Insomnia is actually defined as having difficulty in falling asleep or staying asleep. The reasons for this inability to sleep come from a large number of possible conditions. Psychological conditions such as temporary stress, too much noise in or near the sleeping area, or some physical conditions such as temporary pain can cause your inability to go to or stay asleep.
Insomnia, therefore, should be addressed by finding the cause and then eliminating the poor sleep habits or reducing stress or avoiding the noise, or reducing the pain. Some short-term insomnia can be cause by changes in sleep patterns or environment caused by jet lag or shift work. Occasionally, insomnia will be caused by a traumatic event or imminent deadline at work. In these short-term cases, when the cause goes away the sleep problem is also likely to disappear.
Some prescription and even some nonprescription medicines can cause sleep problems. Some of these are blood pressure medications, diet pills, hormone pills such as birth control pills, thyroid, cortisone, and progesterone, antidepressants, such as fluoxetine and paroxetine, steroids such as prednisone, and even long-term use of sleeping
medications. In any of these situations, you must talk to your prescribing physician.
Some of the nonprescription medications that may cause a sleep problem include medications that contain caffeine, such as Anacin, Excedrin, Empirin, No-Doz, cough medicines, and cold medications. Non-prescription medications that can cause sleep problems are cold medications, especially those containing phenylephrine, such as Sudafed PE.
Some of the other causes that have been determined to interfere with sleep are too much alcohol or even alcohol or drug withdrawl, cigarettes or other types of tobacco, drinking or eating foods that contain caffeine like coffee, tea, chocolate, or some soft drinks.
Altitude sickness occurs because of a reduced amount of oxygen in the air and without adequate acclimatization can also trigger sleeplessness for a short period of time until you become adjusted. This is another cause that will work itself out over a short period of time.
One thing that you can take away from here is that you are certainly not alone in your quest for a better night’s sleep. It is good to remember that if you are experiencing one of the short term causes for your lack of sleep, it will get better.
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Enlarged thyroids are various than nodules in that enlarged thyroids generally affect the entire gland, as opposed to just having bumps here or there on 1 or both of the lobes. An enlarged thyroid – also referred to as a goiter – can be a benign not cancerous condition often caused by iodine deficiency. Goiter can also be caused by Hashimoto’s disease or Graves’ illness see above. Goiter could not have to be treated, or in some case it really is treated with antithyroid drugs, removal of the thyroid, or iodine-131 treatments.