Here's Why You Can't Sleep: There are 11 Types of Insomnia. Eleven!

Posted by Alex in Medicine on September 8, 2008 at 1:59 pm


Can’t sleep? Here’s an article from Health.com that explains everything you’d want to know about the 11 types of insomnia (Yes, there are 11! If one didn’t get you, the others will.)

One of the weirdest is paradoxical insomnia, where people complain of sleeplessness, but actually slept through the night:

Paradoxical insomnia is a complaint of severe insomnia. It occurs without objective evidence of any sleep disturbance. Daytime effects vary in severity, but they tend to be far less severe than one would expect given the expressed sleep complaints.

People with this disorder often report little or no sleep for one or more nights. They also describe having an intense awareness of the external environment or internal processes consistent with being awake. This awareness suggests a state of hyperarousal. A key feature is an overestimation of the time it takes them to fall asleep. They also underestimate their total sleep time.

Another feature is that the degree of sleep deprivation reported seems improbable. Their level of daytime functioning is likely to be only moderately impaired. Objective findings of fairly normal sleep duration and quality tend to result from an overnight sleep study. These findings are much different from their perception of poor quality sleep.

Link – via One Large Prawn


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13 comments to "Here's Why You Can't Sleep: There are 11 Types of Insomnia. Eleven!"

  1. TwoDragons
    September 8th, 2008 at 2:30 pm

    Does "Having Two Pounds Of Fetal Hyperactive Night-Owl With Long Legs And A Grudge Against One's Bladder" count...? :-P

    --TwoDragons

  2. Spewingllama
    September 8th, 2008 at 3:43 pm

    I'm pretty sure my husband has paradoxical insomnia. He falls asleep immediately, snores and kicks me all night long, and then wakes up in the morning, telling me that he is exhausted and didn't sleep a wink all night.

  3. Skipweasel
    September 8th, 2008 at 4:00 pm

    My wife used to sleep through the kids crying and in the morning announce that it was so nice when they slept through the night. She even slept through night feeds on occasion - just slap the baby onto the sleeping woman and park it when it's finished.

  4. Jenny K.
    September 8th, 2008 at 4:26 pm

    As a kid I had psychophysiological insomnia. I remember that I would get nearly hysterical about the fact that I wasn't getting any sleep, which of course made it even more difficult to fall asleep. It only lasted for a couple weeks though and it was fixed by my mother reading me meditations for falling asleep (the kind where you picture a golden light traveling all over your body or imagining floating up to a cloud and being weightless).

  5. Miss Cellania
    September 8th, 2008 at 6:19 pm

    My mother-in-law has paradoxical insomnia. She tells me all the time how she can never sleep in the daytime, and she's jealous that I can. Then when I go visit, she's snoring so loud I can hear her through the door! Later, she'll say she tried to sleep, but never did. Various housemates have confirmed the same thing happens at night. She'll talk all the next day about how she didn't get a wink of sleep, but the snoring kept waking her sister up!

  6. MonkeyInABox
    September 8th, 2008 at 11:15 pm

    If the person snores and reports tiredness the next day; then it's sleep apnea. The person is not really sleep well at all. Just a cycle of waking, sleeping, waking, etc. Messes w/the REM.

  7. S
    September 9th, 2008 at 1:36 am

    I have the kind of insomnia that is directly related to playing the free Spore Creature Creator trial version. It's called "Insomnia Can'tStopMakingSixLeggedCrocodiles."

  8. hi
    September 9th, 2008 at 4:10 am

    Thanks for this link. I am dealing with psychophysiological insomnia right now. It always happens when I have to get up early for work (now that I just started school again after years away, it's even more intense). I psych myself out, get itchy all over and get all weepy and freaked out because I'm afraid I won't be able to function for the next day. I end up getting out of bed and usually staying up until after the sun is up and getting a couple of hours tops after that. It's happened on and off for years. Seems like something I should be able to talk myself out of, but it's just the opposite. Infuriating.

  9. Jane
    September 9th, 2008 at 10:20 am

    Hi, 'psychophysiological' is an awfully big word for anxiety and an obsessive mind. I bet - if you are like me- this overactive mind is not just troublesome at night. I found 2 books helpful: Gayle Greene: Insomniac (infuriating because there seems to be no medical help), and Siegfried Haug: I Want to Sleep - Unlearning Insomnia (Very good and readable if you want to take control of your runb-away mind; probably most helpful if you already had some exposure to therapy)
    J.

  10. TwoDragons
    September 9th, 2008 at 2:27 pm

    S--WOW! I've been known to suffer a variation of that one. My version is called "HowFarCanIPushMyDNABudgetOnAccessories"....

    I also suffer from a raging case of "TryingToAchieveLevel100InDungeonSiege2"

    --TwoDragons

  11. Ali S.
    September 10th, 2008 at 9:51 pm

    Argh! Insomnia is the pits. I try to sleep but I can't so what do I do...I try to zone out in the most comfortable way possible. I turn off all the lights and focus on one point on the ceiling and then start counting backwards. Eventually, if I don't become cross-eyed I fall asleep.

  12. Jimbo
    September 12th, 2008 at 12:30 pm

    I have had sleep apnea for many years. One of the signs is LOUD snoring, often interrupted by silence and gasp for air. This is a birth defect that causes the tongue to slide to the back of the throat and block air. When the brain detects oxygen levels dropping, it wake the body up. The result is NEVER reaching level 4 deep sleep that brings rest. Being exhausted all the time is just one of the symptoms and after work naps are common.

    Tell your doctor! There is help and it may result from a couple of night sleep studies but it is well worth it. I have a CPAP machine that pumps forced air into my lungs allowing me to sleep like a rock. Getting use to the mask or nose/ head strap apparatus is the hardest part. But like wearing glasses, you soon adjust. This can be life threatening if left untreated or if it gets worse.

    Lunesta is a God send also!! :)

  13. Cant Sleep
    November 3rd, 2008 at 8:14 pm

    I have had such issues with sleeping that I created an online forum/community for people with such issues haha. Fitting, I named it cantsleep.com ;)

    I used to drink so much nyquil it lost its effectiveness.

    Jimbo, i know a few people with sleep apnea and they say exactly the same thing as you, getting used to the mask is actually the hardest part. After that, you are happy and can finally enjoy sleep again.


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