Insomnia is the most widespread sleep disorder in the world, it suffers from one third to a quarter of the world population.
Despite this, insomnia is scarcely recognized, diagnosed and treated correctly. It is estimated that about 60% of sleepless have never talked about sleep disorders with their doctor.
Failure to recognize and the non-treatment of insomnia determine important medical and social repercussions, significantly reducing the patient’s employment performance and more generally the quality of life.
THE’insomnia It is defined as the experience of insufficient or poor quality sleep described by one or more of these symptoms:
• Difficulty starting or maintaining sleep
• early morning awakening
• Little restaurateur sleep.
THE’insomnia It manifests itself with the appearance of one or more night indicators, which cause it to be defined as first level insomnia. These indicators are associated with some daytime symptoms, which define insomnia as a second level insomnia.
In relation to the duration of the symptoms, insomnia can be acute, if it lasts a few days or a few weeks, or chronic if the symptoms persist for at least a month.
The possibility of identifying earlyinsomnia It translates into the practical relapse of avoiding the chronicization of the disorder and of significantly improving the quality of life and health in general of patients.
For the correct management of insomnia in clinical practice, it may be useful to refer to some indications, validated in the context of general medicine.
• insomnia should always be diagnosed if the patient complains spontaneously and treated even if not expressly requested by the patient himself
• Insomnia should always be sought and treated in conjunction with psychiatric and internal pathologies
• For diagnostic and therapeutic management, the cause of insomnia should always be sought
• It is preferable to use a hypnotic in short half -life
• It is preferable to use non-benzodiazepine hypnotics for their handling
• The evolution of insomnia and its therapy must be re -evaluated over time
• self -management of therapy must be not recommended and avoided
• In the event of an ineffectiveness of the hypnotic drug, the recommended dose should not be increased, but therapy must be changed, re -evaluated the diagnosis or rather undertaken adequate psychotherapy
• A patient sharing to his “care process” is a positive element for success. For example, the adoption of a hypnotic drug in a formulation in drops allows on the one hand fine dosage adjustments, on the other an “active ritual” of the person, who feels even more involved in the resolution of his own problem
In addition, it is useful to propose to patients some practical rules of sleep hygiene:
The appropriate management of theinsomnia It does not end with the setting of drug therapy and with sleep hygiene but often requires a valid psychotherapeutic intervention. The first task of the doctor is to make sure that the patient acquires awareness of the need to verify the progress of his disorder and psychological support, as for any other problem of this nature.
