Insomnia or sleeplessness (too little sleep) falls into these patterns: You have trouble falling in sleep, you wake intermittently or, you wake up too early. The minimum sleep requirements vary from person to person, even in the same person time to time. On average adults need to sleep six to nine hours a night. Normal sleep consists of drifting up and down through different levels of consciousness. The deep-sleep period is the most restful and restorative.

There are two kinds of insomnia, first, is primary insomnia mainly caused by behaviors before sleep, disturbed sleep patterns, and
sleeping environments such as sleeping in to hot or cold environments.

Second type is secondary insomnia which is mainly caused by medical conditions such as psychological problems of grief, dementia and depression and by physical medical conditions like arthritis and diabetes. However, only one in ten people having secondary insomnia, have physical medical conditions as root causes. Whilst, five out of ten people having secondary insomnia have psychological problems as root causes of their insomnia. Secondary insomnia may also be caused by medications taken for health conditions and also substance abuse or alcohol misuse. Medications, alcohol and illegal drugs are the causes of secondary insomnia in two out of every ten people suffering from insomnia.

The treatments of insomnia include, making sleeping conditions ideal (e.g. a quieter room); sleep in a cool room; relax before bedtime (e.g. take a warm shower); do some light exercise (e.g. a walk); avoid stimulants like coffee, prefer milk as it is an excellent sleep inducer; try relaxing your each muscle individually starting with the toes, and slowly working up your way up your head. Chances are you may go to sleep before you try relaxing your ears.

Americans spend more than $25 million annually on nonprescription sleep preparations promising healthy sleep. You should always be skeptical of advertised gadgets to cure insomnia, they may work in individual cases but they are highly unlikely to relieve long-term sleep disorder, also they tend to be expensive, and most can have pronounced side effects.