Insomnia as a Symptom: Where to Begin

When someone sleeps badly, they often try to "treat the insomnia" itself — and nothing works. Dr. Saulitis stresses that sleep is not a standalone problem but a very serious signal that something is happening in the body. So the first steps are not about finding a "sleeping pill," but about finding the cause.

Sleep is a symptom, not a diagnosis

In the doctor's view, there is no such thing as "insomnia in itself" — a sleep disturbance always points to something behind it. Good sleep is a sign that a person is, on the whole, healthy; once sleep "goes," psychological problems arrive very quickly. So a sleep disturbance should be treated as an alarm bell, not as a standalone illness to simply silence.

Where to look for the cause

The doctor lists what should not be overlooked:

• Prolonged stress and asthenia — a sleep disturbance may appear later, and the person no longer connects the two.
• Past head injuries, concussions, surgeries — they can echo back as sleep problems over time.
• Neurological conditions — epilepsy and the like; here the doctor specifically mentions the EEG as an examination.
• Inflammatory processes — encephalitis, meningitis.
• Vascular and atherosclerotic problems.
• The endocrine system — the thyroid gland (both overactive and underactive), which many people forget about.
• The pancreas — especially during acute inflammation.

So a sensible first step is not self-experimentation, but an examination that helps reveal what actually lies behind the sleep problem.

Substances that "steal" sleep

A separate important point is what we put into the body. The doctor draws attention to:

• Alcohol — within a few days, the first symptom is disturbed sleep; he places "fast sugars," sweets and fast food in the same group, which the body recognizes similarly and which affect sleep, including in children.
• Stimulants — coffee, strong tea, amphetamines and the like.
• Marijuana — "it all starts as a joke," and then a person can no longer fall asleep without it.
• Improper treatment of sleep — the doctor calls benzodiazepines and similar sleeping pills the main scourge.

The danger of these substances is that they knock out the structure of sleep: the person seems to sleep, but without the long, deep, restorative phase. And without it — consider that you didn't sleep at all: the body doesn't rest, even with the eyes closed.

What's at stake and where to go

If this state drags on, it reflects on the psyche: mood disorders, depression, and — in the doctor's words — even up to hallucinations. So the key first step is to see a specialist: a family doctor, and if possible a psychiatrist. The doctor's logic is simple: only through a specialist is the true disorder identified and treated — and then sleep falls back into place by itself.

Practice: first steps for sleep problems

1. Stop "treating insomnia" as a separate illness — treat poor sleep as a symptom, an alarm bell.
2. Recall the possible causes — prolonged stress, past head injuries, surgeries, chronic inflammation.
3. Check what you put into your body — alcohol, sweets and fast food, coffee and strong tea, stimulants; notice whether you're "leaning on" sleeping pills.
4. Don't prescribe yourself medication — especially benzodiazepines and sleeping pills, which destroy the structure of deep sleep.
5. See a specialist — a family doctor or psychiatrist, to find and treat the cause; sleep will follow.