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. .
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.
