Insomnia is not like other illnesses that are known to have a defined cure, with insomnia instead of treating the insomnia you have to get to the cause of the illness itself. There are many contributing factors which may lead to an inability to fall asleep or stay asleep and when looking at insomnia treatments you need to focus on these and not on the lack of sleep the person is having.

Since a lack of sleep affects many areas of our lives it is important to have the right insomnia treatment to eliminate this. At present there are 2 types of insomnia, transient and acute so finding the treatment that goes with these would be helpful for the person suffering insomnia.
There are many causes of insomnia and some of those have been labeled under physical, emotional, mental and medical and by identifying the cause we can then look at the various treatments that may be beneficial to the person who's having sleep issues.

The lesser of the two is transient insomnia which has been defined as an inability to sleep for short periods of time, normally a day or two. It is usually bought on by stress, anxiety and even physical pain. For those suffering transient insomnia, treatment may include eliminating stress with various stress management techniques and using pain management.
For many people it may be necessary to get prepared for bed so they can clear their minds before settling down unlike most folks who lie down and fall fast asleep.

Temporary Relief through Medical Intervention

For folks suffering a temporary inability to sleep or stay asleep it may be beneficial to use sleeping aids in the form of medication. If a lack of sleep is affecting your daily life then it may be useful to use sleeping pills on a short term basis till the sleep pattern resumes to normal. However long term use is not recommended by medical practitioners as it may lead to dependency issues or have other side effects. If the insomnia persists it may be necessary to treat the symptom rather than on the persons inability to sleep.

There have been a few reported cases of a hereditary sleeping problem known as fatal familial insomnia which is the result of a lack of the gene that regulates sleep patterns. It is vey rare and almost always proves fatal within two or three years from the initial onset and till now there have been no known treatments for this illness.

Many forms of sleeplessness or insomnia can be treated by other methods. These are lower caffeine intake especially before bed, exercise during the day, no short naps, lowering or cutting out stimulates like chocolate, alcohol and high sugar may be beneficial. Other helpful methods are aromatherapy, naturopathic remedies, playing relaxing music while going to sleep and whilst sleeping as well as meditation before bed can all help.