Who is affected by insomnia?

One of the standard assertions is that "older" people, that is those of you who have managed to reach the arbitrarily selected age of fifty-five years, are more likely to have difficulty sleeping. For the most part, this simply confuses cause with effect. As you grow older, you are more likely to develop aches and pains, and more illnesses and diseases are likely to affect you. It is these other conditions that disrupt your sleep. If you get some treatment to relieve the other problems, your sleep is likely to return to its more usual pattern.

In children, the problem of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is becoming more widely recognised and problems in sleeping do seem to be associated with it. There is no real doubt that sleep affects your mood. If your children do not get enough sleep, they can be irritable and their behaviour becomes more difficult. More importantly, their bodies produce three types of hormones while in deep sleep:

• growth hormones ensure that your children grow properly, building muscle mass for strength and co-ordination, adding tissue and repairing any damaged cells;
• hormones to boost the immune system — with a "healthy" immune system, children either do not get sick or recover more quickly when sick. If their immune systems underperform, they may be ill more often; and
• hormones to regulate how the body uses energy and controls appetite. Recent clinical studies show that children who sleep less are more likely to be overweight, risk developing Diabetes, and tend to eat foods high in calories and carbohydrates to replace energy burned through excessive wakefulness.

As children become teenagers, the trouble with relationships is likely to spread outside the family to affect school and the community. Hence, there is continuing research to determine whether the use of Ambien in association with the ADHD drugs, can manage the basket of overactivity problems more effectively.

As we grow older, the work we do may involve changes in shift patterns or we may travel a lot which can bring problems with jet-lag. The effects are an internal desynchronisation of biological rhythms. In nontechnical language this means that our body clocks and circadian rhythms are forced to adapt to changing circumstances. This breaks our natural habit patterns. When our bodies tell us it is time to sleep, actually complying may not be possible. Unfortunately, there are no drugs on the market that can reset our internal clocks. A further difficulty is that we do not necessarily associate the insomnia with the real cause. Many of the foods we eat or the medications we take can make it more difficult for us to sleep. Consuming too much caffeine during the day may be the trigger. Or it may be those over-the-counter cold/decongestant tablets. Unless you go and talk to a doctor about your diet and lifestyle, choosing a remedy becomes a lottery.

How does cognitive behavioural therapy help? One of the best alternatives to simple reliance on a drug like Ambien is cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). CBT teaches you a new set of behaviours around the "activity" of sleep. You have to "relearn" the association between going to bed and falling sleep.

The habit of sleep Before you start taking Ambien or alongside a course of Ambien, you should change your habit patterns and practise relaxation techniques to help you get to sleep.