Causes and risks of acute insomnia.

Table 1: Causes of insomnia

(Smith, 2014 and Mayo Clinic, 2014)

Table 2: Factors that affect to insomnia

(Ohayon, 2002)

There are various causes and effects of acute insomnia for all people. According to Smith (2014, 5) and Mayo Clinic (2014, para 1-2), table 1 shows the specific causes of acute insomnia. Three basic causes are demonstrated, which are psychological problems, medical problems and medication, and sleep disorders. Depression, stress, anxiety – are the most common and significant causes of acute insomnia. Stress is the worries about job or school, relationships with family or friends, divorce, illness or job loss. Anxiety causes stress, associated with having post-traumatic mental problems. Medical diseases and illnesses are also cause insomnia by making it hard to sleep for person. Medication or eating before the sleep gives an uncomfortable feeling in stomach when you lie down and therefore sleep disrupts. Sleep disorders interrupt the sleep process, which then leads to psychological problems. These causes are same for age groups of between 17 and 40, and between 40 and 70. Teenagers have teenage life crisis, which can lead to stress, whereas more people that are elderly have middle age crisis and elderly have old age crisis. This means, each age period has its own implications to stress and depression, therefore the causes for acute insomnia are similar for people of different ages.

Table 2 illustrates three major factors affecting insomnia. It was proved in Ohayon’s study (2002, 1) that, insomnia has higher prevalence in women than in men. Women and men ration for insomnia is about ¼, which indicates that for one insomniac men there are four insomniac women. (Ohayon 2002, 1). Women have four times higher chance of getting insomnia than men. The National Health Service (2013, para 4) establishes that menopause, a cessation of woman reproductive system, is often explains as the cause of this factor. In addition, pregnant women have higher chances for acute insomnia. Pregnancy also makes women more irritable and this leads to psychological issues of acute insomnia. Maurice and Roth (2002, 11-12) comment that, the elderly have a higher prevalence of developing acute insomnia. Insomnia symptom is predominant more among the people about 65 years’ old (Ohayon 2002, 3). According to the studies of Ohayon (2002, 5), people who have low incomes and are not successful in their education suffer from insomnia. However, these are the independent factors of insomnia and these factors cannot always explore the causes of insomnia.

Comparison of acute insomnia among age groups and genders.

Despite the fact that the causes and effects of acute insomnia are same for all ages and genders, there is still a distinction between two age groups and genders. Acute insomnia can affect human health both, mentally and physically. The Mayo Clinic (2014, para 3) and the National Health Service (2013, para 3) present the basic effects of acute insomnia for all people, which are: poor performance at school or job; high risks of accidents because of slowed reaction while driving; psychiatric problems, such as anxiety; overweight; irritability; abuse of alcohol or drug; physical illnesses, such as asthma, painful physical affliction; moodiness and fatigue; poor memory; lack of motivation and energy; daytime sleepiness.

These effects of acute insomnia make peoples’ lives complicated, which in turn leads to consequences of negative impacts to whole society. The consequences of acute insomnia might lead to low quality of work and the increased of car accidents In goes without says, that acute insomnia is also affected by the lifestyle and environmental factors of person as well as by gender and age. Nevertheless, the natural factors have their own implication in preventing of acute insomnia. In order to distinguish between the limited age group and gender factors, there are provided four different sections with particular description related to each group.

The first section is the group of men between ages 17 and 40. Acute insomnia has high prevalence among this group. The environmental factors and adult age crisis are the major causes of this figure. New stages of life, a lot of responsibilities and pressures, puberty, a great amount of worries and thoughts about the future life, overusing alcohol and caffeine, busy lifestyle and difficult jobs are the main environmental causes for this group. According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (2008, 2), a high rate of acute insomnia is observed in middle-aged adults, which is related to this group of people.

The second section is the group of women between ages 17 and 40. It is fact, that women are more likely to develop acute insomnia rather than men. The mental and hormonal development among women occurs in exactly this group. Women Health journal (2012, para 3) states that the changes in menstrual cycle, pregnancy, reproduction and sexual hormonal developments are the major causes of acute insomnia. Women are emotionally unstable compared with men in this age period. During pregnancy, physical, emotional and hormonal changes disturb the sleep process (Women Health 2012, para 4).

The third section is the group of men between ages 40 and 70. Acute insomnia increases with age. These men between ages 40 and 70 are more likely to have acute insomnia than those between ages 17-40. Apart from environmental factors, there are also physical and medical factors affecting to the prevalence of acute insomnia. University of Maryland (2012, para 6) claims that the peak of acute insomnia occurs in middle-aged and older adults. About 75% of acute insomniacs have comorbid medical disorders, and the presence of comorbid medical disorder, which is responsible for the functional groups of human body, increases the prevalence of adjustment insomnia.

The fourth section is the group of women between ages 40 and 70. Middle-aged and older women between 40 and 70 have the major problem, which is menopause period. According to the observations in New York Times (2010, para 2), menopause is the cessation of reproduction and hormones in women in older ages starting from 40s. In this period, hormones are fluctuated intensively and hot flashes, sweating and anxiety occur in women. During, perimenopause, women have trouble falling asleep as well (Women Health 2012, para 7).

From the comparison of different age and gender group, it can be noticed that women are more likely to be suffered by acute insomnia and older people as well. According to the studies of Bastien and Morin (2000, 49), 33% of insomniac are adolescences, 31% are in childhood, 30% at early adulthood, and 13% are middle-aged people. In addition, from Zhang (2005, 91) research, acute insomnia among female shows 12.8%, and among male shows 9.7%.