Though 30% of the nation complains of disturbed sleep patterns, according to a survey by the National Sleep Foundation, most people can cope with a few sleepless nights. But stretches of chronic insomnia for months or years — as news reports have said Michael Jackson had — are preventable.
If you don't nip it in the bud, experts say, breaking the cycle will become a challenge.
Both cognitive behavioral therapy and prescription drugs are proven to bring on sleep, says Katherine Sharkey, an assistant professor at the Alpert Medical School at Brown University.
"One of the tenets of behavioral therapy is that insomnia becomes a learned behavior," Sharkey says. "You want to break the association between being in bed and trying to sleep and not sleeping. Insomnia can take on a life of its own."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-08-26-insomnia_N.htm"Insomnia can take on a life of its own."