Do you think of chronic insomnia as a physical disability or a mental health problem?

[crestfawlen]

I've been thinking about this because I'm requesting a change of work pattern, and citing chronic insomnia as one of the reasons for it. I imagine the HR department will want to categorise it in some way.

I think of it as a physical disability that impacts my mental health. It is circular, because stress and anxiety do trigger the insomnia, but they're not the only triggers. Body clock, daylight, birdsong and hayfever are just as culpable.

Any thoughts?

Mines due to lifestyle

That’s an interesting question, I would say both. When I suffer it’s probably a mental health / anxiety problem but dd2 has autism and so suffers from a lack of melatonin so fortunately I can give her a melatonin tablet.

I sway more towards a MH problem. Insomnia is a bitch!

Mine is due to menopause so a physical cause. The knock on effect is sheer tiredness definitely impacts my mental health.

Good question. I'd say both too. I can't pinpoint when mine started but it has always been exacerbated by stress. Occasionally I have a bad night where I am unaware of anything stressing me out. I just go to bed and feel like my heart is racing. That certainly feels physical. I wish I'd thought of trying to alter my working patterns when it was at its worst. A full working day on zero sleep was never fun.

It's not a disability. It's a condition which impacts your physical and mental health.

I'm not sure I would call it either, though I fully acknowledge (from experience) that it can be disabling in it's effects. Last I spoke with the GP about it they expressed that it's essentially usually a symptom of something else - eg of anxiety or chronic pain and so on.

Personally I've always referred to it as a disorder or a condition that has an impact on my ability to perform things such as in a job role, and would take that approach rather than attempting to label it in those terms or going down the road of explaining what triggers your insomnia. I'd just put in writing that you suffer with insomnia and the ways in which the effects of that make parts of your job or work pattern difficult/not possible and so on.

I have lifelong insomnia & don't view it as a disability. It doesn't make me stressed or anxious (or anything, really, bit grizzlie sometimes I guess). it is a kind of disorder, I suppose that's fair.

In situation OP describes I imagine saying that I was ill (stress and anxiety) which exacerbated sleeping difficulties, so needed xyz adjustments.

I've always had insomnia. Sometimes it's awful eg now - 2h sleep a night max. A good night is 4/5 h.

I do have physical disabilities and mental health issues. I don't think I'd call it either tbh, although it does impact my mental health at times.

I don't think it's the same for everyone. Mine is definitely mental health related, but I do think for some people it's physiological.

I go into kind of hyper alertness when my anxiety is really bad. Everyone in their normal pattern of sleep kind of gains consciousness every once in a while through the night, but when you're relaxed it's barely perceivable before you go back into deeper sleep, it's so fleeting. When you're in hyper anxiety mode and it happens you can fully wake because your mind is on high alert.

It’s a mental affliction.

@WunWun

Yeah when I’m super stressed and knackered I’m just too “wired” to sleep properly. Tired but wired.

I think chronic insomnia often has both a physiological and a psychological cause. This is especially true if it's been present since childhood. Some people are simply more physically prone to hyperarousal and studies have shown that the brains of some insomniacs remain unusually active even during sleep.

That said, I'd wager that insomnia often persists because we become very anxious about lack of sleep and begin to worry excessively about it. It's common to develop sleep anxiety, whereby the very act of going to bed at night triggers intense anxiety which (obviously) makes restful sleep impossible. There's also a tendency to start doing things like spending too much time in bed trying to sleep, napping during the day, etc. that actually makes insomnia worse.

It's a complex problem for sure, and unfortunately many GPs are pretty clueless when it comes to sleep issues.

If you are seeking changes to your working pattern, you will come off best linking it to mental health. This is covered under the Disability Discrimination Act.

I have been experiencing insommnia (wide awake ALL night) for past 4 months. I believe it is linked to my mental health. It is hellish.

Agree