Help-Seeking Behavior in Insomnia: A Population Survey

Background and Objective Insomnia is a prevalent disorder both worldwide and in Iran that limits patients’ quality of life, especially if left untreated. Most patients do not seek professional medical help but use self-care strategies when facing insomnia. This study was conducted to investigate people’s behavior in seeking help for insomnia and the factors associated with it.Methods The study is a descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study using a proportional-to-size cluster sampling method in several socioeconomic regions in Tehran in 2020. Data were mainly collected using an online questionnaire and then analyzed using SPSS 24.Results The results showed that 22.2% of the participants suffered from insomnia often to always. Most of them had moderate knowledge about insomnia and low knowledge about its treatments and medications. The top choices for dealing with insomnia were exercising, taking relaxing herbal drinks, and ignoring or viewing insomnia as an insignificant condition. There was a significant association between help-seeking strategies and the presence of psychiatric disorders, use of psychiatric medications, knowledge about insomnia, health self-confidence, health literacy, and quality of communication with physicians and pharmacists.Conclusions Despite the high prevalence of insomnia, most people do not ask for professional medical help and instead adopt self-care routines and use over-the-counter medications. Or they ignore the condition entirely, regarding insomnia as an insignificant disorder. Insomnia, its causes, and possible cures remains a poorly understood medical condition. This could explain why people would consult physicians or pharmacists only after all else fails.