How To Get Rid Of Insomnia In South Africa
What is Insomnia?
Insomnia is a common sleep disorder that can make it hard to fall asleep, hard to stay asleep, or cause you to wake up too early and not be able to get back to sleep. You may still feel tired when you wake up. Insomnia can sap not only your energy level and mood but also your health, work performance and quality of life.
Although most of us know what insomnia is, few seek Insomnia treatment, and many people remain unaware of the behavioural and medical options available to them.
Insufficient sleep is a public health epidemic, linked to motorcar accidents, industrial disasters and occupational errors. The demands of modern lifestyles force many people to soldier on despite getting less than the recommended amount of sleep, but sleep disorders can arise even in cases when there is no obvious explanation for it.
What is insomnia?
The NHS describes insomnia as “difficulty getting to sleep or staying asleep for long enough to feel refreshed the next morning.” It’a a sleep disorder that affects millions of people worldwide, and although most of us know what insomnia is, few seek medical advice. Many people remain unaware of the behavioural and medical options available to them.
According to The South African Society of Sleep Medicine, sleep difficulty that lasts between one night and a few weeks is classified as acute insomnia, while chronic insomnia refers to sleep difficulty that occurs at least three nights per week for one month or more.
Insomnia causes
The following factors can cause or contribute to insomnia:
- Psychiatric disorders such as depression or anxiety can contribute to insomnia, although these account for less than 50 percent of cases overall.
- Medical disorders can contribute to insomnia, especially since many worsen during sleep.
- Environmental disruptions such as noise, light, and temperature.
- Disruptions to the circadian rhythm such as jet lag.
- Hormonal shifts, such as that which occurs during menstruation, can contribute to insomnia.
- Medications sometimes have side-effects that cause insomnia.
- Lifestyle issues such as stress, lack of exercise and irregular sleeping patterns.
How To Get Rid Of Insomnia In South Africa
How to treat insomnia naturally (without medication)
Cathy Wong, a certified nutrition specialist, recommends the following methods for treating insomnia naturally:
- Lifestyle changes: Daily exercise and regular sleep patterns can help improve sleep quality, as it does with health in general. In terms of diet, sleep can benefit from magnesium-rich foods such as dark leafy green vegetables, legumes and seeds, and wheat bran; as well as foods rich in vitamin B6, such as bananas.
- Cut down on caffeine, alcohol sugar: One should especially try to avoid consuming caffeine before sleep. Note that cough medicine contains caffeine, and thus could be a contributing factor.
- Quit smoking: Considered one of the best things you can do for your health in general. Nicotine affects sleep quality in similar ways to caffeine.
- Melatonin supplements: The hormone melatonin is produced from serotonin, and helps regulate sleep cycles in the brain. Supplements are often used to treat low-melatonin levels, that may result from depression, aging, and jet lag.
- Cognitive-behavioural therapy: This is a type of talk therapy that aims to help people change negative thought patterns. It has been proven effective in addressing depression and anxiety issues, and by extension, sleep disorders.
- Mindfulness: A word coined by Jon Kabat-Zinn, “mindfulness” is defined as paying attention on purpose, fully in the present moment, and entirely without judgment. There’s a wealth of scientific research that shows the physical and psychological benefits of practicing meditation techniques.
- Yoga: As with mindfulness, yoga helps achieve relaxation, though it does so with various stretching as well as breathing exercises.
- Light therapy: Light plays a significant role in regulating the body’s sleep cycles, but in the modern world, the many unnatural sources of light exposure can confuse the body’s biological functioning. Exposure to daylight, or special therapeutic light-boxes that generate specific waves of light, for a prescribed amount of time per day can help reset the body’s biological clock.
- Herbal supplements: Lemon balm and other such herbal remedies can help relax the nerves, and thereby improve sleep quality.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is the most effective cure for insomnia?
Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, sometimes called CBT-I, is an effective treatment for chronic sleep problems and is usually recommended as the first line of treatment.
The good news is that most cases of insomnia can be cured with changes you can make on your own—without relying on sleep specialists or turning to prescription or over-the-counter sleeping pills.
Is insomnia a mental illness?
Insomnia is caused by difficulty falling asleep, difficulty staying asleep or waking up too early in the morning. Insomnia is rarely an isolated medical or mental illness but rather a symptom of another illness to be investigated by a person and their medical doctors.
