insomniac

An insomniac is someone who experiences insomnia—the inability to fall asleep or stay asleep for an adequate amount of time.

Insomnia is often used casually to refer to occasional sleeplessness or a single instance of it. But in medical terms, insomnia typically refers to a condition involving a chronic inability to fall or stay asleep, meaning the inability is persistent and prolonged—it happens all the time. People are more likely to be called (or call themselves) insomniacs when the condition is chronic.

Less commonly, insomniac can be used as an adjective that can mean having insomnia, related to insomnia, or causing insomnia.

Example: I was an insomniac for years before finding the right medication and sleep regimen.

The first records of insomniac come from the early 1900s. The word insomnia is recorded much earlier, in the 1600s, and comes from the Latin insom(nis), meaning “without sleep.” This is formed from the prefix in-, in this case meaning “not,” the root somn(us), meaning “sleep,” and the ending –ia, which is used in the names of diseases.

Insomnia is the most common sleep disorder—around a third of adults may be considered insomniacs at some point in their lives. Insomnia can be acute (lasting one night to a few weeks) or chronic (three or more nights a week for three months or more). Some cases of insomnia are labeled as primary, meaning they’re not caused by another medical condition. Those that are caused by another medical condition are called secondary. Primary insomnia is very often caused by things like stress, changes in sleep schedule, or an environment that’s not good for sleeping (like a room that’s too loud or bright). For instance, the worry and stress that can come with a major life change can cause acute primary insomnia. Secondary insomnia can be caused by things like anxiety, depression, asthma, and sleep apnea (a condition in which a person repeatedly stops breathing and starts again during sleep).

Clinically speaking, insomnia usually refers to sleeplessness so bad that it regularly disrupts a person’s daily life with problems like fatigue and inability to concentrate. When people have minor difficulties in falling asleep during a single night, they may say that they’re experiencing insomnia, but it’s unlikely that they would refer to themselves as insomniacs.

In general, a sleep dysfunction like insomnia is called a parasomnia, and the names of many of these disorders are based on the same root word, including somnambulism (sleepwalking) and hypersomnia (excessive sleeping). A person who experiences hypersomnia can be called a hypersomniac.

What are some other forms related to insomniac?

• insomnia (noun)
• anti-insomniac (adjective, noun)

What are some words that share a root or word element with insomniac? 

• hypersomniac
• parasomnia
• somnambulism
• somnolent 

What are some words that often get used in discussing insomniac?

• sleeplessness
• wakefulness
• insomnolence
• sleep
• asleep
• awake
• chronic
• symptom
• night
• anxiety
• depression
• cause

Insomniac is typically used to refer to someone who has been medically diagnosed with chronic sleeplessness.

There's a massive difference in having trouble sleeping and being diagnosed as an insomniac

— Chris Tweten (@ctwtn) March 23, 2017

Been an insomniac since Day 1, but I've never felt so much animosity toward the “I’m sleeping great!” constituency as I do now.

— Jess McHugh (@MchughJess) April 8, 2020

Our kid is an insomniac. Moms, what's your best sleep trick?

— Sean Lowe (@SeanLowe09) November 28, 2016

Is insomniac used correctly in the following sentence? 

I’m a chronic insomniac, so sleep never comes easily to me.