For years,
my friends listened to me complain about
my insomnia and felt unable to help me find
a remedy for my constant state of exhaustion
and what appeared to be permanent tiredness.
After consulting with many
doctors (since no single one of them had
an idea about what to do with insomnia other
than offer me drugs), and after reading
many, many books on the subject and trying
various treatment procedures, I finally
found a course of action that allowed me
to get rid of this condition.
Then I started helping my
friends and now, it seems, that I am a 'sleeping
doctor', according to my friends who
joke about it. So having been able to help
many of my friends get rid of this condition,
I thought that I should put my main ideas
in an article and hope that it helps any
of you that are experiencing similar problems
and conditions.
If you still do not find
this article helpful and/or you want to
contact me via email or you prefer speaking
about it on the Video Chat, you can find
my contact information by doing a search
under my name in the Member's Area. Also,
as many of you do, you can find me in chat
rooms and we can discuss your conditions
in a private chat room.
Before I discuss the causes
and treatment of sleep disorder, I would
recommend that you consult your doctor or
physician about your insomnia. Sometimes
insomnia is a symptom of a serious illness
or disease and only your physician can know
for sure. Please take the time to take care
of your health and don't delay seeking help
from a medical professional. I am not a
doctor, only a person who wants to help
others if she can.
Also, I am NOT
going to write detailed theoretical analysis
and use medical terms to describe the conditions
such as hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis
and have you reach for a medical dictionary,
nor am I going to discuss the benefits/harm
of drugs like Benzodiazepines, Zolpidem,
Zaleplon, Zopiclone and Eeszopiclone or
Antihistamines, Melatonin and Atypical Antipsychotics.
I just want to write this
for a normal human being who has enough
problems at hand per day and prefers not
to add any more headaches to their daily
life. So just sit back, relax, and read
and see where you can start to make your
life better and feel happier and healthier.
Sleep is something all human
beings need. Adults need between 7-8 hours
of sleep, sports/active people need at least
8-9 hours, children need 9-10, and babies
need about 17 hours of sleep per day.
Most adults have experienced
occasional night of disturbed sleep or even
periodic sleeplessness at some point in
their lives. It is estimated that about
50% of the Americans are affected by some
form of insomnia, and a small portion of
them have chronic insomnia.
Insomnia is the inability
to fall sleep and remain sleep for a full
period of 7 or 8 hours until the body has
had a full cycle of relaxation and rejuvenation.
This relaxation cycle can only be achieved
if the body is totally unconscious and unaware
of its surroundings during sleep.
There are many different
stages of sleep and these include drowsiness,
light sleep, deep sleep and finally dreaming
stage also called rapid eye movement (REM),
in which your breathing, heart rate and
eye movements become more rapid and your
limb muscles are temporarily paralyzed (no
it's nothing bad - don't worry).
The stages of sleep occur
in recurring cycles where all the stages
go through a full cycle and then start again
on the next cycle and so forth. The first
cycle, which ends after the completion of
the first REM stage, lasts about 1 hour
and half. Each cycle after the first lasts
longer because the REM stage lasts longer
in each cycle. A person may have five cycles
of sleep during a typical night.
Now, here's what
is causing insomnia in most cases (non-illness
related):
Stress and anxiety during
the day (or in particular in the last 2
hours before going to bed)
Eating heavy meals or alcohol
consumption before going to bed
A loud snoring bed partner,
or even worse, his/her abrupt leg movements
Depression (and in many cases
patients are unaware of their depression)
Psychological problems or
trauma from a past experience
Uncomfortable surroundings,
such as uncomfortable bed, humidity, too
hot or too cold
Conditions that arise from
insomnia and then make it worse, like high
blood pressure
Illness or health problems
that cause you physical pain (check
with your medical doctor)
Worrying all the time which
causes panic attacks, or obesity and diabetes
Excessive or annoying noise
Unpleasant orders
Jet lag (for trips longer
than 8 hours)
Stressful anticipation such
as job interview, exams, presentations,
or public speaking
Withdrawal symptoms from
medication, alcohol, nicotine, or sedatives
Anxiety from relationships,
work-related problems, or family member's
death/illness
Anxiety from lack of contentment
with life's ups and downs
Lack of happiness with yourself,
your abilities, performance, and excessive
expectations
Lunesta and other
sleeping pills
I can not tell you what
medication to take or not. What I can tell
you is what my friends and I experienced.
All the sleeping pills offered for insomnia
are usually addictive, no matter what the
marketing companies for these drugs tell
you. At some point I have been on all of
them and then saw some of my friends take
them. These drugs can do major damage to
your nervous system, can make you sleep
walk, can make you sleep walk to someone
else's room in the house (if you share a
house with other people) and go sleep next
to them (which might scare them if they
are children). To say the least, you may
wake up in the morning and not remember
what you did during your sleep. Many doctor
or marketing executives of these drug companies
may get with me and call me irresponsible
for making you worry about this, but they
won't deny that what I have described can
happen - and has happend to someone but
not necessarily to everyone.
