Insomnia - meaning disturbed sleep - comes in many forms.

Sleep apnea occurs where there is marked disturbance of breathing during the night, often associated with snoring. This leads to momentary waking, not usually noticeable to the patient, and loss of relaxing sleep. A consequence of this is daytime tiredness and drowsiness. It is a warning of the possibility of other problems such as heart attack and need treating. It can often occur in people who are overweight and weight loss can be a cure.

Narcolepsy is an uncommon condition where there are very short episodes of sleep during the day causing accidents and injuries if they occur while driving or operating machinery.

Sometimes sleep disorder is a symptom of other problems; for instance, excessive wakefulness can be related to thyroid disease. A doctor should exclude any medically remediable cause before treatment.

Also helpful may be our pages for anxiety, stress and senior care.