Everyone has sleep problems from time to time. Over half of adults experienced difficulty sleeping a few nights per week, with a quarter regularly having trouble getting to and staying asleep. As a whole, half the people in our society are sleep deprived, and cut back on sleep to get more done during the day. Sleep is just being seen as an unproductive time. My cat would soundly disagree.

You can be thought of having insomnia if you take longer than 30 minutes to fall sleep, don’t sleep through the night, or both for the last six months. Your insomnia can be bad enough that your sleep/wake cycle is disrupted to the point that you don’t feel rested upon waking and can function normally during the day.

Insomnia is very often a symptom of an underlying problem such as stress, poor sleep habits, depression, lifestyle behaviour, pain or other physical problems.

The good news is that once the underlying problem is identified, the quality and quantity of your sleep will greatly improve. Take solace in that you are not alone, that no one has ever died from lack of sleep and that short term sleep loss will not harm your health.