Did you know that insomnia is much more common with females than males? The causes of insomnia in women are greater than that in a man mainly because of hormones.

It is estimated that just about every single woman will experience a major bout of insomnia at least once during her lifetime because of this.

The most likely time a woman will experience a problem with insomnia is

• right around and just before menopause.
• One of the other causes of insomnia in women is their menstrual cycle once again hormones being the main culprit.

You must keep in mind however that despite the hormonal issues adding to the causes of insomnia in women a woman would probably will not experience insomnia unless the psychological causes are in place as well just as they are in men.  Which basically means the method of treating insomnia in women will not be that much different than in men.

Not taking into consideration the hormonal causes the main causes of insomnia in both men and women are:

• a combination of stress
• too much alcohol
• to much caffeine or other food or beverages with stimulants or caffeine such as chocolate or Coca-Cola especially if any of these products are consumed within a few hours of bedtime.

There is a giant misconception, thanks to the desire for profits with pharmaceutical companies, that sleeping pills over-the-counter or prescription are the best solution to insomnia when in fact sleep medications are the worst possible thing you can do for insomnia unless you're insomnia is very infrequent and rare.

The fact of the matter is that medications for insomnia generally make insomnia worse because they create an addiction if not physically then the idea that the man or woman needs that sleeping pill to get a good nights sleep.

Another huge misconception about insomnia is that alcohol is a great way to treat it. The reason for this myth is that alcohol causes drowsiness and does tend to make people fall asleep fast however the consumption of alcohol will:

• cause the person to wake up much sooner than normal and
• the little bit of sleep they do get will be at extremely low quality and low value sleep thereby exasperating the condition of insomnia in both men and women.

One of the best ways to nail down the cause of your insomnia whether you are a man or a woman is to keep a diary every morning when you wake up jot down in your diary or journal how your night of sleep went.  Then rate your sleep on a scale of 1 to 10 both in terms of quantity and quality perhaps even making a note of how much dreaming you did that night as well.  After a period of time of keeping such a journal you may be able to notice a consistent pattern or trend that will nail down your specific cause for insomnia.

The bottom line, hormonal issues aside, the causes of insomnia in women are pretty much the same as the causes of insomnia in men and the methods for treating insomnia in both men and women are the same.