Read here to find out what puts people at risk for insomnia. Primary care physicians almost never diagnose sleep disorders during a regular medical examination. A major difficulty in diagnosing this problem is its subjective nature. One study showed that people who said they were insomniacs and people who said they weren't actually had the same sleep behavior, including sleepiness during the day and the time it took to fall asleep. A recent study reported that people who had experienced insomnia all their lives had more nightmares and fear of the dark as children than people whose insomnia developed in adulthood Gender.
Insomnia is more common in women than men, although older men have more disrupted sleep than women.
In women, a number of hormonal events can disturb sleep, including premenstrual syndrome, menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause. All these conditions are natural, and in most cases the wakefulness associated with them is temporary and can be ameliorated with sleep hygiene and time. After childbirth, most women develop a high sensitivity to the sounds of their children, which causes them to wake easily. Women who have had children sleep less efficiently than women who have not had children. It is possible that many women never unlearn this sensitivity and continue to wake easily long after the children have grown.