JOHN YANG: The American Academy of Sleep Medicine says that about 12 percent of Americans suffer from chronic insomnia, the difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep.

It's more than just annoyance.

The resulting daytime fatigue, depression and low motivation can lead to accidents, lost productivity and other consequences.

The August edition of The Atlantic has a writer's personal account of her struggle with insomnia and her search for a remedy.

The article is by Atlantic staff writer Jennifer Senior.

Jennifer, help us understand what someone goes through with insomnia.

What is it like to not be able to fall asleep?

And then the next day, how do you feel?

JENNIFER SENIOR, Staff Writer, The Atlantic: It's lonely, actually, not being able to fall asleep.

And first it's perplexing and then it's anxious making, and then it's just, it makes you really worn out and depressed the next day and, you know, dysregulated and irritable.

And over time, of course, the accumulated fatigue just runs you down and makes you vulnerable to being sick and, you know, all sorts of things.

JOHN YANG: You say it makes you depressed.

For a long time, people thought that depression led to insomnia, but that's not the case, is it?

JENNIFER SENIOR: Insomnia can certainly be one of the manifestations of depression.

Right.

But I think what's interesting, what increasingly people are recognizing, is that in some ways insomnia is a better predictor of depression than the other way around.

And also that depression follows insomnia more than the other way around.

It's bidirectional, as health professionals like to say.

But insomnia can make you depressed for sure.

JOHN YANG: You also write that a lot of the experts you talked to said a lot of the sleep dogma we're told needs to be challenged.

What are some of the big items there?

JENNIFER SENIOR: There's a sizable body of evidence saying that eight hours of sleep is not necessarily the magic number.

There have been many analyses duplicated over and over again that say that actually seven is the magic number.

Somewhere between 6.5 hours of sleep and 7.4 hours.

There are problems with all these kinds of analyses.

So, I don't want to say that eight hours is wrong.

But also we vary from individual to individual may vary over the course of a lifetime.

So that's the biggest thing, and I can give you others, but that's the one that really looms into view.

JOHN YANG: You write that sleep deprivation, not just insomnia, is essentially a national health emergency that's not being addressed.

Talk about that.

JENNIFER SENIOR: Well, yeah, 16.4 percent of Americans work nonstandard hours, which is to say generally graveyard shifts.

There is a substantial portion of Americans who also work second jobs.

There are single mothers, there are single fathers.

If you're a white collar professional, there is boundary between home and office has virtually dissolved.

And by the way, widespread electrification laid waste to our circadian rhythms over a hundred years ago.

So there's just a million things that conspire now against a proper night's rest.

JOHN YANG: And tell us about therapies and remedies you've tried.

JENNIFER SENIOR: I mean, in the beginning when this happened, I tried acupuncture, acupressure, listening to all kinds of meditation tapes.

There were tapes in those days, I'm sad to say.

I would exercise like a demon.

I would do deep breathing exercises.

I did neurofeedback and biofeedback and all the things.

I eventually tried chronic behavioral therapy for insomnia.

And eventually I started using medication.

But that was further down the road and its own kind of independent adventure.

JOHN YANG: Some of the practitioners you talked to said that some of their patients wait 10 years before seeking help.

What is your advice to someone who may be going through this?

JENNIFER SENIOR: Don't wait 10 years.

Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia is the gold standard.

It involves sleep compression therapy, which is very, very hard to do, but builds up a lot of sleep pressure in a person.

It involves curtailing your sleep at first.

Why people wait is sometimes because they don't know cognitive behavioral therapy exists.

And there are waiting lists for the practitioners.

There are too few practitioners who do it.

But there are very good online and also apps that do it two developed by the military and the VA. And you can look to see which one has sleep restriction therapy in it, because that's the good one.

I would also say don't be afraid of medication early under a doctor's supervision.

Taking medication can help plop your body back on a rail.

But I think CBTI chronic behavioral therapy for insomnia is really something that one ought to explore online and hopefully with a practitioner near you.

JOHN YANG: Jennifer Senior of The Atlantic, thank you very much.

JENNIFER SENIOR: Thank you for having me here.