Can insomnia be cured? Here are some solutions.  

Lifestyle   HD Medical Team  on Wed, Dec 11 2019 10:39 PM 2632 Views 0 Comments No recommendations yet !!!

Insomnia is a common type of sleep disorder where one finds difficult to fall asleep, waking up at the middle of night or during early morning and a non restful sleep. Difficult to sleep during the night can bring up with difficulties in day time during our regular works and disturbs our performance. So, recurrent insomnia sometimes may be painstaking. 

What causes insomnia?

The key for the treatment of insomnia lies on finding out the cause why you are not able to sleep adequately. There are long list of causes of insomnia which you should sort out the possible cause in your scenario. The common causes for insomnia are:

Stress, anxiety and depression: These sort psychological condition are one of the major cause of difficulty in sleeping. Anxiety and depression leads to stress and it hampers our normal sleep habits.

Disruption in normal sleep rhythm: Interruption in the normal and regular sleep rhythm due to jet lags, change in job shifts or night time work, extreme environmental conditions may impair sleep.

Use of psychoactive substances: Stimulants like caffine, nicotine, amphetamines, cocaine or excessive alcohol intake at the night time may have difficulty in sleeping.

Medical conditions: Different co morbid medical conditions including chronic diseases like chronic kidney disease, cancer, Parkinsons, thyroid disorders etc. may land up in insomnia.

Medicines: Different medicines used for the treatment of anxiety, depression or other medical conditions like thyroid disorder, hypertension may have side effects of insomnia.

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Symptoms and features of insomnia

A healthy adult generally requires seven to eight hours of a sound sleep. Reduced duration and quality of sleep at night will definitely affect the productivity of the whole next day of the individual. He/She can have following symptoms:

  • Difficulty in falling asleep
  • Awaking at midnight or early morning and unable to sleep later 
  • Excessive day time somnolence and tiredness
  • Unable to have concentration on the task and having low energy during day
  • Irritable and showing aggressive and impulsive behavior
  • Feeling uncoordinated leading to increase in frequency of errors or accidents

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How to get out of insomnia?

The best ways to get out from insomnia is finding out the possible causes and sort it out. But sometimes the exact cause of insomnia could not be found. Here are some possible ways to get rid of insomnia:

Follow proper sleep hygiene: Fix the sleeping and waking up time and be bound to it.

Avoid stimulants before sleep: Caffine, tea, smoking and alcohol are to be avoinded in the late evening or before sleep.

Suitable sleeping environment: Make sure that your bedroom is dark, quiet and cool.

Avoid screens an hour ahead of sleep: Mobile phones, TV, laptops emit blue light that may be disturbing for sleep. So avoid it at least before an hour of sleep.

Avoid day time naps: Avoid day time sleep or reduce it to short naps of less than 30 minutes.

Avoid heavy dinner: Avoid large, heavy meal close to bed time.

Relaxation trainings: Relax your body with yoga, meditations or other methods of relaxation trainings

When to see the doctor?

When the above mentioned measures also could not improve your sleep and the insomnia is terribly deteriorating your daily activities you need to visit the sleep physician. 
A set of further workup and investigations, specialized cognitive behavior therapy or medicines may be required for you to alleviate insomnia.
 

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