Natural Cures for Insomnia

Archive for July, 2009

What is Insomnia and How to Treat It

Have you ever experienced not being able to sleep at once (even though you are a person who can normally do so easily…)? Or maybe you can but you wake up from time to time doing so multiple times at night? Or maybe you are able to get to sleep but you wake up easily and not able to go to sleep again once you wake up? You most probably have insomnia. Like millions of people around the world, you experience insomnia. However, one of the most common misconceptions about insomnia is that people think that it is a disorder, but it is not.

According to Wikipedia,

“Insomnia is a symptom of a sleeping disorder characterized by persistent difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep despite the opportunity. Insomnia is a symptom, not a stand-alone diagnosis or a disease.”

So what does that mean to us? It means that insomnia is not the actual problem but is just a sign of much serious disorder that you might have. But in any case, experiencing insomnia is not fun and we want to get rid of it as soon as possible. Insomnia is much like fever. Fever is not the problem but it is a sign that a virus has entered our system and that our immune system is trying to fight it off and kill it by heating it to the degree that the virus cannot survive. But like fever, we dislike it and we find ways to control and get rid of insomnia.

There are several ways to do so. One is you could buy some medications from the store such as sleeping pills to evade insomnia. But a word of caution though. They should only be used short-term because using it long-term has some disastrous effects and has often been linked to mortality.

On a lighter side, we have natural cures for insomnia… or should I say treatment. Insomnia is not new and has been around since the dawn of time. Thus, many age-old treatments are suggested around the world such as eating/drinking:

• Lettuce
• Milk
• Honey
• Curd
• Bottle Gourd
• Aniseed
• Rauwolfia

Then there are also the different types of therapies available. In that list would include, cognitive behavioral therapy, dietary changes, exercise, relaxation and meditation, chromatherapy (color therapy), acupuncture, bright light therapy, etc…

If you want some quick way to treat it and that I have used personally with success, you can try reading a book before going to sleep. Probably something light and informative like magazines, comics, etc…

There are countless ways to treat insomnia. Try one of the methods above and look for one that would work for you. But just remember, insomnia is not the problem. Treat insomnia but make sure to treat and solve the underlying problem behind it to make sure insomnia is gone once and for all.

Coffee and the Natural Cures for Insomnia

Drinking coffee is the most effective and natural way to cure insomnia. Not! If you have insomnia and want to treat it, it is in your best interest to avoid coffee. Have you ever experienced drinking coffee during the day and then having trouble getting to sleep during the night? Well, obviously it is because of the coffee you drank that day. Why is it that coffee has anything to do with insomnia? Let us find out.

Before we go on further, when we say coffee, we would be talking about caffeinated ones. And having said that, there goes our clue. Coffee contains a substance called caffeine which is a stimulant. It is colorless and flavorless and can be found in other foods and drinks such as colas. It can also be found in a number of medicines and acts as a cardiac stimulant.

How often have you heard of coffee being used to keep someone awake? Yes it is very true! Caffeine found in coffee can provide a boost of energy or heightened alertness and is often used to stay awake longer.

From another aspect, let us look at a thermogenic weight loss supplement, Hydroxycut Hardcore. One of its ingredients is caffeine. Each Hydroxycut capsule is equivalent to drinking 6 cups of coffee! Thus if you drink 2 capsules, that would be equivalent to drinking 12 cups of coffee. What are the results? There have been reports of serious sleep deprivations due to its usage. These reports further validate the bad effects of caffeine on our sleep.

The point is this, if we take in a lot of caffeine we will be stimulated (because it is a stimulant) thus causing our bodies and mind to stay alert. That state is not inducive to sleep and will thus cause insomnia. So if you want to overcome insomnia, stay away from coffee.

On the other hand, there are decaffeinated coffees out there. If you must drink coffee, drink ones without the caffeine.

Overcome Insomnia the Proper Way

If you arrived at this post, most probably you have insomnia and you are finding a way to beat and overcome it properly to make sure that anything you do, take or buy in fighting insomnia won’t further mess up your life. Well, you have come to the right place! We will examine insomnia head on and see how we can fight and prevent it. Take note of the word – prevent.

When we encounter a problem or an ailment, most of us resort to medicine. We take medicine for granted because they are available in stores near us. In other words, we treat and cure our problems and ailments after we procure them. But what if we can prevent those? What if we do not need to experience those ailments, in our case insomnia, would that not be better? It definitely is! So how do we do so?

We do so by determining the root and causes of insomnia. We will not focus on every aspect of it but try to tackle the ones which are common and most of us are aware of and encounter in our day to day lives. In developed and developing countries, the major cause of insomnia is stress and anxiety. People work 8 hours a day jobs 5 or 6 times weekly. Depending on your job, the level of stress will be different. However, if our job is a hectic one which requires a lot of physical and mental prowess, more often than not we will be stressed throughout the day.

