Insomnia Causes
…modern day popular culture?

Insomnia causes often hit hard at the core of modern day popular culture. I am sure our predecessors had bouts of insomnia but it seems as if, nowadays, the symptoms are being magnified.

The general public is high on life and sleep is being sacrificed! Perhaps it’s an illusion but it appears as if modern day popular culture is failing to grasp the severity of self inflicted insomnia.

Insomnia has been a featured disorder in many famous books and movies. Two well known cult classics include a book entitled “Insomnia” written by horror specialist Stephen King and a Robert DeNiro film from 1976 called “Taxi Driver”.

There have been twenty-eight songs written and recorded about insomnia and among the artists who recorded one were Venessa Carlton, Green Day, Radiohead and many more. The most popular film, based on the Chuck Palahniuk novel that was a hit about five years ago was “Fight Club” with Brad Pitt: and the lead was a manic insomniac! It seems to be the flavor of the decade, but how many have seen this as glorifying a troubling sleep disorder?

Unfortunately, many are just not aware that this is a problematic issue for those who suffer from it. It’s not healthy to go without sleep because it can affect your immune system, which opens you up to flu, colds, pneumonia and worse! Not getting the required rest can cause severe disorientation because your body isn’t given an opportunity to rest and recuperate. It doesn’t sound like a disorder to be glorified in film and print!

But there are a lot more late night revelers, night shift workers, college students working late and pulling late night cram sessions, people working two jobs, taxi drivers and many more sections of the public who need to stay awake. But it’s more than that, for it seems as if no-one can start work without a shot of coffee: caffeine is king right now.

These circumstances drove the designer coffee movement and the “coffee shop on every corner” syndrome. And now we have the rise of the canned “caffeine drink” which are especially dangerous when combined with alcohol. Add to that the over the counter anti-sleeping pills such as “Vivarin” (…I am told about 2 cups of coffee worth of caffeine.) Stay up late and enjoy life: but your immune system suffers, your digestive system suffers and gradually your body gets immune, needs more and more caffeine to boost it to a new level and then you have a problem.

In fact you can build up a resistance quite quickly. Coffee drinkers tend to get very tired after a certain point and that’s due in part to the fact that excess caffeine accelerates the rate of how fast you’ll start to feel sleepy!...and when you stop, massive headaches and depression are the rule.

Insomnia causes are often complex and wide ranging but in the present culture it seems so easy to put your body into the danger zone, so easy to stay awake with artificial aids and this could easily be the pre-cursor to problematic sleep disorders in later life. If you upset the normal sleep rhythms you can pay the price.

There are enough insomnia causes floating around in our lives that it seems that adding more, artificial ones, is playing with fire!

Go to Insomnia Remedies

Go to Insomnia Treatments

Return to Insomnia from Insomnia Causes

Return From Insomnia to Sleep Help Home Page