakes up at night, then the fears that tor­ment him do not allow him to fall asleep quick­ly.

Anx­i­ety neu­ro­sis trail­er “pulls” oth­er health prob­lems — headaches, mus­cle ten­sion, tachy­car­dia, sweat­ing, tachyp­nea, etc. All these signs are also char­ac­ter­is­tic of coro­nary heart dis­ease — one of the main caus­es of death. That is why it is so impor­tant not to miss the onset of the dis­ease and seek help from a spe­cial­ist in time.

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)

Its symp­toms, con­sist­ing in the reflux of the con­tents of the stom­ach into the esoph­a­gus, have also been expe­ri­enced by many in their lives, but not every­one has this dis­ease led to insom­nia. Errors in nutri­tion are the main cause of GERD, when a per­son abus­es fat­ty, fried, spicy and salty foods, and also overeats. Chang­ing addic­tions and lifestyle usu­al­ly solves this prob­lem, but not always. At the same time, unwant­ed attacks that pro­voke heart­burn most often take a per­son by sur­prise in a supine posi­tion, includ­ing dur­ing a night’s rest, when it is eas­i­er for the con­tents of the stom­ach to pen­e­trate into the upper sec­tions of the diges­tive tract.

Sharp unpleas­ant symp­toms, as if a strong acid were burn­ing the throat, make the per­son wake up to drink water or take some med­i­cine. Of course, often repeat­ed attacks deprive the patient of sleep and rest for a long time, but the prob­lem should be solved as soon as pos­si­ble because the acid that has its destruc­tive effect on the walls of the esoph­a­gus can pro­voke inflam­ma­tion, increas­es the risk of devel­op­ing stom­ach ulcers and inter­nal bleed­ing.

When is the thyroid gland to blame for health problems?

The thy­roid gland is called the main con­duc­tor of the human body, respon­si­ble for the course of so many process­es. The hor­mones it pro­duces reg­u­late metab­o­lism, are involved in the restora­tion of bone tis­sue, growth and puber­ty in chil­dren. Thy­roid prob­lems asso­ci­at­ed with exces­sive or insuf­fi­cient pro­duc­tion of thy­roid hor­mones can cause insom­nia. In the first case, we are talk­ing about a dis­ease such as hyper­thy­roidism, in which a per­son is in a state of con­stant ner­vous excite­ment.

Such exces­sive activ­i­ty and activ­i­ties dis­rupt nat­ur­al sleep, because it is more dif­fi­cult for an over­ly excitable and unbal­anced per­son to fall asleep, and the qual­i­ty of night rest is sharply reduced. As for hypothy­roidism, with such an ail­ment, the patient is always in a state of drowsi­ness, apa­thy and increased fatigue, but even a long night’s rest does not bring the desired relief and recov­ery. Accord­ing to sta­tis­tics, about half of patients with hypothy­roidism devel­op depres­sion, and with it insom­nia. If such health prob­lems are sus­pect­ed, it is rec­om­mend­ed to take an analy­sis to deter­mine the lev­el of thy­roid hor­mones in the body and, in case of devi­a­tion from the norm, con­sult a doc­tor to pre­scribe the appro­pri­ate treat­ment.

Asthma and other bronchopulmonary diseases

If a per­son wakes up at night to clear his throat, the risk of devel­op­ing insom­nia increas­es sig­nif­i­cant­ly. It is good if the dis­ease is tem­po­rary and pass­es with prop­er treat­ment. It is worse if it flows into a chron­ic form. In par­tic­u­lar, chron­ic bron­chi­tis is the most com­mon chron­ic non-spe­cif­ic dis­ease of the res­pi­ra­to­ry sys­tem, which can make its own neg­a­tive adjust­ments to the usu­al sleep and rest reg­i­men. Some­times a per­son ruins his health with his own hands if he abus­es smok­ing. A long-term bad habit can lead to the devel­op­ment of chron­ic obstruc­tive bron­chi­tis of a smok­er, in which per­sis­tent cough­ing, includ­ing at night, is com­mon.

Asth­ma is anoth­er ail­ment that sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduces the qual­i­ty of life of a sick per­son, caus­ing dif­fi­cul­ty sleep­ing. Even such a banal phe­nom­e­non as snor­ing can cause apa­thy, increased fatigue and decreased per­for­mance due to apnea — res­pi­ra­to­ry arrest, oxy­gen defi­cien­cy. There­fore, it is so impor­tant to treat res­pi­ra­to­ry dis­eases in time and not to ignore snor­ing, to address this prob­lem to a spe­cial­ist.

Diabetes

This endocrine dis­ease asso­ci­at­ed with impaired glu­cose uptake can also cause insom­nia. The thing is that in this con­di­tion the patient con­tin­u­ous­ly los­es flu­id, suf­fers from exces­sive uri­na­tion, and this makes him repeat­ed­ly vis­it the toi­let, includ­ing at night. It is clear that this leaves its mark on the qual­i­ty of sleep. There is a sim­i­lar con­nec­tion here, as in the case of anx­i­ety neu­ro­sis: insom­nia can be both a symp­tom of dia­betes and a fac­tor that exac­er­bates it. There­fore, such health prob­lems can­not be ignored, as well as increased thirst. When such symp­toms appear, it is rec­om­mend­ed to take an analy­sis to deter­mine the lev­el of glu­cose in the blood.

What else can cause insom­nia? There are many seri­ous and dan­ger­ous dis­eases, includ­ing can­cer, car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­eases, Parkin­son’s and Alzheimer’s dis­ease. Even such a not-so-famil­iar rest­less legs syn­drome can con­tribute to the dura­tion and qual­i­ty of sleep, caus­ing insom­nia in 15% of cas­es.