is insomnia hereditary?

I am starting to wonder if my late night bouts of insomnia are hereditary, as my daughter has been waking in the middle of the night quite frequently. In most cases she comes into our bedroom (or into my office, where I am still up and working late), and she just stands there. We ask her what is up, but she doesn't quite know how to answer. I know that she's been sleeping, as she is acting totally "out of it" and she can't seem to carry a conversation. We're not quite sure what to do about it.

Her suggested solution is obvious - she wants to either stay up with me or sleep in our bed. But I'm getting tired of it. She quit taking naps almost a year ago, and we thought that would help with bedtime. It does seem to help her go to bed initially, but she still wakes up in the middle of the night and complains that she cannot get back to sleep.

Although I get very angry with her sometimes, I can't help but pity her because I know what it means to suffer from frequent insomnia and I hate to think that she is going to grow up with the same sleeping problems that I had as a child. So is insomnia hereditary? And if so, what can I do to help her?

When I was a kid, my parents didn't try much to keep me asleep. I had no problems staying up late and playing in my own room, though. I'm sure that if we were to take my daughter to a doctor, they'd suggest putting her on some sort of prescription sleep aid, which is utterly ridiculous. I'm not going to fall trap to the medicated society that we live in. We've tried most of the things that I have tried to help with my own sleeplessness over the years. From the warm milk that my mother used to give me as a kid, the benedryl that a doctor once suggested we giver her before bed, to the extensive "getting ready of bed" routine, we've tried a number of ideas. Our latest solution is to allow her to have the dog in her room at night, as sometimes she complains that she is scared and that is why she cannot sleep. The dog makes her feel less alone and she seems to sleep better, but it is not 100% better.

I wish there was an easy solution for me. I've tried to get myself onto a regular schedule, particularly so that my wife and I aren't sleeping at such different times, or so that neither of us is tried all of the time. I've seen those commercials on television about night-time prescription sleeping aids, but I don't want that for myself anymore than I wanted it for my kids. Even at the increased cost of bags under my eyes. There are, of course, more expensive options, like fancy adjustable beds and those little audio systems that play the sounds of the ocean or rainfall. I don't want to be dependent on that type of stuff either. What happens when you have to travel somewhere? You can't take that "sleep number" bed with you.

Sometimes I think that I am just destined to be a night-owl. Either that, or I am living on the wrong side of the globe.