A Hard Day's Night

Stuck awake while your partner dreams happily beside you? Clock-watching into the wee hours as sleep becomes increasingly elusive? If that sounds familiar, it may be time to seek help we look at some of the options

- Alexia Santamaria

It happens every few months for Claire, and she describes it as “hell in a handbag”. She struggles to function day-to-day and loses tolerance with her kids, her husband, her parents, her in-laws and her colleagues. Her thinking is impaired, concentration is terrible and she makes poor decisions on all fronts. Some days she feels like she’s less use at work than someone who turned up rolling drunk. Welcome to the world of the insomnia sufferer.

Researchers at Massey University’s Sleep/Wake Research Centre define insomnia as having difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep, or non-restorative sleep together with impaired waking function that has been present for at least one month. These complaints occur despite having adequate time and opportunity for sleep. Dr Lora Wu, a clinical psychologist who specialises in insomnia at the centre, says sometimes people go through periods of sleep loss, but if they’ve tried all the common solutions like having a regular sleep pattern; avoiding television, computer and phone screens in the hour before bed; not exercising too late in the evening; making sure their bed is comfortable, the room dark and the right temperature; avoiding alcohol, caffeine and cigarettes; not ha ving daytime naps and taking clocks out of the room at night, it’s probably time to seek professional help.

“Sleep issues are very common, and usually people don’t bring it up. It’s often not top of the list when you go to your GP so it’s under diagnosed and underreported. Sometimes people have had insomnia for years or decades and they’ve not sought treatment for it for a number of different reasons,” says Dr Wu.

WHY DOES IT HAPPEN?