Insomnia is defined by persistence for months, interference with life, and causing distress, not merely a few nights of poor sleep.

“And insomnia is really difficulty falling asleep, difficulty staying asleep, or difficulty with waking up too early in the morning and not being able to get out of bed. For this to be happening at least three nights or so a week, for it to have bee going on for at least three months, and for it to be distressing. That's key, it has to be distressing.”

“So an insomnia disorder is defined as a persistent difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep or waking up too early. So it can happen anywhere in the night. The difficulty has to be there. Um, it has to occur at least three nights per week. It has to have gone on for at least 3 months to be considered uh a chronic insomnia. It has to cause some sort of daytime functioning problem. Could be almost anything, but it's got to cause problems. You have to give yourself adequate opportunity to sleep.”

“And when you think about what that means in terms of difficulty falling asleep, there's no hard and fast rule, but a good rule of thumb we use is about 30 minutes. So, if it's taking you at least 30 minutes to fall asleep or you're or you're awake for at least 30 minutes during the night trying to sleep and you can't, that's a good sign that maybe what you have is an insomnia disorder”