Are you able to nod off as soon as your head hits the pillow at night, or do you tend to lie awake for hours on end? Do you have trouble switching off from work? Do you find your mind racing? Is your sleep disrupted? If so, could you be one of the many people who suffer from semi-somnia.
A shocking one in three of us now suffer from sleep problems on a regular basis, and worryingly enough, hormonal issues mean that sleep disorders tend to effect women more than men. And while the vast majority of us may not suffer from full-blown insomnia, a growing number of us are suffering from semi-somnia.
Known as insomnia’s “irritating little sister” rather than having totally sleepless nights, suffers of semi-somnia experience short bouts of sleep disruption. They may wake every night for half an hour or they simply find it impossible to nod off because their minds are racing.
Sound familiar? We thought it might.
Another symptom of semi-somnia is “fizzy sleep” a phrase coined by Dr Nerina Ramlakhan, a sleep therapist at the Capio Nightingale Hospital in London.
“It’s not a scientific term, but clients say that’s what their head feels like,” said Dr Ramlakhan.
“They are asleep but it’s not restful. It’s a jangly, information-filled sleep where the brain is still highly active,” she added.
Do you wake up still feeling tired? You could have a sleep disorder…
So what’s causing semi-somnia and how can we deal with it and get back to sleep?
“We’ve spent five years researching this with 30,000 sufferers and technology is probably the main cause,” said Jean Gomes, the chairman of The Energy Project – a group dedicated to helping people suffering from sleep issues.
“Humans have always had stress and that does interfere with sleep, but work and home used to be separated by time and space: leaving the office meant you had to switch off. You may have had a stressful day, but your mind could process problems overnight and you’d wake the next day refreshed.
Now the ways we relax – shopping online, tweeting while watching television and checking Facebook – mean our brains are in a permanent state of arousal,” Mr Gomes added.
In order to give yourself the best chance of nodding off as soon as you get into bed, sleep experts recommend banning social networking and other forms of technology for at least an hour before you go to bed.
Don’t check your e-mail, watch television or log onto Twitter. Instead, have a bath, relax, maybe read a few pages of a book and have a glass of warm milk.
The whole point is to give your brain a chance to wind down and stop running at top speed. This will ensure a deep, health (and relaxing!) night’s rest.
Do you suffer from sleeping problems? How do you switch off?
