How is insomnia diagnosed?

Have you ever wonder how is insomnia diagnosed? The answer is a doctor will basically diagnose patients who have insomnia based on the observation of the symptoms as well as the degree of functional impairment that the symptoms present on him or herself.  However, the diagnosis can be made by a sleep expert or by a general practitioner as well.  You have to work with a team of the general practitioner and sleep experts which related insomnia to ensure that the diagnosis and the results is accurate and is tested in the correct experimental methods. 

1) Blood tests 

Generally a general practitioner will encourage patient to get a set of blood test to identify the potential medical conditions, hormone imbalances and nutritional deficiencies that contributing to insomnia. For examples, a doctor can identify the health condition such as hyperthyroidism which is overactive thyroid , so they able to target the main problem and prescribe a list of medication according to his problem. 

2) Overnight sleep study

The professional sleep expert may encourage the patients who have insomnia to participate the program of overnight sleep study (polysomnography) to sleep overnight in a laboratory in a comfortable environment. When this experiment is conducted, the technologist will stay awake for 24 hours to monitor the brains waves as well as gather information about transition through sleep cycle like oxygen levels, number of movements, heart rhythms and breathing patterns by EEG (electroencephalograph). During the night, a low-light video camera may also record your sleep for later review. This will allow the doctor to detect any unusual movements or behavior that may occur during you sleep. Important brain and body functions are measured and recorded while you are sleeping.

3) Questionnaires 

The patients who have insomnia may need to fill out a set of questionnaire that records the subjective perception of the insomnia.  The questionnaire is briefly about why you have difficulty to fall  asleep, stay awake for long periods at night, wake up a few times during the night, do not feel refreshed when get up, feel tired and irritable during day and night, hard to focus, and wake up early in the morning and not able to return to sleep. This questionnaire is generally a list of question that conducted by the experts and professionals to assist the doctor to have more insight into the severity of the insomnia. 

4) Sleep logs

Sleep logs are designed for the individual to record down the details about their sleep habits in a diaries or logs for doctor to record and justify the root problem of insomnia. It generally include things like when the individual went to bed, such as how long they took to fall asleep, the total duration they slept, when they woke up, how they felt during the day and so on. This log or diaries may also report whether the person felt sleepy throughout the day and any uncomfortable symptoms they may experience for example, tension headaches. (Mental Daily Health, 2015)

5) Verbal questioning

A series of questions such as “How hard is it for you to fall asleep?”, “How difficult for you to stay asleep during the night?” or "How long do you take to fall asleep?" will be asked by a doctor or sleep expert in order to help them to get a better idea and understanding as to how debilitating the insomnia is, as well as how long it has been occurring.

These scientific methods are designed for people who suffer from insomnia, sleeping supposed to be the most relax and comfortable activities in our daily life. A sleep study is a reliable, scientific, and painless way in figuring out the reason why you do not sleep as well as you would like, it can provide you the understanding about your problems and answers based on the results.  According to the results, a sleep expers and doctor will be able to plan a treatment in helping those people with insomnia to finally get the kind of sleep they want and need.

REFERENCES

Mental Health Daily (2015) Insomnia Symptoms & Signs. Retrieved from http://mentalhealthdaily.com/2015/05/25/insomnia-symptoms-signs-list/