{"id":986,"date":"2019-01-18T10:45:44","date_gmt":"2019-01-18T10:45:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/directory.illaaj.com\/blogs\/?p=986"},"modified":"2019-01-18T10:45:44","modified_gmt":"2019-01-18T10:45:44","slug":"insomnia-breakthrough-scientists-identify-5-types","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/directory.illaaj.com\/blogs\/insomnia-breakthrough-scientists-identify-5-types\/","title":{"rendered":"Insomnia Breakthrough: Scientists Identify 5 types"},"content":{"rendered":"

Published Thursday 17 January 2019<\/p>\n

By\u252c\u00e1Catharine Paddock PhD<\/a><\/p>\n

Fact checked<\/a>\u252c\u00e1by Paula Field<\/p>\n

There are five types of insomnia, each with its own distinct features, according to a recent study.<\/p>\n

Scientists at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience studied thousands of people who had voluntarily signed up to an online sleep registry.<\/p>\n

They concluded that\u252c\u00e1insomnia<\/a>\u252c\u00e1has five subtypes that differ by personality traits, risk for\u252c\u00e1depression<\/a>, brain activity, and response to treatment.<\/p>\n

The team suggests that the findings will likely speed up research on insomnia and lead to better, more personalized treatments.<\/p>\n

The Lancet Psychiatry<\/em>\u252c\u00e1journal has now published a\u252c\u00e1paper\u252c\u00e1<\/a>on the study.<\/p>\n

“While we have always considered insomnia to be one disorder,” says Tessa Blanken of the Department of Sleep and Cognition, “it actually represents five different disorders.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

She likens progress in insomnia research to that of\u252c\u00e1dementia<\/a>, which has uncovered subtypes with marked differences in underlying brain mechanisms.<\/p>\n

Dementia research progressed much faster after scientists identified its various types, which include\u252c\u00e1Alzheimer’s disease<\/a>, frontal temporal dementia, and vascular dementia.<\/p>\n

Insomnia and consequences :<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Insomnia is one of the “most common complaints<\/a>” that people raise with their doctors. The main symptoms include insufficient and poor-quality sleep and finding it difficult to fall and stay asleep.<\/p>\n

\"InsomniaIndividuals with insomnia often experience considerable distress and disruption of daily functioning.<\/strong><\/p>\n

They rarely wake up feeling refreshed and often feel sleepy and tired for the rest of the day. They can also feel depressed, anxious, and irritable.<\/p>\n

The condition thwarts efforts to do well at work and school, as it undermines a person’s ability to focus, pay attention, remember, and learn.<\/p>\n

\n

Acute, or short-term, insomnia lasts for a few days or weeks. This\u252c\u00e1often results<\/a>\u252c\u00e1from traumatic events or pressure from family and work situations. Other people have the ongoing or chronic form of insomnia that lasts for months and longer.<\/p>\n

While scientists have attempted to study the brain mechanisms of insomnia, their findings have been mostly inconsistent.<\/p>\n

There is a similar pattern with treatment effectiveness: it works for some, but not for others.<\/p>\n

Blanken and her colleagues suggest that this lack of consistency could be because “subtypes of this disease remain unrecognized.”<\/p>\n

5 types of insomnia :<\/strong><\/h5>\n

So, the researchers decided to investigate further with a study in three parts.<\/p>\n

First, they analyzed the results of up to 34 different questionnaires that 4,322 volunteers in the\u252c\u00e1Netherlands Sleep Registry<\/a>\u252c\u00e1had filled in.<\/p>\n

The questionnaires measured personality traits that scientists have linked to differences in brain function and structure.<\/p>\n

Using a method called “latent class analyses” on the questionnaire data, the researchers identified five types of insomnia, as follows:<\/p>\n