May
17
If a quiet sleep seems like avoiding you, well you may cheer up knowing you are not the only one. Almost 30% of world population has sleeping problems. The first step on curing insomnia is worrying about it, and the solution with counting sheep-you can forget about it! Sleeping pills can be helpful, but for short term and in addition, they develop side effects. They also are not useful for the causes, but for the symptoms of insomnia. Contrary to another common misconception, insomnia is not necessarily defined as a reduction in the amount of sleep, but rather is related to sleep quality. In fact, no matter how long is the period you spend sleeping, or how much you wake up in a night, you can have enough sleep. There are several natural ways to help alleviate insomnia.
For more than 1000 years medicinal plants have been used to cure insomnia. Valerian ( Valeriana officinalis): in England, during the World War II, Valerian was prescribed for helping people with sleeping problems. Considering its efficiency effect, valerian was compared with diazepam. But unlike the other barbiturates, valerian does not cause drowsiness in the morning and it is not addictive.
Passiflora ( Passiflora incarnata ): In 1867 was introduced as a sedative medication. The calming properties of this plant were not transmitted to the other plants of its class. The tranquilizing effect is given by the content of alkaloid, which fights depression and release a good feeling.
Also a good alimentation, a healthy lifestyle which includes physical activity, maybe a diet if you have additional weight, helps you with stress management which represents a major cause of insomnia.
Another useful advice to cure insomnia is positive thinking. Dr. Gregg D. Jacobs, professor of psychiatry at Harvard University, says that the cognitive restructuring, whose goal is to identify and replace negative thoughts with positive ones, is very important on “telling good night” to insomnia. For example, while you are lying in bed trying to sleep instead you say ”I can’t sleep and tomorrow I will be a disaster at work” you may think, “sooner or later, I will fall asleep.” With a little practice, this simple technique may become an automatism.
If the insomnia persists more than a month you should go see a doctor, there may be some other causes for your sleeping trouble.
