How to beat common sleep disorders

Not getting any sleep? You're not the only one. According to a 2004 survey conducted by the Better Sleep Council Canada, one in 10 Canadians always have trouble sleeping at night. If you are having trouble sleeping, you should take it very seriously.

"When sleep is poor, there is no quality of life," says Dr. Rachel Morehouse, who established the first sleep investigative centre in Atlantic Canada at the QEII Health Science Centre in 1991.

Sleeping poorly can be much more than a nuisance. If you cannot sleep on a consistent basis, you might have a sleep disorder. We asked Morehouse to give you the straight goods on the most common sleep disorders to help you get to the bottom of your own shut-eye problems.

Insomnia
"Insomnia is a catch-all term for an endless variety of problems that cause a patient to have difficulty sleeping," Morehouse says. "The first thing you need to do is figure out what's causing your insomnia."

The root of insomnia can be anything from stress to physical pain to medication, alcohol, caffeine or sleeping out of your natural phase (such as switching to the night shift and trying to sleep during the day). "The treating GP must find the cause, which can be difficult because there is commonly more than one," says Morehouse.

Doesn't sound easy? But it is, if you are honest with your GP -- and yourself. "People are pretty good at figuring it out," Morehouse says. "It's just that sometimes the conclusions aren't ones we want to reach, that's why people look for medication to help. I encourage people to work it through, and to fix what's fixable before going the medication route."

As for medications, Morehouse says there is a common misconception that there are drugs for insomniacs. In fact, she says, there are medications to help you relax or to fix underlying problems, such as depression, but there isn't one cure-all treatment. "Again, it really depends on the patient," she says.