Most people suffer from lack of sleep sometime throughout their lives. For most this means one or two nights of restlessness, where they just cannot drop off to sleep.
There are a large number of people, however, who suffer from insomnia for long periods of time. There are a number of identifiable causes for insomnia, including depression, pain disorders and anxiety.
Severe depression is perhaps the most common cause of long term insomnia. For the medical treatment of severe depression there are a number of anti-depressants available which can be prescribed by your GP.
Many of these medications, however, can exacerbate problems with sleep patterns, as they contain stimulants which could further prevent sleep if taken at the wrong time of the day.
The best anti-depressants to aid sleep are those that contain sedatives, such as amitriptyline, doxepin and trazodone. Turning to anti-depressants should, however, only be considered in the most extreme cases. This is due to the fact that as with any medication they can be addictive and difficult to come off.
Many anti-depressants have quite severe side affects and withdrawal effects, which in turn could induce insomnia further, thus making the problem worse.