ABSTRACT
Many people complain of occasional nights fraught with difficulty falling or staying asleep. These complaints often go beyond mere annoyance or inconvenience, representing an issue with significant medical, social, and economic impacts (Tables 1 and 2) (1-5). The complaint of insomnia is universal across cultures and genders.Despite the frequency of this complaint, our poor understanding of insomnia and its root causes still plagues our ability to successfully manage this condition. Indeed, for many people the word ‘‘insomnia’’ has different meanings and nuances. Despite this, physicians caring for patients with this sleep complaint must use a single definition.
