Insomnia is a very common condition that probably affects most people at one time or another (Newton, 2000). Insomnia is the most common complaint among sleeping disorders, affecting more than 60,000,000 Americans; 35,000,000 of who have suffered from the condition for a long time (Rickard, 1997). A sleep disorder is any condition that interferes with sleep. The American Sleep Disorders Association has identified eighty-four different sleep disorders (Newton, 2000).

According to the National Commission on Sleep Disorders Research, approximately 40,000,000 Americans have a chronic sleep disorder, and another 20,000,000 experience occasional sleep disturbances (Rickard, 1997). Insomnia varies with age and sex, occurring roughly 1.5 times more often in the elderly than in younger adults and affecting approximately forty percent of women and thirty percent of men (1997). People who are divorced, widowed or separated are more likely to experience the symptoms over those who are married. Also, those with a lower s

The simplest way to deal with insomnia is to use drugs. Sedatives, tranquilizers and anti-anxiety drugs help one to sleep but have serious side effects. They can become very addictive. A person may get to the point where sleep is possible only if he or she takes the drugs. Drugs seem to become less effective over time and a person might have to take larger doses in order to achieve the same result as in the beginning (Newton, 2000).

ocioeconomic status have an increased rate of developing the symptoms of this disease (Olendorf, 1999).

Sleep is essential for mental and physical restoration. It’s a cycle with two separate states: rapid eye movement (REM), a stage in which most dreaming occurs; and non-REM (NREM). Four stages of sleep occur during NREM: Stage I, when one passes from relaxed wakefulness; Stage II, an early stage of light sleep; Stages III and IV, which are increasing degrees of deep sleep. Most of Stage IV sleep, also known as delta sleep, occurs in the first several hours of sleep. A period of REM sleep normally follows a period of NREM sleep (Frye, 1998).

Some topics in this essay:
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