Insomnia is a symptom due to which the patients have difficulty in initiating or maintaining sleep or they have poor quality of sleep in spite of the opportunity and time to sleep. At present, treatment of insomnia mainly includes the conventional drugs like benzodiazepines (e.g. Diazepam) and some older drugs which are infrequently used now. Along with these, many other treatments are available from the complimentary or alternative medicine like herbal medicines, acupuncture and homeopathy.

Many patients prefer these alternatives to avoid the known or unknown side effects of the conventional drugs, although the available scientific data does not prove the same. Currently, the knowledge of the herbal drugs is limited as till now, these have been studied mainly in clinical trials of poor quality. Some of the herbal drugs which are available without prescription are: (more…)

Stress is one of the leading causes for poor sleep, as it can keep individuals tossing and turning for hours into the night. Any type of mental or physical stress can have that negative effect on the mind. Therefore, being able to reduce the stress is a good way to get a good night’s sleep.

Avoid Snacking or a Large Meal Before Bedtime

Large meals or any undigested food in the stomach can be stressful on the digestive system, making it more difficult to fall asleep. However, some people are unable to fall asleep if the stomach is growling. A hot chocolate, made with raw cacao, can help to satisfy the hunger, but it won’t cause that full feeling within the digestive system. (more…)

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that prolonged sleep deprivation is a serious matter. Insomnia reaches farther and wider than most people think, afflicting almost 75% of the general population at some point. By comparison, chronic insomniacs stand at a staggering 10-18% of the population. Clearly, we are a sleep-challenged society.

People with persistent sleep disturbances are more prone to accidents, have higher rates of work absenteeism, diminished job performance, decreased quality of life, defective relationships and increased health care utilization. Research has shown that insomniacs are 2.5 to 4.5 times more likely than non-insomniacs to be involved in some kind of accident. They are 8 times more likely to be involved in a work related accident. These are good reasons to take the matter of sleep deprivation seriously. (more…)

When you are pregnant, it is common to have disturbed sleeps as well as some sleepless nights.

This happens as a result of hormonal fluctuations, physical discomfort, stress and anxiety. As the days of delivery come nearer, it often happens that you find it difficult to sit in one comfortable position alone and you often have to get up at night to empty your cramped bladder. (more…)

All too often when people get stressed, their sleep gets disrupted. Some people complain that they can’t fall asleep, and/or that they wake up one or more times during the night and have trouble falling back to sleep. Another common complaint is that people wake up earlier than they have to and have to drag through their days as a result. Whatever your sleep issue is, you can begin to deal with it effectively and maybe even avoid the need for medications. Of course the first step in any plan for sleep, &/or relaxation is to Stop & Breathe, slowly and deeply.

Sleep is imperative to our overall health and well-being. Maybe you used to be able to take sleep for granted, and now with all the negative and stressful news you’re bombarded with on a daily basis, you feel too wound up to sleep. Maybe you never slept well, and the conditions that exist now just exacerbate the problem. Maybe the methods you used to fall asleep in the past no longer work as well as they once did. Whatever the case, I believe you will find something in the following list that will work for you. Additionally, you can add the possibility of neurofeedback and/or hypnotherapy if sleep continues to elude you. It does take 28 days to make a habit, so pick the steps below that resonate the most for you, and work with them consistently. If you do so, you should notice an ever increasing amount of both the quantity and quality of the sleep you get each night, as the new habits replace your old ones. (more…)

When you next go on a long bus or train or plane trip, take a look around your fellow passengers and you’d be amazed at all the positions they sleep in. From which you could predict that they’ll wake up groaning at their aching bodies from the contortions they went the night through!

Are you aware that you can still revise the way you sleep so you could really get a good night’s rest? Snoring and breathing through the mouth are usually the outcomes of a congested nose. Yoga has postures that concentrate on putting the body systems aligned and in synch, thus enabling you to find a new sleeping position from which you could get that restful slumber the whole night. (more…)

Insomnia can be devastating. If you can’t get the sleep you need, you will quickly find yourself quite literally sick and tired. There are a number of things you can do, and relaxing aromatherapy should be front and center of your line of defense against insomnia.

Why is aromatherapy so effective?

One of the many reasons is that it sneaks past your conscious defenses. No matter how much you believe it won’t work, your body won’t care what you think. That’s because aromatherapy works on the part of your brain that does not rely on conscious reasoning. And as a result, it helps you relax, and, hopefully, go to sleep. (more…)

Sleepwalking or somnambulance is a strange sleep disorder that affects up to fourteen percent of children at some time before they are teenagers. About a quarter of them will experience more than one bout of sleepwalking. For some reason, more boys than girls sleepwalk but most somnambulists grow out of the problem before they become teenagers.

Sleepwalking is in fact a brain disorder as well as a sleep disorder, but it is a brain disorder of the nervous system which usually corrects itself as the sufferer gets older. By way of explanation, normally, as people wake up, the whole body and whole brain wake up together, whereas with sleepwalkers, the mobility part of the brain and the body wakes up, but the cognitive/awareness part of the brain stays asleep, at least for a while. (more…)