Fighting Insomnia Naturally

 

Prevent Sleeplessness Without Medication

Author: Dr. Pierre Dubois

Do you struggle to fall asleep at night?  Do you find yourself wide awake at three in the morning staring up at the ceiling and wondering if you’ll fall back to sleep at all before your alarm goes off?
If you answered “yes”, you are not alone. Research has shown that up to 50 percent of the population suffers from insomnia with up to a third having struggled with it for at least a year.
 

How Much Sleep Do You Need?

The average adult requires a little over 8 hours of sleep each day.  However, very few people are able to manage that with lives that are more hectic than ever. Jobs, children and other obligations require us to be up with the birds and to go to bed far later than we would if we were following our own biological rhythm. A disruption to our circadian rhythm, which governs our hormone production, body temperature and sleep, can lead to insomnia.
 

What Does Insomnia Do To Us?

We need adequate, restful sleep in order to perform at our best. Prolonged insomnia can cause mental fuzziness and interfere with how you perform your daily activities. It also increases your risk of depression, headaches, auto accidents, and can lead to substance abuse.

Of course, worrying about the lack of sleep you are getting rarely helps you get more sleep! Stress, anxiety, and widespread use of coffee and alcohol are some of the greatest contributors to insomnia.
 

How Do You Fight Insomnia?

Learning how to manage stress effectively is one of the best ways to increase your chances of getting a good night’s sleep, and making some changes to your lifestyle may make a difference in the number of hours of sleep you get. The following are the top 10 strategies you can use:

•    Get regular exercise before dinner, which can help put your body in a restful state by bedtime. Just be sure not to exercise too close to bedtime, as this will likely make you restless.

•    Try to get out in the late afternoon sun as often as possible to stimulate melatonin release, which will help get your circadian rhythm back on track.

•    Use stress reduction techniques such as yoga, meditation and Tai Chi, which are great ways to help teach your mind and body to relax.

•    Caffeine and smoking keep the body stimulated. Try to avoid them from mid-afternoon on, and keep your consumption of alcohol to a minimum.

•    Eat a small snack of protein with a complex carbohydrate just before bed, such as peanut butter on a whole-grain cracker. It can keep your blood sugar from dipping too low and waking you up in the night.

•    Keep to the same sleeping and waking schedule every day and don’t change it by more than an hour on weekends.

•    Avoid television or computer use at least an hour before bedtime, as it stimulates the brain, making it difficult to fall asleep.

•    Keep your bedroom dark, quiet and cool.

•    If you are lying awake for more than about 20 minutes, get up and go sit in another dimly lit room until you feel sleepy.

By Denise Gaskell:
Need a little more help falling & staying asleep?

  Try Gentle Sleep Complex~
This unique Shaklee combination features passion flower, German chamomile, and valerian. Valerian has been used for over a thousand years to help maintain a calm state, promote relaxation, and foster restful sleep Swallow tables or crush and mix as a tea. .
 

These strategies have proven useful for many people in getting them back to a regular sleeping rhythm. Give them a try — they may help you too!


To your health~Denise Gaskell
Gaskell Healthy Solutions
gaskellwellness@comcast.net
www.gaskell.myshaklee.com

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Who's Boss, You or Your Cravings?

 It’s March! And even though “Heart Health Month” is considered February, I am hopeful that we are all working toward a healthy heart every day-of-every month.

Today’s entry shares the final Heart Health tips in this 4 part series.  I have received a lot of feedback about the information shared.  I hope you too have found the information useful. 

To review, we have discussed many factors in improving your Heart Health including Getting Active, Controlling Cholesterol, Eating Better/Healthier, Managing Blood Pressure and Losing Weight.   How are you doing implementing the above health habits?  Have you tried any new recipes?  Added in a new fitness routine?  We all know that getting healthy is a work in progress and doesn’t happen over night, however making daily choices to do at least one thing different could mean the difference in health and disease.  This week’s email we will discuss:

Reducing Blood Sugar, Smoking, and Proactive Solutions.

