Do you struggle to get to sleep no matter how tired you are? Or do you wake up in the middle of the night and lie awake for hours, anxiously watching the clock? That condition is called Insomnia!
Insomnia is the inability to fall asleep or stay asleep at night, resulting in unrefreshing or non-restorative sleep. Anyone who’s laid awake at night knows how frustrating and upsetting it can be to spend hours in bed willing sleep to come—and knowing just how bad you’re going to feel in the morning if it doesn’t.
Insomnia can adversely impact all aspects of your health and well-being, leaving you feeling fatigued, drowsy, and low on energy during the day, affecting your mood and concentration levels, and damaging your productivity at work or school. Insomnia can also pressure you into relying on sleeping pills, sleep aids, or alcohol to help you sleep—which in the long-run only makes your sleep problems worse. Chronic insomnia can even take a serious toll on your physical and mental health, increasing your risk of health problems such as stroke, diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, and certain cancers.
No matter how long you’ve been suffering from insomnia or how frequently you struggle to sleep, don’t despair. While it can take time to correct the habits that contribute to your sleep problems, there are plenty of things you can do to
help overcome insomniaand enjoy a full and restful night’s sleep.
Insomnia could be a temporary problem stemming from changes in your normal routine due to illness, travel, grief, hormone fluctuations, or stress. Most of us experience this type of insomnia at some point in our lives and while it usually resolves itself when your routine returns to normal,
addressing the problem early can ensure your insomnia doesn’t persist.
However, long-term or chronic insomnia could occur when you regularly experience trouble sleeping (three or more nights a week) over an extended period of time (three months or more). Since chronic insomnia has been ingrained over months, changing the unhealthy habits or thought patterns that fuel your insomnia can sometimes take time, perseverance, and a willingness to experiment with different solutions.
While there could be several reasons for Insomnia (psychological and medical), the most common causes of sleep onset insomnia is anxiety or chronic worry. You get into bed at night but can’t fall asleep because your mind is racing with anxious thoughts about what you didn’t get done today, about what tomorrow might hold, or simply feeling overwhelmed by daily responsibilities.
You’ve got to take things easy. Settle this in your mind today….there have been issues, problems, tasks and responsibilities…..long before we got to this world ….and this will continue long after we have gone!
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Get help with stress management. If the stress of managing work, family, or school is keeping you awake at night, learning how to handle stress in a productive way and to maintain a calm, positive outlook can help you sleep better at night.
Talk over your worries with a friend or loved one during the day. Talking face to face with someone who cares about you is one of the best ways to relieve stress and put an end to bedtime worrying. The person you talk to doesn’t need to be able to fix your problems, but just needs to be an attentive, non-judgmental listener.
Get enough exercise. Regular exercise not only relieves stress but improves the symptoms of insomnia, increases the amount of time you spend in the deep, restorative stages of sleep, and helps you to feel less sleepy during the day. To maximize sleep benefits, try to exercise vigorously for 30 minutes on most days—but not too close to bedtime.
Watch what you eat and drink. Caffeine can cause sleep problems 10 to 12 hours after drinking it, and your diet can also play a role in how well you sleep. Some people find that cutting back on sugary food and drinks and refined carbohydrates during the day makes it easier to sleep at night.
Don’t try to force yourself to sleep. Tossing and turning only increase the anxiety. Get up, leave the bedroom, and do something relaxing, such as reading,
drinking a cup of herbal tea, or taking a bath. When you’re sleepy, go back to bed.
OBESITY AND INSOMNIA
It has been established that the less sleep we have, the higher the tendency to become overweight. This is just so logical because when we stay up late due to the inability to sleep well, snacking is inevitable in a lot of cases and hence the unnecessary accumulation of weight most especially around the belly.
Looking for a perfect remedy for Insomnia especially one that calms your body, nerves and also relaxes your brain thereby helping you sleep better?
Think no further.