Also, I would tell you from
my own personal experience, that these drugs
can make you feel suicidal, even more depressed
than just from insomnia itself, and can
put you in a constant state of fear and
anxiety. Of course, the manufacturers of
these drugs disagree with me and indicate
on the labels of these drugs that such cases
are rare. That is not any comfort to me
when I recognize that all my friends who
have taken these drugs experienced at least
one or more of these side effects. So, you
decide what is best for you after you consult
your doctor.
Treatment that has
worked for all my friends and I
I am assuming that you have
already visited and consulted a medical
professional regarding your insomnia and
they have conducted medical tests and discovered
that your symptoms indicate your susceptibility
to insomnia is not the result of a serious
illness or health problem.
You need to develop a plan
to start sleeping on a regular basis in
order to get rejuvenating sleep. A plan
of do's and don't's if you like. Read the
treatment steps in this post at least a
few times until you feel that you can remember
all of start changing your sleeping habits.
If you have no medical conditions
prohibiting you from exercising then this
is the best place to start. Ideally, walk
for 30 minutes (not more, not less) for
2 or 3 times per day and drink a glass of
filtered water after each walk. This will
allow your body to try to reset its sleep
clock cycle (circadian rhythm) because of
changes (it detects) to your lifestyle habits.
When changes to your lifestyle is detected
by your body, it simply re-triggers an adjustment
to your body's new conditions.
Unless your doctor has instructed
you to do so, avoid eating a heavy meal
within 4 hours of going to bed. If you get
hungry, you can always have fruits (except
banana) and drink as much water as you want
(but within 20 minutes of going to bed,
otherwise you will have to get up and go
to the bathroom). Your body cannot relax
and rejuvenate if they are still working
to digest food. Give it a break. It will
thank you in the morning.
Avoid alcohol if you can.
Many people are under the impression that
alcohol will make you fall sleep. Well it
is true, it does make you fall sleep. But
it prevents your body from getting deep
sleep and going through all the stages in
each sleeping cycle. Everybody who has had
a drink within 4 hours of sleeping may have
discovered that they feel more tired the
next morning, or at least not fully rejuvenated.
Now, I admit, I love red wine. So I have
a glass (or two) of red wine about 6 or
7 o'clock in the evening and then no more
until I go to bed about 11:30 at night.
If you are taking medications
for other existing conditions, make sure
you consult your doctor to see if these
medications would cause insomnia as a side-effect.
Most drugs are like alcohol and coffee and
necotine and they cause some degree of dependency
and difficulty in falling sleep. Medications
also may affect your co-ordination when
operating machinery or driving a car.
Avoid worrying. Easier said
than done. I know, specially now with all
the economic problems we are all facing.
However, you have one life and one body.
You must take care of it. You may be very
passionate about something in your life
and feel helpless to pursue your passion
which keeps you up at night. Or you may
be worried about your future or that of
your loved ones. But we all have to get
it under control. If you are not healthy,
you are not helping. And, may be even making
it worse for others that love you and care
about you. Take care of your body and then
take care of everything else when you feel
strong and healthy, and have energy to help
others. If you want, try Yoga or talk to
your friends about your problems, or seek
medical therapy. But you must stop worrying
and stop feeling angry or sad about the
past and they things others have done or
you have done - or haven't. It's time for
a new tomorrow. Make it happen.
Consistency is key. Try to
set a consistent set of hours for your sleep.
For instance, for me it is 11:30pm-8:00am
giving myself 8 hours to sleep and about
30 minutes to fall sleep. Try to condition
your lifestyle to adhere to your set sleeping
hours. Don't stay up later than when you
shouldn't and get out of the bed at the
time that you must get up. Even if this
does not work the first few days, it will
re-trigger your body to adjust your sleep
cycle and before too long you will start
to notice change.
Finally, I can write about
this insomnia for a university dissertation
- pages after pages covering detailed causes,
description, treatment plans, the nature
of the disorders, behavioral therapy, medical
therapy, and a range of psychological causes.
But I don't think that it will help you
at this time.
Take it slow and make it
easy and manageable. Just follow the steps
mentioned above. I promise you, it is a
good start and in almost all cases it will
make you feel much better giving you the
energy and vitality to make all the different
parts of your life better, including the
root cause of your insomnia.
Spend 10% of your energy
on the problem and 90% on the solution.
If you want, let me know how it is going
for you and we'll chat more in the Member's
Area.
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(last 30 days)
