http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=what-causes-insomnia&SID=mail&sc=emailfriend

Summary

What causes insomnia?

Insomnia is the chronic inability to fall asleep or to enjoy uninterrupted sleep. Sadly a larger proportion of people suffer from this. some research shows that sleep patterns, and behaviors from certain attitudes leave some people with the higher chance of having insomnia.

Symptons are difficulty falling asleep, waking a lot during the night, waking up to early and not being able to get back to sleep, or waking up feeling unrefreshed. Some of factors the factors with insomnia in the National Sleep Foundation survey included being female, being widowed or single, having a low education level, low income, unemployment, smoking, life stress, physical health problems, and pain or activity limitation. Also in some cases insomnia does increase with age.

Many people with insomnia believe that they are not getting enough sleep, when most people are likely are getting a sufficient amount. Insomniacs tend to stay in bed longer and sleep during the day bekieving that being in bed more will get them to sleep more. Really they are underestimating the amount of sleep they get each night, thinking it is less than it really is. So insomnia is really caused by the attempt to get more sleep than needed. If an insomniac believes thay need eight hours sleep when really it's six hours, that leaves them with two hours of wakefulness. The attitudes of insomniacs is the cause for most because they believe that with an insufficient amount of sleep thier day will not run smoothly. If they feel then that the night before they didn't get enough sleep their attitude, mood, and behavior might be different that day.

There is good news, cognitive-behavioral therapy can change insomniacs attitude toward sleep. They can practice good "sleep hygiene," it includes paying attention to the effects on sleep of environmental factors such as noise, light, and temperature; avoiding behaviors that can lead to conditioned insomnia such as reading or watching TV in bed; avoiding alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, or certain medications before bedtime; and paying attention to the timing of exercise, snacks, and bedtime itself. Shortening sleep time might also help. In the end these treatments seem to help more than certain medications.

Conclusion: I find it really intersting that it's the attitudes and certain other behaviors that cause insomnia. I originally thought that it would've been some chemical reaction in the brain that caused insomnia. Also it seems that more people, than I thought, suffer from insomnia and other sleep related problems. It was surprising to find that behavioral therapy helps more than medications . Simple things such as not reading or watching TV can help an insomniac get more sleep.