Middle Insomnia is a medical condition where you wake up in the middle of the night and then cannot fall back asleep despite the fact that the reason that you initially woke up has been resolved. While waking up on occasion can be perfectly normal, things become more serious when this is happening at least three times a week, or you are losing at least thirty minutes each night. If this is happening to you, you may be suffering from middle insomnia.
Although it is not at all uncommon for people to wake up in the middle of the night, it is not considered middle insomnia unless you wake up and are then unable to fall back to sleep. The most frequent causes of this are physical in nature, although psychological issues can also come into play. Typical physical reasons that people suffer from middle insomnia include: obstructive sleep apnea, menopause, hypertension, acid reflux, alcohol consumption, chronic pain, hear disease and high blood pressure. The psychological issues that come into play include bipolar disorders, depression and anxiety.
Most health professionals agree that middle of the night insomnia is not nearly as serious of an issue as when you have a difficulty falling asleep in the first place. The reason for this is that unlike the person who cannot fall asleep at all, at least you are getting some sleep. Of course, this does not mean that there are no side effects of middle insomnia. Most all of them are associated with fatigue. Physical weakness, lack of energy, headaches and low performance are all quite common. As things become more serious, some people experience heart palpitations, dizziness, fainting and vertigo.
Although there are certainly many different sleep aids on the market, few are all that successful in treating middle insomnia. The reason for this is that just about all of them require that you “sleep them off” for eight hours or so. Because this renders them inappropriate for middle insomnia treatment, the patient must typically look for other ways to fall asleep.
