I receive feedback on a daily basis from clients who have tried one or more of my programs and found relief to their health condition where nothing has worked before. Among that group of clients are people who have suffered from insomnia.
In fact, one recent client cleverly wrote, “You’ll notice I’m sending you this email at 7:00 in the evening and not 3:00 in the morning.” For anyone who’s suffered from insomnia, these words ring true.
Put simply, insomnia is refers to difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, and waking several times per night with impaired functioning during waking hours for one month or longer. It is considered a symptom of any number of sleep, health or psychiatric disorders.
Side effects of insomnia can include feeling tired or even falling asleep during the day, feeling un-refreshed upon waking, confusion, muscle fatigue, double vision and irritability.
Causes of insomnia fall into two categories – primary and secondary. Primary insomnia is insomnia which does not have a known mental or physical cause. People who suffer from primary insomnia can usually trace the cause back to stress, physical exercise to close to bedtime or stimulants such as caffeine, or drugs, such as alcohol.
Some of these conditions include depression, (very high on the list), fibromyalgia, restless legs syndrome, menstruation and menopause (due to hormone shifts), and any injury which causes chronic pain. The causes for secondary insomnia are due to underlying medical condition.
This is similar to sleep disturbance such as sleep apnea or snoring. Most of the people know by themselves the symptoms of insomnia but they don’t know that they are not able to sleep.
Your doctor can diagnose you based on a physical exam and questions about medications you are taking (including alcohol and illegal drugs), sleep habits and medical and mental history. Sometimes he or she will refer you to a sleep specialist if diagnosis can’t be achieved.
Treatments for this insomnia often include drugs over the sleep aides. Even though all medicines causes’ side effects the treatments include medications. Mostly people who consume alcohol or people using sleeping pills make their insomnia worse because they support the sleep cycles.
Things you can do to help discourage insomnia include avoiding alcohol, avoiding or coping with stress and/or anxiety (some people find relief by keeping a journal where they can write out their issues), avoiding caffeine (or even limiting it to daytime hours), exercising at least 2 hours before bedtime, avoiding naps (power naps lasting 10-15 minutes are still OK), going to bed at the same time each day, only using your bed for sleeping and sex and massage therapy.
It is also recommended that you examine your amount of sleep. Everyone is different. For some, 5 hours is enough sleep. For others, they need up to 11 hours. Also keep in mind that our sleep requirements change as we age.
Make sure you do it naturally. In my next insomnia program the natural exercises are given perfectly for a person who needs good sleep.
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Christian Goodman is a best known health researcher and the author of many revolutionary natural health alternative methods. One of his latest breakthroughs is his natural treatment for how to cure insomnia. You can know more about Christian on his Natural Health Alternative Blog.
categories: health,natural health,insomnia,sleep disorders