Common causes of insomnia include stress, an irregular sleep schedule, poor sleeping habits, mental health disorders like anxiety and depression, physical illnesses and pain, medications, neurological problems, and specific sleep disorders.
Why does my brain not let me sleep?
If you tend to wake up in the middle of the night and a racing mind won’t let you get back to sleep, it may mean that something is bothering you more than you’d care to otherwise admit or address, Dr. Breus says. “It’s generally a sign that something stressful is going on in life.”
Bananas are rich in sleep-promoting nutrients like magnesium, tryptophan, vitamin B6, carbs, and potassium, all of which have been linked to improved sleep.
Is insomnia a serious problem?
It’s the most common sleep disorder, yet often goes undiagnosed and untreated, according to a new report. The consequences can be much more serious than daytime sleepiness. Research has linked insomnia to high blood pressure, congestive heart failure, diabetes, and other ailments.
Can insomnia Be Fatal?
Fatal familial insomnia (FFI) is a rare genetic condition that causes progressively worsening insomnia — an inability to sleep. The insomnia worsens to the point that it severely impacts daily functioning, eventually causing coma and then death. If you have trouble sleeping, it’s highly unlikely that you have FFI.
Why do I keep waking up at 3 00?
If you wake up at 3 a.m. or another time and can’t fall right back asleep, it may be for several reasons. These include lighter sleep cycles, stress, or underlying health conditions. Your 3 a.m. awakenings may occur infrequently and be nothing serious, but regular nights like this could be a sign of insomnia.
What is the 4 7 8 sleep trick?
Inhale quietly through your nose for 4 seconds. Hold your breath for a count of 7 seconds. Exhale through your mouth, making a whoosh sound, for 8 seconds. Repeat the cycle up to 4 times.
Is Insomnia all in your head?
But the racing mind is not all in your head. There is good research evidence that people with insomnia have brains that are more active during sleep than is found among good sleepers.
Does paracetamol help you sleep?
That result delivers not just on pain, but also improves sleep, depression, quality of life, work, and the ability to get on with life. For many years paracetamol has been the ‘go-to’ medicine for all sorts of acute.
Which fruit is good for sleep?
Cherries and cherry juice contain high levels of melatonin, a hormone in the brain that controls your sleep regulation. One study even shows that drinking tart cherry juice could improve sleep in people who suffer from insomnia.
Do eggs help you sleep?
Yes, having eggs before bed can help improve your sleep. Because eggs are an excellent source of tryptophan, melatonin, and vitamin D, they can enable some people to experience better sleep. If you struggle with falling asleep on a regular basis, consider having an egg or two a couple of hours before going to bed.
Does honey help you sleep?
Improved sleep and relaxation: Honey can promote relaxation and help ease you to sleep at night. The natural sugar found in honey raises our insulin slightly and allows tryptophan, the compound famous for making us sleepy after eating turkey at Thanksgiving, to enter our brains more easily.
How long will insomnia last?
The condition can be short-term (acute) or can last a long time (chronic). It may also come and go. Acute insomnia lasts from 1 night to a few weeks. Insomnia is chronic when it happens at least 3 nights a week for 3 months or more.
Certain compounds in milk — specifically tryptophan and melatonin — may help you fall asleep. Tryptophan is an amino acid found in a variety of protein-containing foods. It plays an important role in the production of the neurotransmitter known as serotonin ( 6 ).
Do insomniacs live longer?
There was a 65% higher death rate for people who regularly slept less than 5 hours on all nights, compared with people who regularly slept 6 to 7 hours per night. There was a 25% higher death rate for people who averaged 8 hours or more of sleep on all nights.
What happens if insomnia is not treated?
Consequences of untreated insomnia may include the following: Impaired ability to concentrate, poor memory, difficulty coping with minor irritations, and decreased ability to enjoy family and social relationships. Reduced quality of life, often preceding or associated with depression and/or anxiety.
Is 2 hours of sleep better than no sleep?
Ideally, you should try to get more than 90 minutes of sleep. Sleeping between 90 and 110 minutes gives your body time to complete one full sleep cycle and can minimize grogginess when you wake. But any sleep is better than not at all — even if it’s a 20-minute nap.
Why can’t I sleep through the night without waking up?
One of the common causes of disrupted sleep is lifestyle, including any of the following habits: Drinking alcohol within four hours of bedtime. A nightcap may help you fall asleep, but it also can interrupt sleep later in the night, and can also cause more trips to the bathroom. Eating within a few hours of bedtime.