Get a Good Night's Sleep: Without Resorting to Sleeping Pills

Getting a good night's sleep is one of the major contributors to our sense of well being. Chronic sleep problems make life a misery for one in five people. There are however, strategies and non-addictive remedies to help you get a good night's sleep.

Insomnia is considered a primary sleep disorder which may have either a psychological or physical cause. There are many forms of insomnia and fortunately most can be treated. Most of us will suffer from insomnia at some stage of our lives because of one or more of the following reasons:

Stress or worry with the associated waking in the middle of the night and being unable to get back to sleep.
Caffeine or alcohol (alcohol may send you off to sleep but it has a short term effect) are common causes of insomnia.
Pain, anxiety and depression.
Pregnancy and menopausal symptoms may cause insomnia in some women.
Spinal problems (especially at the top of the spine).
Food allergies.
Nutritional deficiencies.
Thyroid problems.
Being overtired (you actually need energy to sleep and to be able to relax properly).
Lack of fresh air.
Lack of physical exercise.
Chronic problems such as skin rashes, digestive disorders, asthma and catarrh.
Acute problems such as infections, toothache, earaches, coughs and colds, fever and headaches.

What you can do to help

Eat a variety of fresh foods including plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables.
Avoid sugars, chocolate, cola drinks, tea and coffee, all of which have toxins that affect the nervous system and prevent sleep.
Avoid alcohol.
Avoid eating just before bed time.
Learn some relaxation techniques to help you get through the tense hours of early waking, also use the relaxation prior to retiring to bed so that you will be ready to sleep.
Stop working at least an hour before bed and do something that will enable you to take your mind off the worry of the day.
Take some exercise, preferably early in the day, this will also assist you with stress control and will help with sleeping.
Take a warm (but not hot) bath before bed which will allow for both relaxation and a 'washing away' of the worries of the day.
If you are overtired when you go to bed take a short nap in the afternoon to help break the cycle, but don't make it too long and don't continue the practice for too long or it will start to contribute to poor sleep at night. Use the nap as a short term restorer.
If possible remove the clock from the bedroom so that the 'need' to look at the clock to see the time is removed.
Consult a health practitioner if you suffer from any chronic health problems and a complementary health practitioner will be able to treat your health problems as well as any other problems contributing to your insomnia.
Find a means of controlling any pain.

Vitamin and mineral supplements can help with insomnia

Calcium (which is contained in dairy products, dried figs, broccoli) and in supplements may encourage sleep.
Suck a zinc lozenger (15 mg) just before bedtime, until a sleep pattern is established.
Drink plenty of water to assist the body to detoxify (a toxic overload may be the cause of the insomnia). Supplements to help the liver to detoxify include vitamin B complex, digestive enzymes, selenium, zinc, magnesium, manganese, and the antioxidant vitamins. These are usually contained in a good multivitamin and mineral supplement.
Herbs such as tumeric and dandelion root may assist in cleansing the liver and therefore detoxifying the body,
Take a good vitamin B complex which aids the nervous system. Take 25 to 50 mg twice daily.
Magnesium supplement, take 200 mg per day.
The amino acid, tryptophan helps encourage healthy sleep (good food sources are avocado, turkey, bananas and peanut butter).

Stress and anxiety

Job-related stress, money worries, family and relationship problems, a life changing event such as a relationship split, bereavement or redundancy are all common reasons for lack of sleep. Anxiety affects sleep because when we are anxious our nervous system becomes excited and the brain sends messages to the adrenal glands, which in turn produces adrenaline. Adrenaline makes us more alert and awake. If you are very anxious but do eventually fall to sleep, you may wake feeling unrefreshed. This can make you think that you haven't slept at all.

Sleeping Pills: The downside

A traumatic event can play havoc with your sleep pattern and you may be prescribed sleeping pills by your doctor, in the short term, to see you through it. Sleeping pills are effective in that most people fall asleep within an hour of taking them. However, a drug induced sleep is different from normal sleep because the brain's function is depressed. This leads to a reduction of some of the usual stages of sleep. For example, Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep (it is called this because of the rapid eye movement and high level of brain activity involved) normally accounts for about a quarter of our total sleep. With a pill induced sleep, the REM period (which is when you dream) can drop to as little as a tenth of your sleeping time.

Sleeping tablets also dramatically reduce the amount of deep sleep you have. In some cases to less than an hour as compared to the six hours during normal sleep. The sudden withdrawal of sleeping pills can lead to a high proportion of REM sleep, with very vivid dreams and an increase in anxiety which can make the problem worse.

References

Bland, J. 1996, Contemporary Nutrition. J & B Associates.

Davies, S. and A. Stewart., 1997, Nutritional Medicine. Pan.

Holden, S., Hudson, K., Tilman, J. & D. Wolf, 2003, The Ultimate Guide to Health from Nature. Asrolog Publication.

Pressman, A. and S. Buff, 2000, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Vitamins and Minerals. (2nd Ed.) Alpha Books.

Soothill, R. 1996, The Choice Guide to Vitamins and Minerals. A Choice Book Publication.

Sullivan, K. 2002, Vitamins and Minerals: A Practical Approach to a Health Diet and Safe Supplementation. Harper Collins.

Trattler, R. and A. Jones, 2004 Beat Insomnia. Nature and Health. March, 31-35.