Brent Belton

Dr. Rand
UWRT 1102
April 2, 2015

The Inability to Sleep

Sleep, we all need it, its what energizes us for the next day and what
keeps us upbeat. Sometimes however we cant go to sleep, insomnia,
staying up too late, etc. are some causes that keeps us from being able to go
to sleep. Why cant I fall asleep at night? Is there something wrong? The
answer is no, we all experience this and to overcome this many researchers
have learned solutions and causes as to why we cant sleep.
We have all experienced a night where you just cant sleep, whether it
be thinking a lot before bed or some other cause like a sleeping disorder. So
why do we stay up all night and cant seem to fall asleep, well the answer to
that isnt so simple there are many causes and theories as to why we cant
fall asleep at night, one of those cause would be insomnia, the most common
sleeping disorder. Insomnia affects nearly one out of every three adults at
some point in their life (Goldberg). Insomnia comes in two types: primary and
secondary. These types are categorized by if any other factor causes it such
as depression or cancer. Along with these two types of insomnia also comes
with acute and chronic insomnia, acute being the lesser of the two. Insomnia
like many other sleeping problems are caused by many a number of different

things, such as illness, divorce, emotional or physical discomfort, etc. While I

myself do not suffer from Insomnia even though I do have problems sleeping
at night sometimes (who doesnt though) those who do suffer from Insomnia
should talk to their doctor to fully diagnose the problem and help them
overcome it. There are tips however that could benefit people with or without
insomnia. For example, trying to go to sleep at around the same time each
night, and waking up at around the same time each morning, this will help
your body become accustomed to your sleeping patterns and youll be able
to fall asleep faster (Chanin). This has proven helpful to me at times like
when I would have to get up at the same time for high school and go to sleep
at around the same time, it made it easier to fall asleep and definitely easier
to wake up at 5:40 in the morning, brutal.
People have always had sleeping problems at night all throughout
history. Before people figured out the reason for why a person couldnt sleep
at night they most likely thought they were being possessed or some kind of
made-up disease. When technology finally came around to take a look at the
plague of insomnia they were able to discover some factors and were able to
come up with things to try to relieve this problem. Before this time they
probably came up with ideas and theories as to why people couldnt sleep.
This gave a ground work for new research and to figure out why we suffer
from this problem. When it was possible to learn about insomnia with
technology is was also possible to learn the causes of it. Depression, anxiety,
etc. causes insomnia and why we stay up all night contemplating and

incapable of falling asleep. With all the new information there is a better
understanding of insomnia. This information was most likely broken off into
pieces in the past meaning only certain things became factors, leaving an
incomplete analysis. With what we know now there is a way to diagnose the
patient, with tips, tricks, drugs, etc. things that were available in the past.
Besides insomnia there are other sleeping disorders that keep a person
from falling asleep at night. Narcolepsy is another sleeping disorder that may
keep you restless at night staring at the ceiling wondering why Im not
asleep yet. Narcolepsy is the excessive daytime sleepiness and
uncontrollable episodes of falling asleep during the day (Norwood). Why do
people experience narcolepsy? That is still unknown and many speculations
and theories have been made to better learn about this disorder. While
scientists still do not know why a person may be experiencing narcolepsy
they do have some evidence that may further identify the cause of it, such
as locating genes that seem to strongly associate with the disorder. What has
been recorded thus far is that narcolepsy may be caused by a multitude of
factors that cause neurological dysfunction and REM sleep disturbances
(Norwood). While I myself have not experienced narcolepsy (unless falling
asleep in class counts) but those who do experience it can be treated with
type of medication since at the moment there is no cure to it.
Everyone experiences this loss of sleep at some point or another. Why
do we have nights where we cant sleep? There are many answers to that,
many of the factors causing this are very common and easily manageable.

There are many sites that explain ways to help yourself fall asleep and why
we may be staying up all night. What I have found through my research is
that many things that cause us to stay up all night we cause ourselves.
Things such as staying up late, sleeping with the TV on, sleeping with lights
are factors that cause us to stay up all night but we think helps us sleep. We
use these things because sometimes we cant go to sleep for other reasons
and we believe that these things help us fall asleep. For some this does help
them sleep but for others it just makes them stay up longer. This is because
these actions can stimulate the brain which is the exact opposite of what you
want when attempting to fall asleep (DiSalvo). Other things such as keeping
lights on can keep a person from sleeping. This keeps you from sleeping
because of being able to see the light as you try to sleep, in most cases a
dark room helps a person sleep. We humans have very busy days so when
you cant sleep at night and have to get up at 6 am the next morning it is
easily realized how tired you are and how much sleep you need. When trying
to sleep you may have all these thoughts racing through your head, calm
down and try to focus on one topic, this could help ease your mind and help
you fall asleep faster. However this does not always work, like me my
imagination does not want to stay on one topic and will jump around other
topics with the same topic still in my head. If this doesnt work try getting up,
and do something that will make you drowsy (Dowshen). But whatever you
do dont use any technology when trying to fall asleep (unless you
conditioned yourself) watching TV or being on your phone can stimulate your

