Sleeping Problems

By Henriette Sasso

One of the most common sleeping problems among people is insomnia. This problem is now a part of my life. I cannot remember the last time I slept all night long; I do not sleep more than 5 hours, including the weekend. My sleep problems started when I was in high school, when I was 14 or 15 years old.
I remember that when I started to have sleeping problems, I thought it was great. I used to watch TV or read books when I was not sleeping, but after two weeks I begun feeling very tired and cranky. Even when everything was off in my room, I could not fall asleep because my brain kept thinking. It didn't stop working, and it was awful. So I told my mother about that and she decided to take me to the doctor.
My doctor sent me to the psychologist. She said many things but the most important was that I had to take two pills per day, the first one in the morning and the other one before I went to bed. Of course, I followed the treatment for two weeks then I stopped it because of the side effects. The pills were so strong. I felt dizzy and sleepy all day, and because of this, I had to learn how to live with this problem. Maybe my insomnia is not great but it started so many years ago that now it is part of me and I still have the hope that it will go away, because sleeping few hours and coming to the university is not always the best thing. Sometimes, I feel like I cannot give the best of me because my body and mind do not rest as they should, and it makes me feel tired all day. Students normally have sleep problems. I think that it is maybe because of the stress of being in the university or because they cannot plan their time as well as they should. Anyway, I feel better knowing that I am not the only one suffering from this.