Before we begin, let’s take a look at 5 more Heart Facts:

ü      In under a minute, your heart can pump blood to every cell in your body

ü      Physical inactivity doubles the risk of heart disease

ü      Smoking is a major cause of heart attack.  About 20% of all deaths in U.S directly related to smoking

ü      Some types of heart disease, closely linked to diet and lifestyle choices, are preventable

ü      People with diabetes at age 50 or older were shown to have double the risk of developing cardiovascular disease than nondiabetics

Reduce Blood Sugar:

One word: Diabetes.  Type 2 Diabetes is reaching epidemic proportions in the US and most medical professionals believe the onset is from our highly processed, overly sweetened diets.  Diabetes or The Silent Killer as it is known is a major risk factor for stroke and coronary heart disease, which includes heart attack.  In fact, two out of three people with Diabetes die from heart disease or stroke.  The good news is that by controlling glucose (blood sugars) you can slow the progression of long-term complications. Often, many small changes add up to surprising improvements.  How to lesson your sugar intake:  Believe it or not, we are not born craving sweets, we learn to crave them.  And the more sugar we have, the more sugar we want.  Kicking the sugar habit may be difficult at first, but the longer you stick to a low sugar diet, the easier it is to keep sugar out.  Here are some tips to keeping sugary sweets to a very minimum, skip all white breads & crackers, significantly lower the amount of sugar you may put in your coffee, tea, drink half your body weight in ounces of water, munch on fresh vegetables, fruits, a handful of nuts. Use herbs like cinnamon, nutmeg and mint. Try a natural sweetener like Stevia.   I would also like to share that I do not believe that artificial sweetener alternatives like, NutriSweet are a better choice.  Feel free to view www.sweetpoison.com for additional info.

Stop Smoking:

Smoking is the most important preventable cause of premature death in the United States. Smokers have a higher risk of developing many chronic disorders, including atherosclerosis — the buildup of fatty substances in the arteries — which can lead to coronary heart disease, heart attack (myocardial infarction) and stroke.  Studies have also found tht people who smoke are more likely to get Type 2 Diabetes.  Not only are smokers putting themselves at risk, but their 2^nd hand and now even 3^rd hand smoke is killing innocent friends, family members, loved ones and others. Again, we are not born craving a cigarette; however smoking is mental and physical addition and is responsible for nearly 1 in 5 deaths, and about 8.6 million people suffer from smoking-related lung and heart diseases.  For anyone who has tried to quit, they know better than anyone that quitting is not easy.  Mark Twain said, "Quitting smoking is easy. I've done it a thousand times."  Most smokers know the damage of smoking and that stopping smoking represents the single most important step that smkers can take to enhance the length and quality of their lives.  Should you or someone you know want to stop smoking, visit The American Cancer Society at

How to Quit Smoking

Proactive Solutions: 

By now I am sure you realize that it really takes a variety of “tools” to keep us healthy.  Eating right, getting daily exercise, taking prevention products like vitamins, and getting a good dose of a daily laugh.  The link next to the Food Guide Pyramid will take you to the new USDA guidelines.  You may be surprised to learn how many fruits/vegetables, whole grains, calcium intake and proteins we need daily….yes daily!  

     

 Food Guide Pyramid

      

The link below for the Shaklee RX for a Healthier Life will take you to my website where you will find proof that by taking Shaklee products, you will have improved health-100% GUARANTEED!  And don't miss our SPECIAL OFFER! As a Member, you can save 15% off the retail price, plus an additional 10% when you have Rx for a Healthier Life automatically shipped to your door, every month. When you do this you'll receive a coupon valid for any Shaklee product (up to $100 SRP) for just $10, every month you are on AutoShip. Kosher version also available.

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I hope you have found all the Heart Health tips helpful and easy to implement.

(Please note these recommendations are not meant to prescribe or cure. Please see your physician if you think you may have Heart Health issues)