Insomnia is defined as difficulty in getting to sleep or experiencing disturbed sleep patterns that result in the perception of insufficient sleep.
What causes insomnia?
Insomnia is a state of insufficient sleep, and difficulty falling asleep during a rest period of more than 30 minutes. These problems can occur for several reasons, for example:
- Caused by illness, having health problems both physically and mentally.
- Caused by stress and anxiety from any matter.
- There may be side effects from the medication.
- Excessive consumption of caffeinated beverages, nicotine, or alcohol.
- Travel exhaustion.
- Have mental health problems, such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder.
- Other sleep disorders, such as severe snoring until having sleep apnea.
Insomnia from these causes, when these problems or causes are gone. Insomnia often goes away on its own. Except for insomnia for more than 1 month, it is a chronic condition that should be seen by a doctor for diagnosis and treatment.
The dangers of insomnia affecting health
Insomnia, besides making me sleepy all the time or napping while working, resulting in a lack of quality and efficiency already affects my responsibilities. Complications caused by insomnia also harm health in many ways.
- Risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease.
- Cardiovascular complications may occur.
- The heart beats faster due to increased activity of the sympathetic nervous system and decreased function of the parasympathetic nervous system
- It is a factor causing depression and anxiety.
- Affects the cardiovascular system.
- Obesity, lack of sleep cause the growth system to fluctuate, slowing fullness and having an increased appetite for fatty foods.
A condition in which the body accumulates too much or too much fat than normal for the body to burn. Therefore, the remaining energy is stored in the form of fat in various organs. Which is at risk of causing health problems and is the cause of various chronic diseases.
- Diabetes, sleeping less than 6 hours per day results in higher blood sugar and insulin levels.
For those suffering from insomnia, alternative medicines or treatments or using alternative medical ways and natural healing will be of great help in overcoming it. Such treatment must be taken care of by someone well-versed in that area or from a qualified medical school. You will be treated with all sorts of treatments which include dieting, exercising, mental tuning, and changing lifestyles to better ones.
Some of the alternative treatments that may be useful are: –
- Relaxation techniques – This treatment will let you fall asleep earlier and lengthen your sleeping time. Visualizing or imagining a relaxing scene will assist you in sleeping early and these are among many ideas that can help you in your relaxing treatment.
- Meditation – This is where you play much on your mind and it needs some focus on the present situation. Yoga is one of the meditations which was found to be of great relaxation. It is a mix of deep breathing, stretching, and meditation.
- Acupuncture – This treatment is normally done by Chinese medical practitioners in treating insomnia traditional way and is gaining popularity in the western world.
- Dieting – Adjust your diet and it could make a lot of difference. Cut out your caffeine which always makes you wake up all night long. Not drinking tea or soft drink at night is beneficial in recovering from insomnia. Avoid foods with high sugar content at night. This type of food can cause an imbalance in blood sugar levels. You will sweat in the middle of the night if all of a sudden, your blood sugar level falls.
- Exercise – It has already been proven that exercise helps adult deepen their sleep. Therefore, plan your exercise timetable as if you follow it regularly you will get better sleep at night.
Herbs like passionflower, hops, chamomile, ginseng, lemon balm, and skullcap were reported to be the best alternative antidote that was reported to have been effective in treating insomnia.
Why not take a deep bath with warm water and pour some aromatherapy oils into the bathtub. You can feel that your body will relax and your mind will be less stressed and thus you could have a sufficient rest throughout the night. Taking some milk sometimes can let you fall asleep but different people have a different