CAN’T sleep? You are not alone. Insomnia affects one in five men and one in three women at some point in their adult lives, making it the world’s most common sleep disorder.

All that missed shut-eye has serious consequences. Insomnia has been linked to accidents and poor mental and physical health. It also causes economic damage because of reduced productivity and absenteeism. According to the America Insomnia Survey, published in 2011, the US loses 253 million days of productivity a year to insomnia at a cost to the economy of $63 billion.

Insomnia can be remedied if it is the result of a treatable condition such as restless legs syndrome or sleep apnoea. But for the majority of cases no underlying cause is found, and relief is hard to come by. People are told to buy blackout shades, reduce screen time or sort out whatever problem might be keeping them awake. Drugs are another option, but they don’t offer a long-term solution.

The key problem is that we still don’t really understand insomnia. Is it psychological? Is it physical? Is it both? No one can agree.


That may be changing, thanks to one unfortunate group of insomniacs who think they cannot drop off even though laboratory tests suggest they are logging hours of solid sleep. For years they were dismissed as “sleep hypochondriacs”. Now better techniques for measuring sleep states have shown that their sleep is fundamentally different from normal, which probably explains their subjective reports of being unable to switch off (see “Awake asleep: Insomniac brains that can’t switch off“).

The same tricks hold promise for researchers hoping to pin down less exotic forms of insomnia. Advances can’t come too soon: a 2012 survey found that cases in the UK have risen steadily over the past 15 years.

A better understanding of insomnia won’t necessarily lead to a cure. But knowing that scientists are finally making inroads means there is one less thing to keep us awake at night.

This article appeared in print under the headline “Wake up to insomnia’s impact”