Trouble Falling Asleep

Insomnia is simply trouble falling asleep, staying asleep or difficulty falling back asleep if woken up. Insomnia symptoms are fatigue, waking too early, frequent waking up during the night, irritability, and difficulty concentrating; this can affect daily activities and cause problems for you in all areas of your life. Although there is no cure for insomnia, there are many insomnia treatments available.

Some insomnia causes are things like stress (job loss, death of a loved one, divorce etc), illness (either your own or someone close to you), medications (many cold tablets, hypertension and anti depressants), and a change in your normal sleep schedule (jet lag, changing from day to night shift). Depression, pain and anxiety can also contribute to insomnia.

Insomnia is fairly easy to diagnose. Speak to your doctor who will give you a physical exam, review your medical history and your sleep patterns. Sometimes you will be referred to a sleep center to see if there is a medical cause for your insomnia, such as sleep apnea. This is when you suffer from periods of holding your breath while you sleep, which wakes you up.

There really is no insomnia “cure”, but there are many things that you can do to help yourself. Keep a schedule of getting up and going to bed around the same time daily, stay away from caffeine, especially in the afternoon and evening. Avoid alcoholic drinks right before bed also. Try not to smoke or at least don’t smoke in the evening. Have a snack before bed, don’t go to bed hungry, but don’t eat too large a meal right before bed either wait at least an hour or two after a large meal before you go to bed. Warm milk has been proven to work. Exercise daily for at least 20 minutes. Try to do this in the early afternoon if possible, take a walk during lunch. Make sure your bedroom isn’t to warm or cold and only use your bedroom to sleep in, not watch TV, eat, or read. Try not to go to bed and worry about work, fights with spouses etc. Try to resolve them before bed, or at least vow to stop thinking about them until the morning.

If none of these methods works in curing your insomnia, the next step your doctor will probably advise is medication. Melatonin is a now prescription drug available in health food stores that contains the same chemical our bodies produce in the dark hours of the daily cycle. Levels in our bodies are low in the daytime and increase at night. This doesn’t work for some people and the replacement of the enzyme helps them sleep. Valerian is another herbal medication used for treating insomnia but there are no studies that show it works for chronic insomnia, but if you only get occasional bouts of insomnia (say during shift changes) it will help.

Prescriptions drugs that are helpful are some antidepressants, some antihistamines and benzodiazepine sedatives. Speak to your doctor about your options and try the non-medical treatments above even if you doctor gives you medication also. They certainly can’t hurt anything and may help you sleep.