Causes of Sleep Disturbance
1. Psychological stress- This is one of the leading causes of insufficient sleep and wakefulness, have you noticed you might have difficulties sustaining your sleep during the times that make you anxious: your college examination, job interviews, financial difficulties, health crises, or traumatic or life-threatening events. Once, any of these causes of your stress is totally resolved, you might get back to your normal sleep pattern without the use of any drugs at all.
2. Insomnia- This is a medical condition that causes sleep deprivation due to a variety of causes including neurological problems and a host of other causes. It may usually require medical intervention to treat insomnia directly or rather treat the underlying cause.
3. Physical disturbance- If you stay in a non-ideal environment for sleep, you might have to face the challenge of sleep disturbance may be from the persistent ringing of the church bells, the cries of nocturnal animals, or the crawling, climbing, scratching sounds by rodents. The best approach to this is a change in your sleep environment and when this is not possible, try to get rid of the animals or rodents.
4. Medications- Alcohol, antidepressants, dopamine agonists, psychostimulants, cold medications and decongestants, beta-blockers, and agonists are known drugs that could have sleep disturbance as one of its side effects. Abortifacients and drugs that can cause contractions and gastrointestinal upset are also known to disturb sleep.
5. Aging- Adults of at least 65years are more likely to report insomnia relative to the younger adults due to an increased risk of neurological and health problems. Moreover, we generally experience a change in sleep pattern as we age, such as going to bed earlier or waking up earlier. This could be another reason why you wake up by 3 am.
6. Other Health conditions: Health conditions like late in pregnancy, peptic ulcer disease, asthma, heart failure, and most other cardiopulmonary disorders, panic disorders, cancer, and other causes of chronic pains like arthritis, hyperthyroidism, are also widely known to cause sleep deprivation. Treating or managing the underlying cause is the goal here.
7. Poor sleeping habits: Habits that can disturb your circadian rhythm might also precipitate as sleep disturbances. A sedentary lifestyle and excessive alcohol consumption, long nap in the day, stress, and exhaustion in the day might be the reason why you are not getting enough sleep.
