Natural Insomnia Cures - A Look at the Darker Side of Insomnia
We've all experienced it.
Lying awake in the dark trying to block out the chimes of the church clock, shifting position in the hope of dropping off to sleep, the shattering clatter of the alarm tearing into our dreams after too little sleep.
We all suffer the odd bout of insomnia, perhaps the night before a job interview or a big date or starting a new job or school.
But for the ten per cent of the population who suffers from chronic insomnia, it's a nightly misery.
And while we can bounce back from the odd sleepless night, chronic insomniacs face a whole slew of unpleasant effects from their insomnia.
Here's an overview of these effects and a look at some natural cures for insomnia.
The first type we'll look at is the mental effect.
This results from a fatigued brain and lowers your ability to learn, remember, and concentrate.
This can result an increased risk for traffic or work-related accidents as sufferers from sleep deprivation have slower than normal reactions.
Chronic insomnia also affects mood which results in depression and other emotional problems.
Over time, these mental effects such as emotional instability can themselves cause social problems for the chronic insomniac.
These can include difficulty in keeping a job, marital tensions and other relationship problems.
Another potential hazard is an an increase in consumption of addictive substances such as tobacco and alcohol.
Finally there are the physical side effects of chronic insomnia.
The chronic insomniac is often plagued with an feeling of malaise.
A host of digestive problems can arise too.
And perhaps worst of all, chronic insomnia can weaken your immune system rendering you more vulnerable to a range of illnesses.
For a long time, mainstream treatments for insomnia have centered on medication.
Although these medications can be helpful in the short-term, such drugs have their own side effects.
And they affect sleep brainwave patterns and rhythms as well.
This can never lead to refreshing sleep.
What's worse, stopping the medication can result in rebound insomnia, a condition in which insomnia returns worse than it was before if the medication is stopped.
In any event, these methods just treat the symptoms not the underlying problem.
More promising are natural methods such as relaxation systems.
These can range from sound machines that transform your bedroom into an Amazonian jungle, to CDs and MP3 sound files that contain music or ambient sounds, sometimes with a guided meditation or hypnosis.
Most effective here are the ones which use audio frequencies to slow your brainwaves down to the frequency of sleep, a procedure known as brainwave entrainment.
Remember that certain medical conditions, including menopause, depression, allergies, and arthritis can affect sleep quality.
In addition, certain common medications can make the problem worse.
So before trying any natural cures for insomnia, check with your doctor to make sure you don't have a condition that causes your insomnia.
Treating this might be all you need.
Lying awake in the dark trying to block out the chimes of the church clock, shifting position in the hope of dropping off to sleep, the shattering clatter of the alarm tearing into our dreams after too little sleep.
We all suffer the odd bout of insomnia, perhaps the night before a job interview or a big date or starting a new job or school.
But for the ten per cent of the population who suffers from chronic insomnia, it's a nightly misery.
And while we can bounce back from the odd sleepless night, chronic insomniacs face a whole slew of unpleasant effects from their insomnia.
Here's an overview of these effects and a look at some natural cures for insomnia.
The first type we'll look at is the mental effect.
This results from a fatigued brain and lowers your ability to learn, remember, and concentrate.
This can result an increased risk for traffic or work-related accidents as sufferers from sleep deprivation have slower than normal reactions.
Chronic insomnia also affects mood which results in depression and other emotional problems.
Over time, these mental effects such as emotional instability can themselves cause social problems for the chronic insomniac.
These can include difficulty in keeping a job, marital tensions and other relationship problems.
Another potential hazard is an an increase in consumption of addictive substances such as tobacco and alcohol.
Finally there are the physical side effects of chronic insomnia.
The chronic insomniac is often plagued with an feeling of malaise.
A host of digestive problems can arise too.
And perhaps worst of all, chronic insomnia can weaken your immune system rendering you more vulnerable to a range of illnesses.
For a long time, mainstream treatments for insomnia have centered on medication.
Although these medications can be helpful in the short-term, such drugs have their own side effects.
And they affect sleep brainwave patterns and rhythms as well.
This can never lead to refreshing sleep.
What's worse, stopping the medication can result in rebound insomnia, a condition in which insomnia returns worse than it was before if the medication is stopped.
In any event, these methods just treat the symptoms not the underlying problem.
More promising are natural methods such as relaxation systems.
These can range from sound machines that transform your bedroom into an Amazonian jungle, to CDs and MP3 sound files that contain music or ambient sounds, sometimes with a guided meditation or hypnosis.
Most effective here are the ones which use audio frequencies to slow your brainwaves down to the frequency of sleep, a procedure known as brainwave entrainment.
Remember that certain medical conditions, including menopause, depression, allergies, and arthritis can affect sleep quality.
In addition, certain common medications can make the problem worse.
So before trying any natural cures for insomnia, check with your doctor to make sure you don't have a condition that causes your insomnia.
Treating this might be all you need.
