Nobody on the world can truly function without sleep; the human body is dependent on it to be able to think and move and interact with the world around it. Going without sleep can greatly hurt your quality of life – it makes your days crappy and seem to last forever, you stop enjoying things because they become a hassle in your tired state and you miss a lot of opportunities because you’re just too tired to participate. Many people who have sleeping problems, however, don’t realize that they actually have a disorder and not realize that they should be asking themselves, “Do I have insomnia? And to go about answering the question of “do I have insomnia? so you can fix it you have to actually figure out if what you’re suffering from in insomnia or just a few rough nights.

First, figure out if you have trouble actually falling asleep – many people don’t sleep the second their head hits the pillow but it should not take you an hour or more to wind down and fall asleep. However, not all symptoms that come from insomnia directly involve sleep, which can confuse some people into thinking insomnia is something else. In fact, irritability and anxiousness are also symptoms of insomnia that are a direct result of the lack of sleep; so is a general inability to get things done during the day. Even things like waking up feeling like you haven’t actually slept are signs that you probably have insomnia.

To cure insomnia you have to figure out what causes it and that’s where things get a little tricky because insomnia has many different causes. By far the most common cause of insomnia is life-related stress: worrying over bills, a job or even smaller things can keep the brain from shutting down at night and case insomnia. Some more common causes involve mental disorders like clinical depression, post traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder and even obsessive compulsive disorder. Even simple things like certain medications or jet-lag from a trip can cause insomnia for a period of time.

When it comes to curing insomnia, doctors most often using something called cognitive behavioral therapy. One of the ways insomnia is cured is by cognitive behavioral therapy – a sufferer is taught proper sleep habits and ways to relieve their stress so that they can to sleep. This therapy often works so well because it not only teaches people good sleep habits but also allows doctor to find out what the root cause of the insomnia is and take care of it. Answering the question of “Do I have insomnia? can be difficult but it’s not impossible.