Not much could be worse than a lifetime of bogus sleep, imagine difficulty falling asleep, only being able to sleep for a very short period of time, waking several times during the short time that you do sleep, it happens each and every night, and to make matters even worse, there is no medical, psychological, or neurological diagnosis that can explain this. Doctors have told you that you have an imbalance in your body that has created an overactive awakening system. Because of this you have a very hard time concentrating, moodiness, and daytime fatigue, constantly.
This type of insomnia can be especially dangerous because it can lead to many other problems such as substance abuse as you try to correct the problem yourself. Understandably, you might feel like you are at your wits end. While insomnia is actually quite common, idiopathic insomnia on the other hand, is not. There is no correlation favoring genders with this disorder and there is also no genetic link involved.
You might suspect that you have idiopathic insomnia if you have been dealing with insomnia problems your entire life and there is no reason for the insomnia. This would mean that you are not stressed out about anything on a conscious or subconscious level; you are on no medications as some can cause insomnia, there are no medical or psychological reasons for the insomnia, and you have no poor sleeping behaviors.
In other words, you are completely fine except for the insomnia. There have been reports of people who are so desperate to get some quality sleep. Some have indicated that during a one year period they averaged three hours of sleep per night but there were many occasions where they only got one hour of sleep for at least one week at a time. Keep in mind that these people have already attempted, with the help of a physician, in some cases over 20 different sleeping pills with absolutely no relief. Many become suicidal during this time which is mainly because of their desperation and when one is attempting to function on such a small amount of sleep, they surely are not thinking clearly at all.
Many people just learn how to cope with this disorder and never seek help. The truth is that there is not much that can be done besides making attempts through sleep hygiene to reduce the insomnia as much as possible. Sometimes a doctor will prescribe medication to help you sleep but at best, the newest and most modern sleep aids on the market today only allow a patient to use them for up to six months.
Anything else might lead to a substance abuse problem and no one wants that so at this point the doctor might refer you to a sleep specialist who will attempt to assist with your idiopathic insomnia. Obviously a center that specializes in sleep depravation and sleep disorders will be able to do more than anyone else will but unfortunately with severe cases of idiopathic insomnia it is the mechanisms inside of your body that are different and do not require this sleep.
