From californianewstimes.com
The chances are all of us have experienced trouble sleeping at some point in our lives. Whether that’s the act of actually falling asleep or waking up throughout the night, or not being able to get enough of it, poor quality sleep can significantly disrupt our daily lives by making us lethargic and unwell, and even impacting our reaction and decision-making abilities. While we tend to be able to get ourselves back on track and catch up on sleep or reset our body clocks, there are some people that struggle with sleep to the point it becomes a clinical problem. Insomniacs are people that regularly have problems sleeping and can find it a bit harder to correct those problems without a bit of help and effort. If these problems last for less than three months, this is referred to as short term insomnia. After that, it’s categorised as long-term insomnia and may need professional intervention.
Insomnia Symptoms
To discern whether you’re suffering from insomnia or not, first we need to take a look at the general symptoms of this sleep disorder. There are many ways to figure out if you’re struggling with acute, transient or chronic insomnia. If you find it hard to go to sleep, wake up throughout the night and find it hard to get back to sleep, then this could be a sign of some form of insomnia. Of course, stressful situations and anxiety can disturb sleep until that stress is gone, and so shouldn’t really be much of a concern if things go back to normal once you’ve stopped worrying. If you also feel tired after waking up, you may be having disturbed sleep throughout the night that you can’t remember, resulting in your body not completing the correct sleep cycles and getting enough rest. Irritability and a lack of concentration is also a sign of getting a lack of rest.
Possible Causes Of Insomnia Today
There is a myriad of different things that are known to cause insomnia, or at least exacerbate ongoing sleeping problems. As mentioned earlier, stress, anxiety and depression are huge contributors to this problem and should be taken into consideration. Not only that, but excessive noise where you’re trying to sleep, badly regulated room temperature, discomfort in bed, are all external influences on your ability to sleep properly. Excessive use of recreational drugs, alcohol and drinking caffeine too close to bedtime can also affect your body’s ability to sleep and should be used with great caution. If these things are causing you problems with sleep, not to mention recreational drugs being illegal, you probably shouldn’t be using them. On top of all of this, imbalances in our brain chemistry, such as melatonin deficiency, can keep us awake too.
What Is Melatonin?
This hormone is present in all of our brains. It’s stored and secreted by the pineal gland when our brains detect a switch from a light to dark environment and appears to aid us in relaxing and ultimately falling asleep. Simply put, it’s our brains way of telling the body that it’s night time and therefore time to get some sleep. If the place is too light, it can impact the melatonin production in the brain, making it more difficult to get to sleep. Excessive alcohol consumption has a negative impact on the production of this hormone too, so it’s important for you to learn more about the relationship between melatonin and alcohol if you find that you drink too much and struggle with sleep. For those that do struggle with their melatonin regulation, there are actually supplements that you can take to help maintain healthy levels. It’s important to speak to a medical professional first though, before you start taking any supplement.
How Much Sleep Do We Need?
While everyone is different and it’s difficult to truly define exactly how much sleep we need, it’s generally agreed that adults need between 7 and 9 hours of quality sleep per day to feel refreshed and rejuvenated, ready for the next day. Children actually need much more sleep due to their developing, growing bodies and it’s said that they need anywhere between 9 to 13 hours, and toddlers and babies even need 12 to 17 hours, explaining the frequency of nap requirements they have. The reasons that more sleep is needed, the younger we are, is due to the fact that when we’re asleep, our bodies spend time building and repairing tissue, organs, and bones. This accounts for why sleep is required after sustaining an injury and why these injuries, depending on severity, can feel much better after a good night’s sleep.
The Benefits Of Quality Sleep
As well as repairing and growing our bodies, sleep is generally very healthy for the mind too. There are many things that poor quality sleep is linked to and improving our sleeping habits can help to offset these problems. Bad sleep is often linked to obesity as certain hormones that help to regulate body weight need to be produced during rest. A lack of sleep also reduced our ability to be motivated to exercise, and actually a desire to eat more calories due to low energy levels. Getting regular, quality rest also boosts concentration levels and our general desire to be productive. Tiredness can make us just want to rest more throughout the day and can even cause our minds to wander away from important tasks. Bad quality sleep also increases the risk of heart disease and stroke as well as other chronic illnesses such as type 2 diabetes and even mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety. To reduce the risks of all of these problems, we highly recommend getting some good, undisturbed sleep, as well as going to bed at roughly the same time every night to set your body’s internal clock. You’ll also find that by doing this, you’ll wake up at the same time every morning without the need for an alarm either. This will show that you’re getting good quality sleep and enough of it too.
Sorting Your Sleeping Pattern
Getting good quality sleep may be much easier said than done. Although it’s something that is easily achievable with a bit of dedication and commitment. First of all, set yourself a good time to go to bed every night and stick to it. Even if you’re finding you’re not always tired at that time, eventually, as you also wake up at the same time every day, your body will begin to feel tired at the right time. Also try to switch off at least one hour before you get into bed. This means turning off screens and choosing a relaxing activity such as reading or having a hot bath with some scented candles. You may actually find that spending a night socialising with friends with no screens on and dimmed lights makes you feel much sleepier than if you were sat watching TV or playing video games for the same amount of time. This is due to the higher levels of blue light or short-wavelength enriched light emitted from these devices, which also includes your smartphone. This blue light hinders melatonin production keeping you from feeling tired.
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