If You Can't Sleep: Get a Check-Up

Chronic insomnia is a life-changing and dangerous condition that needs the solutions your doctor can provide. So if you notice that no matter what you do to get to sleep, it’s not working, get a checkup.

If you’ve already tried keeping a regular sleep schedule, have adjusted your meals, are limiting screen time, getting exercise, and doing all the other things you can do yourself to improve your quality of sleep and it’s still not working, seeing your doctor can clear up problems you may not realize you have.

There are numerous problems associated with poor sleep quality and insomnia, such as asthma, weak immune system, chronic pain, inflammation, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, anxiety, depression, brain fog, irritability, and accidents due to the inability to focus.

Signs you need to see a doctor:

• You Can’t Fall Asleep – If you spend most of your time in bed tired but frustrated because you can’t sleep, you need to see your doctor.

• You Can’t Stay Asleep – If you initially fall asleep but wake up and are wide awake around 3 am, then want to go back to sleep when it’s time to get up, this can signal health issues like sleep apnea or even bladder issues that your doctor can help you with.

• You’re Waking Up Tired After Thinking You Slept – If you think you are going to sleep on time and waking up normally every day, but you find you’re often tired, this may be a sign of sleep apnea.

• You’re Nap Ready Sleepy All Day – If you don’t sleep and are always ready to fall asleep all day long, but you can’t sleep at night, you might have a circadian rhythm disorder that needs medication. This mostly happens to people who work shift work or have vision problems, but it can happen to anyone.

• You Feel Accident Prone or Irritable – This is a big sign of not getting enough sleep. But, even if sleep is not the culprit, seeing your doctor for these issues is imperative because many problems like multiple sclerosis or even Lupus can cause these symptoms and need to be treated early.

If you cannot spend 80 percent or more of your time in bed sleeping, you take longer than 30 minutes to fall asleep, you’re waking up more than once each night for any reason at all, even after mitigating the problems you think keep you from sleeping, your doctor can do some tests to ensure your health. You may get a blood test, and they may send you for a sleep study. Don’t delay getting this help if you have tried for a month and still have trouble with your sleep and wake cycle.