Probability of Having Chronic Insomnia

Chronic insomnia affects approximately 10% of American adults, while 30-35% experience short-term insomnia symptoms. Insomnia is defined as difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking too early, combined with daytime impairment, occurring at least 3 nights per week for 3 or more months.

Women are about 1.5 times more likely than men to have insomnia, and the risk increases with age. Risk factors include stress, anxiety, depression, irregular sleep schedules, caffeine and alcohol use, certain medications, and chronic pain. Shift workers are particularly vulnerable, with about 32% experiencing insomnia compared to 18% of day workers.

Chronic insomnia is associated with increased risk of depression (10 times higher), cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, impaired immune function, workplace accidents, and motor vehicle crashes. Sleep-deprived workers cost employers about $2,280 per worker per year in lost productivity. Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is the recommended first-line treatment and is more effective than sleeping pills for long-term outcomes, with about 70-80% of patients showing improvement. Despite this, medication (benzodiazepine receptor agonists, orexin receptor antagonists) remains more commonly prescribed.