Anxieties in life are also a major cause of insomnia. When we think about our everyday problems and think of ways to solve them, we become anxious. Thinking of the future and planning for it is good but being anxious over something that we do not have control on will only cause us more stress that would lead to sleepless nights!

Yes, to overcome insomnia, we need to cope with stress and anxiety. If we have a stressful job, we might consider opting out of it and replacing it with a less stressful one. In terms of anxiety, we should not be anxious of things we have no control on. As the saying goes, just cross the bridge when you get there. There is no use in thinking about something or some problem we cannot solve or something that has not happened yet and might not happen at all, right?

There are more factors involved that can cause insomnia. But if you ponder on the 2 factors above and act on them, it would help you a lot in your quest to overcome insomnia properly.

Milk and Honey – Natural Cures for Insomnia

In the search for natural cures for insomnia, milk and honey are the most mentioned of them all. No list of natural cures for insomnia is complete without these 2 ingredients. But you might be wondering if it will work for you. Well it won’t if you don’t try! However, this technique has been proven time and time again to such an extent that not believing in its sleep inducing powers is an act of stupidity. Just look at the baby who sleeps soundly right after drinking milk and tell me you don’t believe. But how does it all work? How do you prepare these 2 ingredients to help you beat insomnia?

Tryptophan is a chemical compound that is very effective in putting us to sleep. It exists in a natural form in the milk. However, drinking cold milk will not do the trick. This is because it is inactive in a cold state. To leverage its power, we need to warm the mile to activate the tryptophan! Now, all we talked about is milk. What about honey?

Well, honey is said to contain sleep inducing properties that will help us to overcome insomnia. But what if you have diabetes, should you be concerned? What if I eat honey and aggravate my diabetes because of its sweet properties? Not at all! Though honey tastes sweet, eating honey raises your blood sugar level only slightly. What’s more, honey also contains tryptophan (the compound also available in milk as mentioned just now…) that is converted into serotonin, a hormone that promotes relaxation. Additionally, during our sleep (in a dark room), serotonin is converted into melatonin, a very popular cure for sleeping disorders especially for insomnia.

No wonder those who drinks and eats milk and honey respectively sleep so fast and soundly. But how can we replicate this same method for maximum effectiveness? To do so, mix 2 teaspoons of lime or lemon juice (this is to give a better to taste to the drink we are brewing…) and 2 tablespoons of honey with 1 cup of warm milk. Drink it before bedtime, most preferably 30 to 45 minutes before going to bed. So if you are going to bed at 10pm, drink it around 9:30pm and watch yourself as you gradually and naturally become sleepy then go to sleep.

Yes, natural treatments are available at the comfort of our own homes. But if your insomnia problems still persist even after trying the methods outlined above, you should consult with your doctor for further treatments and personal analysis of the problem.

Insomnia Cure? Lettuce!

Are you having trouble sleeping? Or you cannot get to sleep at all? Can’t get the 6-8 hours of recommended sleep? Yes, you have insomnia. And like most of us, we want this problem gone fast! We hate insomnia for the fact that it disrupts our daily/nightly cycle of sleep. It causes as major headaches that destroys our hopes of a good day to come. On the other hand, even though we want to get rid of it fast, we also want to try natural (and often free) remedies available at our homes. One such remedy is lettuce.

Lettuce has long been well known to ‘cure’ insomnia. It has long been used in several cultures to induce sleep naturally before the advent of modern medicine. All types of lettuce contain a substance called lectcarium that is responsible in helping us to get to sleep. Well, if you love to eat vegetables, then you can eat it as a regular part of your meal, preferably at dinner time. Or you could also eat it an hour or two before going to sleep as a sort of dessert. But you can get creative as well. You can make tea out of it! Or if you want it during meals, make a juice out of it.

If you are a cook or you are the one who cooks the meal for your family, you may already have an idea of how to do so. However for those not inclined to cooking and only doing so to help treat and cure your insomnia, you can follow the instructions below in doing so.

First up let us start with lettuce soup. Anything can be made into a soup. Having said that, this also applies to lettuce soup. First, boil a pot of water. Ready chopped garlic, chopped lettuce, salt and lime. Once the the water boils, put in the chopped garlic, chopped lettuce, sprinkle some salt and squeeze the lime juice into the water. Let it simmer for a few more minutes and then pour the soup from the pot into a bowl. Voila, it’s done!

Another alternative is lettuce juice. If you have a food processor at home you could put it to good use and treat your insomnia. If you have none, a blender will do. First, ready your food processor or blender. Pour in ¼ of water into it. Put in chopped lettuce into the food processor or blender. Process/blend it. Once done, drink it at once so the enzymes can work the wonders on you!

As written above, these are some of the natural ways we can use lettuce to cure and treat our insomnia. But this is by no means is exhaustive because there are other natural cures for insomnia. But if you love eating lettuce, then by all means please try the methods above.