More than a short night.
Insomnia involves recurring difficulty sleeping despite an opportunity to sleep. The effect on your days matters too.
What can the night feel like?
Getting to sleep
Lying awake when you want to sleep, even with time and conditions for rest.
Staying asleep
Waking and struggling to get back to sleep. Brief waking alone is not necessarily a problem.
Waking too early
Waking earlier than intended and being unable to return to sleep.
The next day
Tiredness, irritability, difficulty concentrating or distress about sleep can accompany the night-time problem. Feeling unrefreshed can also have other causes.
Jo sleeps badly before an important appointment, then returns to the usual pattern. Does that one night establish insomnia?
Read the explanation
One difficult night can happen without an ongoing sleep disorder. A clinician considers the pattern, opportunity for sleep, duration and daytime effects.
Opportunity is part of the story.
Someone who has only a few hours available for sleep may be sleep-deprived without having insomnia. Someone with time to sleep may still struggle to sleep. Both situations deserve attention, but the explanations and help may differ.