Research shows that 30-40% of American adults have symptoms of Insomnia within the last 12 months, and 10-15% of adults claim to have chronic Insomnia. To sum this up, millions of people worldwide battle sleep disorders, which could later cause high-risk chronic diseases, like hypertension. It also greatly affects the renal and reproductive functions.
In layman’s language, Insomnia or sleeping disorder is the inability to sleep at night. Sadly, it affects both adults and children, men and women in general.
What are the causes of insomnia?
Exposure to light: Several small studies in adults and children have shown that exposure to light from televisions, computers, tablets, and smartphones before sleep can affect natural melatonin levels and lead to increased time to sleep/insomnia.
Food intolerance and allergies: Another general cause of sleeplessness is food intolerance or allergies that make you snore and keep you awake. Eating sugary foods at bedtime and eating late dinner can keep you awake for several hours. Eating cheese close to the time of going to bed will also keep you awake.
Age factor: Getting a good night’s sleep becomes more and more difficult as we age, but women in menopause find it particularly challenging to get a good night’s sleep. The dominance of estrogen in menopausal women leads to sleeplessness and other unpleasant menopausal symptoms.
Drugs: Drugs like antidepressants, asthma medications, painkillers, heart drugs, diuretics, and thyroid medication are not the answer to insomnia. Instead, they can cause sleeping disorders. Taking sleeping pills bought over the counter or from a doctor on prescription and other anti-anxiety drugs will make you develop an unhealthy dependency on the drugs and make you feel dizzy and tired during the day. Taking sleeping pills is seldom the answer to Insomnia.
Too much alcohol: A glass of wine with dinner can be relaxing, but too much alcohol will keep you tossing and turning. You may fall asleep but wake up after a few hours and cannot sleep again.
Caffeine: Caffeine is another causative agent of sleep disorder, especially for those who can’t resist an afternoon cappuccino. Many soft drinks also have caffeine in them. These include energy drinks, and soft drinks, loaded with caffeine. Diet, pills, and supplements often contain caffeine, ephedra, amino acids, and other stimulants that can keep you awake at night.
How to Manage Your Sleeping Disorder?
Exercise often: Exercise is one of the best sleep remedies. A brisk 20-minute walk or any enjoyable activity (preferably outdoors) sometime before 9 pm is great.
Increase your Melatonin: Melatonin is a hormone secreted by the pineal gland in the brain in response to darkness. It sends a signal to the body that it’s time to sleep. But as we age, we produce less melatonin, which leads to sleeping disorders. An hour before bed, a melatonin tablet (an over-the-counter supplement) is beneficial. You don’t need much melatonin 0.25 to 3 mg is good enough. It is used extensively in the USA.
Also, you can sleep in complete darkness to enhance your production of melatonin. Get curtains that will completely block out the street and other neighborhood lights. Also, get masking tape to cover nightlights on electrical gadgets in your room, or contact the electrician to remove these lights.
Use Oxygen ventilator: Oxygen is a potent tool used to help Insomnia. A small home oxygen ventilator like CPAP allows one to sleep well and regenerate.
Use Saw Palmetto supplement: Older people with benign prostate hypertrophy or BPH who get up often during the night can get relief with a saw Palmetto supplement combined with zinc and selenium (follow directions on the container). Magnesium capsules of 500mg can support it after dinner.
Body Cleansing and regeneration: The body accumulates a lot of toxins from our poor eating habits and food that are incompatible, such as lactose (90% of Africans are lactose intolerant); or a diet containing heavy metals like large fish and stock fish, and from toxins in the environment. These toxins cause nasal and sinus congestion, leading to difficulty in breathing while sleeping and causing a hindrance to a good night’s sleep. They will also overload the liver, making it very stressed during its detoxification process, resulting in sleep disturbance around 2 am. But when you spend a week in a medical detox spa like the Mart Life Detox clinic, it will help get rid of the toxins in your body. It will also regenerate your body system and allow you to sleep like a baby.
