Insomnia Help Line

Resources

Insomnia is a serious problem

Studies show that more and more Americans are spending sleepless nights, tossing and turning in bed, waiting to fall asleep. In fact there are dedicated chat rooms and Internet sites (such as talkaboutsleep.com and sandiegodreamcatchers.org) where sleepless folks stay up nights having a dialogue with other insomniacs. “Ninety percent of your waking health is dependant on sleep," says Dr. William C. Dement, director of the Sleep Disorders Clinic and Research Center at Stanford University. The National Sleep Foundation says that one in two teenagers in the US suffers from lack of sleep. Too many electronic gadgets, computers, TV, gaming devices are the main culprits.

Disturbed sleep is one of the most common complaints doctors hear nowadays. According to a New York Times article, after nutrition and physical fitness, the American public has now turned its attention to sleep. So much so that sleep, in the words of the newspaper, is now a full blown commercial industry. There are pills, different kinds of pillows, special beds, different kinds of breathing masks and even aromatherapy treatments being offered to cure people of their sleeplessness. Apart from that every city now has sleep clinics, which offer therapy for curing insomnia. There are more than 900 sleep clinics in the US alone. You can get a customized overnight sleep evaluation at $1500 at some of these centers. It is being used to detect everything from sleep apnea to restless leg syndrome to insomnia.

Americans are desperate to find a cure for insomnia. According to IMS Health, a research company, pharmacists in US filled 42 million prescriptions of sleeping pills last year, an increase of 60 percent in the last five years.