When does insomnia emerge?

[AFWife]

I have insomnia. According to my mother I've had it my entire life. I believe her. I've gotten so used to never sleeping all night long (even with medication) that it doesn't bother me.

She said she knew it when I was a baby...that I've never STTN...

Thoughts?

[Catherine12]

I've suffered from insomnia as long as I can remember, but my mom says I slept all right as a baby. So I guess it must have started when I was older - the earliest I can be sure I had it was 7 or 8 (before that my memory is too fuzzy). My insomnia is not severe, though.

[AFWife]

I just worry about my son getting it...and I don't know if it's something I should watch out for or not

[Peony]

I have insomnia, my mother does as well, and now DD1. DD1 has never needed much sleep, the child barely slept as a baby. To be fair she does have Sensory Processing Disorder and she is unable to tell when she is tired or not, it took me years to figure that out. Her insomnia is anxiety related and started right after she turned 6. We have struggled with major sleep problems her entire life though, insomnia was just the latest issue. After our experience with her, I'm a firm believer that some of us are just born very crappy sleepers.



The insomnia is not severe right now, it was earlier in the year. We spent months where she would sleep from 9-11pm and then be up until 4-5 am only to go back to bed until 7am, night after night after night. The child really can exist off of no sleep.

[MCPM]

My daughter, now 4, has had insomnia for a *long* time. Since babyhood for sure. We haven't been able to peg it to anxiety, tiredness, diet or anything. She just wakes up and is awake for 2-3 hours, fairly peacefully - but since we co-sleep, she does keep me up a lot just from moving around.

It's a real pain and can mess up the next day's plans, but it's just something we live with.