Hi there it's Matt here and welcome back to the podcast and welcome back to this

mini series all about insomnia now so far we've spoken about what insomnia is, how common it is, the different types or sort of the different flavours of insomnia. And then we spoke about that three-part

stepping stone model of what we think can lead to a bout of insomnia and those three stepping stones were the following

predisposing factors such as having a set of genetics that makes you vulnerable

to insomnia and then experiencing an instigating factor that

starts the insomnia, and this is what we call a precipitating factor, such as a bereavement or a divorce. And then finally we spoke about

things that will only make that insomnia worse and prevent you from getting rid of

it which is what we call perpetuating factors.

And these would be, for example, drinking too much coffee during the day to try to compensate

for your lack of sleep at night or using alcohol

in the evening to sedate yourself because of the very understandable fear of

not being able to fall asleep that following night.

However, nothing we've discussed so far describes the changes in the body and the brain that may underlie insomnia.

And the goal of today's podcast and in fact also the next episode in this series

is to tell you all about the major discoveries that have provided

answers to that question. By the way, why should we even care about getting answers to that question?

Well, it's only with these answers that we can ever truly unlock and develop new medical

treatments for insomnia, and that's why it's so critical to research and understand. Now before I go any

further I want to pause because I want to be especially compassionate and sensitive here.

If you are suffering from insomnia and find the discussion of clinical aspects of insomnia to be a trigger or even

cause you more worry then please stop listening. I don't want to make you even more worried and it's for

that same reason that I've actually decided to set aside discussion of the

...