What causes insomnia?

Insomnia is caused by a few factors in tandem: genetic predisposition, precipitating events, perpetuating factors and conditioned arousal. Watch sleep behavior expert Lisa Medalie, PsyD, explain how these factors can cause episodes of insomnia.

Transcript

00:00

So things that we do to try to make up for the sleep loss-- spending extra time in bed, taking naps-- that actually get in the way and perpetuate or continue

00:07

on our symptoms of insomnia. [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:19

So insomnia actually is quite common. One third of the population reports some difficulty with falling asleep from time to time.

00:27

But only 6% to 10% actually have chronic insomnia. Insomnia is actually best understood by a four-factor model.

00:34

So we know that people are first born with some sort of genetic vulnerability or predisposition to develop insomnia.

00:41

That's the first factor, the predisposing factors. And then the insomnia doesn't actually come about until the second factor, which

00:48

are the precipitating events, so life stressors, financial stressors, family troubles, that actually

00:56

bring about the episode of insomnia. And then the third factor are the perpetuating factors, so things that we do to try to make up for the sleep loss--

01:04

spending extra time in bed, taking naps-- that actually get in the way and perpetuate or continue on our symptoms of insomnia.

01:10

And then the fourth factor is conditioned arousal. The more time we spend in bed frustrated, struggling with sleep, the more our bed

01:17

becomes associated with frustration and anxiety. And again, this cycle of insomnia continues.