Archive for October, 2008

Natural Insomnia Remedies That Work

Tuesday, October 21st, 2008

With the fast pace of today’s living, insomnia is very common. The hectic pace of our modern culture makes it tough to get a good night’s sleep, but many health conscious people understandably want to avoid taking drugs to solve the problem.

That’s smart; we should avoid taking prescription and over the counter drugs as much as we possibly can. Here are some hints to help you fall asleep naturally. You should be aware that natural insomnia remedies are not one size fits all; if one method below doesn’t work for you, try another one.

Avoid caffeine. This is a big one. Try to get out of the habit of drinking coffee or tea a couple of hours before going to bed. For those with severe insomnia, it is wise to cut out caffeine entirely. And it’s not just coffee and tea that have caffeine. When you buy soda, chocolates or any over the counter medicine, look for its presence on labels.

Don’t lie in bed and worry about your insomnia. If you’re not able to drop off, it is not wise to lie in bed tossing and turning for hours. It is much more useful to get up, do something enjoyable but relaxing, and stop thinking about sleep. Paradoxically, that is just when sleepiness often comes. For many people, this is one of the toughest natural insomnia cures to follow, but it’s very effective. It trains your mind and body to associate the bed with going to sleep. If you are feeling really anxious we would suggest dealing with that before anything else.

Get more exercise. One big reason many of us have so much trouble falling asleep is that we’re simply not tired. It’s important to have a good exercise session every day, however, exercising immediately before going to bed is a bad idea. This acts as a stimulant for the nerves and your heart beat speeds up which is not conducive to get sleep. The earlier in the day you work out, the more effective it will be in curing your insomnia.


Get in the habit of going to bed the same time every night.
The same thing goes for getting up. Our bodies need regular routines to function at their best, and staying up way past your usual bedtime, and/or sleeping later will throw this routine off. It’s tempting to sleep in on the weekend, but if you have trouble falling asleep, you should avoid it.

These are the most common insomnia cures that don’t involve taking pills, but there are others. What’s important is to find the one that works for you, and stick with it. Insomnia is tough to deal with, and can have all kinds of negative effects on your life. Don’t put off finding a natural insomnia remedy that works for you.

Insomnia: Cause and Effect

Tuesday, October 21st, 2008

When it comes to battling insomnia, cause and effect are the first thing a person should look at. While there are some people who just naturally have trouble falling asleep, and there’s really nothing they can do that will help solve the problem, those people are few and far between.

Probably not one in a hundred people suffering from insomnia fall into that category. So the odds are good that if you can find what’s causing your insomnia, you can cure it. Let’s look at some of the most common ones.

Caffeine is probably the biggest culprit for most people. Many people consume far more caffeine than they realize, and part of the problem is that caffeine is so ubiquitous. There are lots of products that contain caffeine besides coffee and tea. Chocolate, for one. It’s surprising how many people are unaware that chocolate contains caffeine. The popular energy drinks are another often overlooked source, as are over the counter medicines.

Another insomnia cause is lack of exercise. In today’s service economy, fewer and fewer people actually do physical labor for a living. As a result, when it comes time to go to bed, they’re not even tired. Our ancestors, who were by and large farmers and laborers, never had this problem. A related problem is exercising late in the day. This is not a good idea. Exercise should be done every day, and it should be done early in the day, so as not to interfere with sleep.

Irregular hours will also cause insomnia. Going to bed at all sorts of hours, or getting up at different times will play havoc with our body clock. Our bodies adapt to a rhythm, or at least they try to, and a big part of that rhythm is a regular routine. Do you like to sleep in on the weekends? If so, this could be what’s causing your sleeplessness.

So look at your life, your schedule, your habits, your diet, etc. Once you do, you may well find your insomnia cause. For the vast majority of people, making some basic changes will solve the problem. But if you honestly can’t find any cause for your insomnia, or you’ve made changes but it didn’t help, you may need to consult additional resources to help cure your sleeplessness.

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