UARS and Insomnia

What is Insomnia

Insomnia is a sleep disorder characterized by the difficulty or inability to fall/stay asleep.

Those suffering from insomnia often wake up multiple times during the night and struggle to go back to sleep.

When insomnia affects you 3 or more times a week for at least a month, it would be considered chronic. Otherwise, your insomnia would be described as acute.

Either way, insomnia is no fun.

Types of Insomnia

There are two types of insomnia: sleep-onset and sleep-maintenance.

Primary insomnia is when someone suffers from insomnia symptoms that are not caused by another health issue.

Secondary insomnia is the term used to describe insomnia symptoms that are caused by another health condition such as arthritis, depression, asthma, etc. Another possible cause is UARS.

Symptoms

It's no surprise that insomnia, a sleep disorder, has symptoms that overlap with UARS, another sleep disorder.

• Difficulty falling asleep
• Waking up during the night and struggling to fall asleep again
• Waking up too early in the morning
• Feeling tired when you wake up and throughout the day
• Irritability
• Problems with concentration or memory

Typical Treatment Options

• Proper sleep hygiene
• Sleep aids (Melatonin, Benadryl, Ambien)
• Treating the underlying illness causing the insomnia… which leads us to our next point

How UARS can cause Insomnia

As mentioned earlier, secondary insomnia is when your sleep issues are being caused by another underlying illness.

Often, UARS might be mistaken for just insomnia.

How to know if it's UARS or Insomnia?

If the symptoms are so similar, then how do I know what's going on?

The best way is to just get a sleep study.