Insomniac?

Oh shit.Oh yes, apart from that, i do practically everything else in my beloved bedroom.Its where i work, play, eat, sleep, seek solace and peace.Its my sanctuary all in all.

Great.And if 6 hours is REALLY what we ONLY need.Then i'm sleeping FOR 2 days in 1 night.

Now what about that?

Hmm.Umm.

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Channel NewsAsia, Julia Ng.


Specialists estimate about 1 million Singaporeans suffer from insomnia

Doctors said occasional insomnia should be tackled by family doctors before the problem gets worse. But a recent study of general practitioners found that more than half of them are 'wary of prescribing sleeping pills'.

Mdm Chia Poh Hong, 58, suffered from chronic insomnia for over 30 years. Refusing to see a specialist, she turned to sleeping pills and got addicted. "Taking sleeping pills deteriorated my memory. I could not concentrate. After taking sleeping pills for over 20 years, I only kicked the addiction last year," she said.

Doctors estimate about 400,000 Singaporeans suffer from insomnia from time to time, but more than 100,000 could not get any shut-eye every night. Yet only some 5 percent of insomniacs seek treatment.

To add to the problem, a recent study of over 100 GPs found 55 percent of them reluctant to prescribe sleeping pills. The Grace Polyclinic doctors punished for over-prescribing sleeping pills also add to their hesitance to treat insomnia.

Dr David Tay, General Practitioner, said: "As a GP, I have encountered patients with insomnia. Very often, I need to find out what the primary cause is. I need to know whether the cause is genuine or not and I need to know if the person has got short or long-term insomnia. "Once I have determined whether it's treatable at a GP level, I will go ahead and treat it. If not, I will refer on...and if the person can get away without sleeping pills, I will certainly avoid it. But if they need it, and they need it with help, yes, I will give it to them."

But doctors from the newly-formed Sleep Society warn that short-term insomnia, if left untreated, could lead to chronic problems like depression. To tackle insomnia, doctors usually adopt a combination strategy.

Besides prescribing drugs like sleeping pills, doctors also want patients to change their bedtime habits. That means avoiding caffeine, alcohol and cigarettes before they sleep, and to associate the bed with only sleep and sex.

Dr Ng Beng Yeong, Sleep Disorder Clinic at Singapore General Hospital and Vice President of Singapore Sleep Society, said: "Insomnia is just a symptom, it is not really a diagnosis. So we do need to take an account from patients and study the problem in greater details and come to a diagnosis. "It may be a medical diagnosis, it may be a psychiatric diagnosis. So treatment may be more targeted at the underlying medical or psychiatric problem. The most important thing about using sleeping pills is that it should be on an intermittent basis, only use it for a few nights. "It is important not to use it continuously for more than two to three weeks because if you use it continuously for more than two to three weeks, then the chance of you becoming dependent on it becomes higher."

Studies show that not all sleeping pills are equally addictive. Newer pills are less addictive, but many GPs are not aware of it.

Dr K. Puvanendram, President of Singapore Sleep Society, said: "We will tell the GPs, treat the acute insomniacs, leave the chronics to the specialists. And try not to exceed the recommended dose of sleeping pills."

To educate GPs on how to treat insomnia, the Singapore Sleep Society is organising its first Sleep Rescue forum on December 4. Dr Ng said: "A lot of people also spend a lot of time in bed, thinking that the more time they spend in bed, the better their sleep would be. So actually that's a misconception because you only need to sleep for six hours a night. Just sleep for six hours a day. "You spend prolonged hours in bed then the sleep quality is not there. After a while you start to associate the bed with wakefulness, with poor sleep. A lot of people do a lot of activities in bedroom as well. "They will read newspapers, they surf the Internet, go onto the Internet, the computer, do work in the bedroom as well. After a while this magic associated with the bedroom is lost for a lot of people." - CNA