The Struggles of an Insomniac
Experiencing insomnia is not easy. It’s especially difficult knowing that your daily routine is being influenced by your lack of sleep. What rather irks me is the fact that being an insomniac is already stressful enough, yet somehow there are still people out there who dare use this disorder as an aesthetic to make them look cool and trendy.
Stop. Please. It’s extremely draining for those who actually experience it on a daily basis compared to those who only lost a few hours of sleep once and call it insomnia. Here are a few of what insomniacs have to go through as they suffer from the inability to sleep peacefully.
Excessive Daytime Drowsiness
One of the struggles that insomniac people have to face after an already exhausting mental battle in bed is that they need to stay awake during the day in order to fulfill their daily tasks. However, that’s easier said than done. It’s difficult to stay awake during the day knowing that you never had proper sleep at night in the first place.
Losing focus naturally comes with drowsiness. When you should have been productive, insomniacs are fighting the urge to succumb to sleep just to simply let their minds rest for a bit. It affects their mental health and mood, they have slower reaction time, decrease in productivity, and experience memory problems.
Waking Up Tired Instead of Refreshed
A good night’s sleep helps one feel refreshed after waking up, however, that’s a farfetched dream for an insomniac like myself. For the past couple of months, there was no morning where I greet the day with a smile. Instead of waking up with the motivation to tackle the day, insomniacs are rather wishing for a few more hours of rest.
The relentless tossing and turning during the night and the few hours of closing one’s eye couldn’t possibly make one feel refreshed upon waking up. Instead, some would even wake up with massive headaches that would persist throughout the day.
Health Issues and Complications
Probably the hardest struggle of an insomniac is having to deal with complications in their health because of their lack of sleep. Studies have shown that people who sleep less are more likely to develop diabetes since losing sleep affects the blood sugar process of the body. In addition to that, weight gain is also a risk that insomniacs have to face.
In times like this when we need to rely on our immune system to fight bacteria and viruses around us, those who don’t get enough sleep regularly develop a weaker immune system. Heart problem also poses a higher risk to insomniacs.
The struggles of an insomniac are no laughing matter. While others may shrug it off as a simple whine from a sleep-deprived individual, I assure you it’s more than that. No one can understand the difficulties an insomniac has to go through except fellow insomniacs.
