Sleeplessness in America is on the rise, due to many external factors including increasingly negative news cycles, international conflicts and economic uncertainty. Collectively, these factors have caused more Americans to have more recurrent sleepless nights. When those nights reach three or more a week for three or more months, it’s considered chronic insomnia, which affects more than 25 million Americans. The condition can lead to both mental and physical health issues, ranging from trouble concentrating to sleep apnea and heart attacks.
As we approach Sleep Awareness Week® 2024, which emphasizes the importance of sleep as a major contributor to a person’s overall health, it is also an important reminder to prioritize getting enough quality sleep. Sleep Awareness Week, which starts this year on March 10, always begins at the start of Daylight Saving Time. That’s when the clocks go forward by one hour and Americans lose an hour of sleep which can impact sleep routines, especially for those with chronic insomnia.
New data from thousands of users of a popular sleep app provides insights into what steps people with chronic insomnia took on their own before seeking help. The data was collected from 3,000 app users over the course of 2023.
Highlights:
- 91% had tried prescription sleep medication, herbal remedies like melatonin, or other OTC sleep medications to no avail
- Many had already eliminated substances known to affect sleep, and still suffered from chronic insomnia:
- 1 in 3 had eliminated coffee
- Almost half had eliminated alcohol
- 65% suffered from chronic insomnia for more than a year before seeking more effective help
Chronic insomnia is different from regular insomnia
Short-term sleeplessness is not chronic insomnia. Only when a person suffers from sleep problems three or more nights a week for three or more months is their condition considered chronic. Traditional sleep hygiene tricks like eliminating caffeine and alcohol and exercising more can help people with light sleep problems, but don’t help people with chronic insomnia, which is usually rooted in deeper psychological problems.
Prescription sleep medication doesn’t address chronic insomnia either. Meant for short-term use only, sleep meds may mask the symptoms of chronic insomnia for a few days, but don’t address the underlying psychological causes. Moreover, the long-term effects of prescription sleep medications such as benzodiazepine include the risk of falls and cognitive impairment, and potential for abuse and dependence. For these reasons, physicians do not recommend prescription sleep medication for chronic insomnia.
I suffered from chronic insomnia myself. While I’d never been a great sleeper, I progressed to chronic insomnia in my late 20s while working as a healthcare consultant. Newly promoted, I put tremendous pressure on myself and it had a big impact on my sleep. I would lie in bed, wide awake, silently calculating how much sleep I could get if I could just fall asleep right now. Many nights, I’d end up with only a few hours of sleep – exacerbating my stress and impacting my health.
I tried basic sleep hygiene steps such as keeping my bedroom cool and dark, exercising more, avoiding alcohol, and taking melatonin. Nothing worked. I tried prescription sleep meds, and they helped mask the symptoms for a few days, but knowing they aren’t safe for long-term use, I stopped taking them – and my chronic insomnia returned immediately.
What does work? Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) is proven to be the most effective treatment for chronic insomnia. CBT-I is provided by specially trained professionals called sleep therapists. There are about 600 trained sleep therapists in the U.S.
When I was initially suffering from chronic insomnia pre-pandemic, sleep therapist waitlists in my area were a year long (now they are even longer). Desperate for help, I took a sleep therapy course and became certified in CBT-I myself just to treat my own condition. It worked – while chronic insomnia by its nature is never cured, CBT-I has given me the tools I need to manage it, and I am now regularly sleeping through the night at last.
Today, there are sleep therapy apps that have greatly improved access to care for chronic insomnia.
If you think you may have chronic insomnia, your first step should be consulting with your primary care physician. He or she will likely refer you to a local sleep therapist or sleep clinic. If you get an appointment, grab it. If you can’t, try an app. The important thing is to get into a CBT-I program – in-person or virtual – as quickly as possible to get yourself on a path towards being able to manage your condition.
Picture: yanyong, Getty Images
