8 medical conditions that cause insomnia

Events like a job loss or the death of a loved one often cause some sleepless nights. Your doctor might call it acute insomnia as long as it goes away on its own within a few nights. Long-term worry, as well as anxiety disorder, panic attacks, and PTSD, can lead to chronic insomnia, which is more serious.

A troubled mental state plays a role more than half of the time. People with depression are far more likely to have sleep problems, including insomnia. So are those with anxiety, bipolar, and obsessive-compulsive disorders. The way your sleep is affected can offer clues to the type of illness. It’s not uncommon to be diagnosed with a mental disorder after you seek help for insomnia.

Heavy snoring could be sleep apnea, which cuts off your breathing and could wake you hundreds of times in a single night. You may not remember it, but you might feel groggy the next day. Sometimes it’s related to your weight, but not always. Nasal allergies and asthma also could interfere with your breathing. A doctor can test you for these conditions, and help you manage and treat them.

Along with loss of memory, Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia can unsettle some people when you’d normally expect them to sleep, and they get restless. It’s known as “sundown syndrome” or “sundowning.” The person may be confused, anxious, restless, or aggressive around bedtime, and start to pace, rock, or even wander off. Sometimes this behavior fades, but sometimes it keeps them awake all night.

People with this disease tend to sleep less and wake up more often than others of a similar age. It interferes with brain and nerve signaling, and you’re more likely to have sleep apnea and to get up to pee. The condition also seems to disrupt the important REM sleep stage. Related anxiety and depression can lead to sleep problems, too. But medications that help you sleep may cause added confusion for some with Parkinson’s.

Usually in middle age, a woman’s body slowly stops making progesterone and estrogen. The shifting balance of hormones, as well as other changes that typically happen in life at this time, can make you more sensitive to things like stress that affect sleep. Severe hot flashes — surges of adrenaline that raise your body temperature — could be so uncomfortable that you wake up drenched in sweat, sometimes several times a night.

Women with premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and the more serious premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) often have trouble sleeping. This usually happens shortly before or during your period. Hormone changes can affect your body’s temperature and its production of melatonin, a hormone important for sleep. Also, mood changes due to PMS or PMDD may make it harder to get a good night’s sleep.