Have you ever wondered why you are not sleeping well? You go to an insomnia clinic and the doctor, after running special tests and scans, announce that you are diagnosed with insomnia. Here’s how!

How Is Insomnia Diagnosed?

Here are some ways by which insomnia can be diagnosed.

Doctors Will Ask About Your Sleeping Pattern

If you walk into a sleep clinic with complaints about not being able to sleep properly at night, then the doctor will firstly ask you about your sleeping habits and your sleeping schedule. He/she will ask you if you have made any major lifestyle changes in the past days. He/she might ask you if you have taken up a side job at night time, which is contributing to your inability to sleep properly. Because not all sleeping problems are insomnia, doctors need to rule out every single foreign possibility that the sleeping difficulties are taking place due to lifestyle modifications or stress in general.

Doctors Will Suggest Keeping A Sleep Diary

Before going in with a sleep study, the doctor might prescribe you to keep a sleep diary for a week or two. A sleep diary is a journal in which you write about how you slept the day before. What complications took place, how many times did you wake up during the night, how much time did it take for you to fall back asleep, what did you eat for dinner prior, etc. From a sleep diary, the doctor can get a better idea about your sleeping schedule and see if any major changes take place on the days you couldn’t fall asleep properly. This helps a lot in the diagnosis of a sleep disorder.

Blood Tests And Physical Exams Are Taken

Sometimes, sleep difficulty is also due to thyroid problems, so before going into a sleep study, they have to rule out any thyroid problems as well. If you tests for thyroid come back negative, then you can go forward with a sleep study, because now every single possibility has been ruled out.

Sleep Study

A sleep study is carried out for 8 hours at night time, in a hospital. In the sleep study, you are allowed to sleep in a hospital bed, and you are covered with sensors on every part of your body. These sensors help to detect any activity in your brain, eyes, limbs and heart. Your pulse, heart rate, oxygen levels in blood, etc. are also checked simultaneously. The study records all of these activities for a full 8 hours. After the results come in the next day, the doctor can diagnose what kind of sleeping disorder you might be suffering from.

How Can Insomnia Be Treated?

Although the causes of insomnia are still unknown, there are several ways you can try to improve your sleeping schedule.

Try deep breathing before bed time. Deep breathing can help you fall asleep because it relaxes the brain and makes it feel tired. You can also try doing some stretching exercises before bed to get your body tired and help you fall asleep. Make sure not to do strenuous exercises otherwise the purpose of sleeping will be defeated. Your brain will become active rather than sleepy.

You should limit the use of electronic devices right before bed time. The blue light from your phones and computers distract your brain into thinking that it has to stay awake for longer. For insomniac people, this can lead to you not being able to sleep at all. About 2 to 3 hours before bed time, you should avoid using electronic devices.

If your insomnia is out of control, then you can induce sleep with light sleep medication. You can use natural melatonin inducing sleep medication to help you fall asleep. Another way to fall asleep faster is to keep your room dark and wear a sleeping mask. This will induce melatonin in your body and make you fall asleep naturally.

Now you know how you can be diagnosed with insomnia. It’s just a matter of carrying out the right tests recommend by your insomnia doctor and looking for the trigger which causes insomnia to get the treatment. Insomnia disturbs the whole life of the patient, so make sure you act quickly and wisely.