Chronic insomnia
SleeplessnessAround 10% of adults, long-termInsomnia stops being a temporary patch and becomes a condition at about the three-month mark. By then the original trigger — stress, a new baby, a deadline — has often passed, and what keeps it going is the effort of trying to sleep. Treatment targets that conditioned arousal loop rather than the original cause.
Diagnosed on clinical history and a two-week sleep diary, not a machine. A sleep study is only ordered when apnea or limb movements are suspected underneath.
Solutions
ranked by evidence levelCognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia — structured sessions covering stimulus control, sleep restriction and worry management. Outperforms sleeping pills at twelve months.
The same alarm seven days a week, weekends included. The most reliable single physiological lever to build homeostatic sleep pressure.
Out of bed after roughly 20 minutes awake. Staying put frustrated teaches the brain that the mattress is where you worry.
Temporarily compressing time in bed to match actual sleep time, consolidating fragmented sleep. Effective but best guided by a clinician.
A chronobiotic timing signal rather than a sedative. Useful for delayed sleep phase; weak evidence for classic chronic insomnia.
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