Natural Ways to Treat Insomnia

May 17th, 2009 | by admin | << Brain Basics: Helping You Understanding Sleep  Win the Battle With Insomnia >>

Everyone experiences a night of poor sleep every now and then.

But sometime you may cross the line between a couple of nights of poor sleep and insomnia. This is the line where it starts to effect your life and your health. When you cross this line it is time to find a treatment for your insomnia. How to know if you suffer from insomnia? Insomnia is when you have these 3 problems:

  1. Experience poor sleep in general. (falling asleep, staying asleep, or poor-quality sleep)
  2. Problems occurs despite having enough opportunity to sleep and a good sleep environment.
  3. The poor sleep results in problems when you are awake:
    • fatigue
    • sleepiness
    • aches and pains
    • mood disturbance
    • poor concentration
    • lack of energy or motivation
    • worry about sleep

If you believe that you are suffering from insomnia it is important to start treating it at soon as possible before it becomes sleep becomes a physiological problem. A good way to start is to look into Natural Insomnia Treatments:

Sleep routine

Develop a healthy sleep routine where you go to bed at the same time each night and get up at the same time each morning. Make sure you plan your night for a good night sleep.

Herbs

Chamomile, lavender, passionflower and valerian can help you to relax and fall asleep. They are often used as a herbal tea.

Hot Bath

Take a long, hot bath one hour or two before bed time. The method is called “passive body heating”. It alters your body temperature cycle and this can help you fall asleep.

Acupuncture

Certain meridian points on legs, arms, wrist, scalp and ears are effective in treating insomnia.

Reconditioning

Many people with insomnia get frustrated tossing and turning in bed. This frustration gets associated with the bedroom which only make the problem worse. Richard Bootzin has created a method to break this vicious circle. The method is called reconditioning but is also known as “stimulus control” and it has 6 steps:

  1. Go to bed when you’re sleepy
  2. Use the bed only for sleep and sex (no tv, books, food or worrying in bed)
  3. If you are unable to sleep in about 20 min, get up and go to another room until you are sleepy
  4. If you can’t fall asleep repeat step 3 as often as necessary
  5. Set your alarm and get up at the same time every morning, regardless of when you went to bed the night before
  6. Do not nap during the day

Sleep Restriction

The idea behind sleep restriction is to make sure that you get a full block of good undisturbed sleep. This helps you minimize the tossing and turning and the frustration that follows. Follow these 3 steps:

  1. Estimate the number of hours that you sleep
  2. Go to sleep the X amount of hours before you need to get up. No matter how tired you are do not go to bed earlier.
  3. When you have slept well for several nights you can add 30 min to your sleep. Then repeat the process.

For example: if you estimate that you get 5 hours of sleep each night and you need to get up at 7 am then go to bed at 2 am. Do not sleep less than 5 hours a night. If you get less than 5 hours sleep at night and you still have trouble falling asleep, I recommend that you contact a doctor.

Relaxation Techniques

Insomnia that is causes by stress or a worried mind can often be resolved with relaxation. Try techniques such as:

  1. Deep breathing
  2. Meditation
  3. Visualization
  4. Progressive muscle relaxation
  5. Biofeedback

On top of this there are also foods that you can eat to help you relax and fall asleep.

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