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The Practitioner’s Guide to Psychoactive Drugs pp 219–240Cite as

Insomnia

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Abstract

Insomnia may be defined as difficulty falling or staying asleep, associated with compromised daytime functioning, that persists for more than 4 weeks. Most patients with insomnia have prolonged (e. g., greater than 30 min) sleep latency (time in bed to time asleep). They often have sleep that is shallow or fragmented by multiple arousals. However, no single disturbance of sleep physiology is found in all insomniacs. Some patients who complain of insomnia appear normal on objective measurements of sleep. Even patients whose complaints are matched by abnormal sleep physiology may have variations in objective sleep measures.1

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Neuropsychiatry Section, Psychopharmacology Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, 02114, USA

    Jeffrey B. Weilburg M.D.

  2. Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, 02115, USA

    Jeffrey B. Weilburg M.D.

  3. Department of Psychiatry, University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, Tucson, Arizona, 85724, USA

    Alan J. Gelenberg M.D.

Authors
  1. Jeffrey B. Weilburg M.D.
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  2. Alan J. Gelenberg M.D.
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, Tucson, Arizona, USA

    Alan J. Gelenberg M.D.

  2. The Better Homes Foundation, Newton Centre, Massachusetts, USA

    Ellen L. Bassuk M.D.

  3. Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Ellen L. Bassuk M.D.

  4. Schoonover Associates, Newton Centre, Massachusetts, USA

    Stephen C. Schoonover M.D.

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© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Weilburg, J.B., Gelenberg, A.J. (1991). Insomnia. In: Gelenberg, A.J., Bassuk, E.L., Schoonover, S.C. (eds) The Practitioner’s Guide to Psychoactive Drugs. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-1137-0_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-1137-0_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-1139-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-1137-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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