Self Help: Guide to Understanding and Managing Insomnia

What is insomnia?

Neither a diagnosis nor a disease--It is just a label for sleep that isn't "long enough or good enough".

A wide variety of things--which is why almost everyone experiences insomnia at least occasionally.

Yes, most people find that their insomnia clears up on its own, unless:

They worry about their sleep, which can be enough to keep them awake!
They become and stay dependent on sleeping pills: a leading cause of chronic insomnia rather than a cure.
They don't detect and eliminate problems that aggravate and perpetuate their insomnia.

Analyze it! Identify and fix any possible factors that may be causing or worsening your insomnia. Refer to the troubleshooting guide below for possibilities, and ask yourself what might have been occurring when your insomnia began--or at times it was particularly severe.
Relax! If your sleep hasn't been good for some time, it would be unreasonable to expect an overnight cure. Understand that it can take a while to reestablish a pattern of consistently good sleep. Impatience and frustration won't help. Instead, they'll make your sleep worse.
Be reassured by signs of gradual improvement--because they mean you're on the right track. Don't panic if you've been doing better but then have a "bad night", since everyone does at times. Instead, see if anything caused it that you might avoid in the future. Then, forget about it.
Don't jump to "quick fixes" and miracle cures. Anything that sounds too good to be true probably isn't. Common sense is both cheaper and more effective than blindly resorting to pills and over-the-counter remedies.

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