Insomnias: diagnosis, symptoms, therapy

1. Big picture

Insomnia is the most common sleep disorder. It is not defined only by “sleeping too little,” but by difficulty sleeping despite adequate opportunity, together with daytime impairment.

The key exam sentence:

Insomnia means difficulty initiating sleep, maintaining sleep, waking too early, or non-restorative sleep, despite adequate opportunity for sleep, with daytime consequences such as fatigue, poor concentration, mood disturbance, sleepiness, headache, or impaired work/school performance.

The most important clinical trap:

Do not treat every insomnia immediately with sleeping pills. First identify secondary causes such as depression, anxiety, pain, drugs