brain and keep you awake, also giving you something else to think about as
you stare at the ceiling in your room. There are many solutions to help a
person sleep at night, its all in the matter of choosing which method to use.
If sleeping is a problem then there are many solutions as to fix this, unless
the person suffers from a sleeping disorder. With sleeping disorders it
becomes apparent that the normal means of helping yourself fall asleep
wont work in this situation. With sleeping disorders it is recommended that a
person see a doctor or treatment with medicine. For example sleeping
disorders such as narcolepsy which is characterized by excessive,
uncontrollable daytime sleepiness may require a trip to the doctor to help
solve this problem instead of the natural remedies that most people use.
The inability to sleep, is a very common problem at night which most
people would have experienced at least once. This can usually be treated
easily because the main factors that cause it are things like stress, anxiety,
depression, or other underlying medical problems. When encountered with
the inability to sleep its not something to feel apprehensive about, its easily
fixed even without medication. So why do we lay in bed unable to fall asleep
staring at the ceiling waiting for ourselves to fall asleep? The answer can be
many things, to throw some of the causes into a category would be to call
that category insomnia. When youre laying down you could be stressed
about something to come or what has passed, feeling anxious about
something, or even depressed. Everyone has had a problem with falling
asleep the easiest way I can say to fall asleep if youre just lying there

contemplating is to clear your mind. Set your mind on one thing whether that
be a thought, a song, etc. and stay on that thought eventually youll fall
asleep before you even know it. This is how I have to sleep most nights
because my imagination likes to run wild right before I go to sleep, most of
the time I just sing song lyrics in my head (giving me an earworm the next
day) but it does help me sleep easier. Every now and then we wont be able
to fall asleep, its okay it happens, and usually this is easily fixable. There are
many solutions to this problem so many I cant even put them all down. If
you cant fall asleep at night and this is not a recurring problem look it up on
the internet, theyll give you hundreds of results. We all need sleep, we all
experience the inability to sleep, and we can all overcome it with one way or
another. In conclusion why do I stay up at night and I cant sleep? Youre
overthinking, youre stressed, youre depressed, theres many reasons to
why you cant fall asleep and many ways to fix that. If you cant sleep
tonight, learn why and overcome it for the next day so you can have a nice
sound sleep, before your alarm wakes you up.

Reflection
1. From my research doing the inquiry project the most interesting
thing I learned was that there was no real answer to why we
cant fall asleep at night. I assumed that there would be one

almighty answer but instead I was encountered with many small

answers for many different problems. It was interesting to see
how many other reasons there were to why I couldnt fall asleep
and learning about those topics surprised me.
2. My main problem with writing this was getting it started and
giving enough information with my opinions that I could keep the
reader engaged as well as inform them. I switched up my paper
three times before I was able to finally come up with a way to
give all the knowledge I needed to give. Before I was writing
about thinking before bed, then I transitioned into insomnia, then
after reading other peoples papers I was able to finally figure out
that it didnt need to be such a specific answer, it was better to
discuss all the possibilities of why I couldnt fall asleep as
opposed to one specific reason.
3. Yes, my question changed pretty radically after getting feedback
of my first question, it became apparent that the question would
have been a very difficult piece to write about as well as, it just
didnt truly interest me. I chose my next topic about why I
couldnt fall asleep as I was lying in bed unable to fall asleep,
ironic. My new topic interested me a lot more than the other
topic and everyone could relate to this topic as opposed to the
last one.
4. Its important to understand where your topic came from, how it
began. Learning about the past of the question can help improve
your question because now you know more than they did in the

past. Looking at history lets you review their findings and

improve upon them in the new day in age.
5. I believe that I my evaluation skills have improved a bit since the
writing of this paper. I believe this because of how I was able to
perceive my question and also write with my opinions at heart, it
made me look at the paper in a different way trying to find other
ways to approach it, which is probably why I changed my
question and how to approach it three times.
6. Im most proud of how I was able to add my opinions into the mix
of information as well as citing, Im terrible at citing. When I can
write about something I care about and at the same time include
my own opinions on the matter it makes the writing all the more
enjoyable.
7. I wish I knew more about the disorders and other reasons as to
why I cant fall asleep, I felt as though with all the answers to my
question I wasnt satisfied with what I found. I wish to know more
about the causes and effects of not being able to fall asleep.

Work Cited

"Sleep Deprivation and Depression: What's the Link?" WebMD. Ed. Joseph
Goldberg. WebMD, 21 Aug. 2014. Web. 2 Apr. 2015.
<http://www.webmd.com/depression/guide/depression-sleep-disorder>.
"Insomnia (Chronic and Acute Insomnia) Causes and Symptoms." WebMD. Ed.
Louis Chanin. WebMD, 21 Aug. 2014. Web. 2 Apr. 2015.
<http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/guide/insomnia-symptoms-and-causes?
page=2>.
"What Is Narcolepsy, Symptoms & Causes - WebMD." WebMD. Ed. Varnada
Norwood. WebMD, 28 Aug. 2014. Web. 3 Apr. 2015. <http://www.webmd.com/sleepdisorders/guide/narcolepsy>.
DiSalvo, David. "10 Reasons Why You Can't Sleep And How To Fix Them."
Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 11 Oct. 2012. Web. 3 Apr. 2015.
<http://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddisalvo/2012/10/11/10-reasons-why-you-cantsleep-and-how-to-fix-them/>.
Dowshen, Steven. "What Should I Do If I Can't Sleep?" KidsHealth - the Web's
Most Visited Site about Children's Health. The Nemours Foundation, 1 Jan. 2015.
Web. 3 Apr. 2015. <http://kidshealth.org/teen/expert/sleep/sleepless.html>.