Both insomnia patients and normal sleepers define sleep quality by tiredness upon waking and throughout the day, feeling rested and restored upon waking, and the number of awakenings they experienced in the night.

Everyone has an occasional night of bad sleep. For most people, insomnia lasts only a few days and goes away without treatment. However, factors such as stress can cause a higher level of insomnia that may last for several weeks. This kind of insomnia may not go away on its own, and can lead to both short- and long-term health problems if left untreated.

A research abstract that will be presented Monday at SLEEP 2007, the 21st Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS) finds that the health care costs of patients with insomnia are higher than for those without insomnia.