Sleep deprivation in America has become a bigger problem than most will admit. It is estimated that between fifty and eighty million people are suffering from sleep deprivation at this moment and that most people will experience sleep deprivation sometime in their lives. Of course there are many reasons and at varying levels that people will be affected. But do you know the difference between sleep deprivation and a sleep disorder? One is a result of and the other is the reason for.

In other words you could have insomnia, which is a sleep disorder, and suffer sleep deprivation, which is the result. The reason I make this distinction is because too many people believe that they are suffering from a sleep disorder when they start missing sleep but when you carefully diagnose the problem, it might not be a disorder.

A simple example is: a dog is barking outside your window at night keeping you awake. After a few nights of this, you are experiencing sleep deprivation. Stop the dog from barking and you solve your problem. Unlike a sleep disorder, which could result from a psychological or physical issue in your life, sleep deprivation is the result.

Unfortunately a major problem today is too many people go undiagnosed and will not get the necessary treatment for their problem. So it is important to recognize what is causing you to have sleep deprivation in order to seek the correct treatment. Sleep deprivation can turn into a disorder, like insomnia, if you don't get help. It can start as a mild case where you lose sleep for a few nights to a severe case where you are losing sleep for weeks or even months. So it is imperative that you examine what's going on in your life to seek the cause.

Are you going through a stressful time and are doing a lot of worrying? Most people who are experiencing a stressful time in their life lose sleep because they lie awake all night thinking of their problems and their minds become their worst enemy.

Could it be something deeper that you can't easily recognize? You should always seek a doctor's help for both identifying your issue and remedies to take care of it. Sometimes it's as easy as taking some sleep medication for a short period of time to get you back into a natural sleep cycle. The main point is to identify the underlying cause and then seek alternatives that can help.