Struggling to sleep? 6 ways to relieve insomnia naturally

From irishexaminer.com

There’s nothing more frustrating than spending a night staring at the ceiling – tossing, turning and willing sleep to come.
Between unanswered emails and unpaid bills, there’s a million and one things that can keep you awake at night, and poor sleep can have a significant  impact on your mental health, mood and energy levels the next day.
If you’re regularly finding it a struggle to drift off or stay in the land of nod, take solace in the fact that you’re not alone: As many as 16 million UK adults are suffering from regular sleepless nights, with a third (31%) reporting that they have insomnia, according to a 2017 survey by Aviva.

When you’re desperate for some slumber, it’s tempting to raid the medicine cabinet for fast relief, but sleeping pills can sometimes leave you feeling worse the next day and are not generally recommended as a long-term solution for everybody.
While there’s no guaranteed cure for insomnia (and some sleep problems require a bit more help from specialists), there are some natural solutions and lifestyle changes that could help. Here, some leading health experts reveal their suggestions for making sleepless nights a thing of the past…

1. Go to bed and get up at the same time every day
It’s tempting to stay awake for ‘just one more’ episode of the latest Netflix series, but messing with your sleep pattern can seriously affect your ability to drift off, sometimes for days to come. “Our bodies love routine and follow a circadian rhythm,” says Dr Prudence Knight, online GP at Push Doctor (pushdoctor.co.uk). “This is driven by hormone levels which vary throughout the day.”

Dr Knight explains that when our body is running on a proper sleep schedule, we’re able to get out of bed in the morning and feel alert during the day. Conversely, in the evening, sleep hormones gradually help the body to feel tired, allowing us to drop off easily at bedtime. “Go to bed and get up at the same time every day,” she advises. “This includes the weekends – and don’t nap, no matter how little sleep you’ve had. It can take several weeks for a sleep schedule to take effect, but eventually, the majority of people who try it end up with a good pattern.”

2. Cut out caffeine and go light on the booze
The festive period is synonymous with alcohol consumption. From Christmas Day fizz to office parties, the social engagements of the season can mean you drink way more than you usually would.
While we’d never begrudge anyone for getting involved in the festivities, overindulging in booze could cause your sleep to take a knock. And if you’re relying on caffeine to power you through the morning after, this could also be adding to the problem.

“If you can, try to stay away from alcohol or caffeine six hours before you go to bed, as they both can interfere with your sleeping pattern,” says Dr Kim Glass, lead GP at Bupa Health Clinics (bupa.co.uk). “Caffeine is a stimulant and the effects can stay in your systems for hours, depending on how much you have.
“Similarly, alcohol can affect the quality of your sleep, as it reduces the amount of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep you get, and this is the type of sleep which often makes you feel most rested.” Glass warns that a night of drinking can also disrupt your sleep in other ways, as you may find yourself waking in the night needing the toilet, or with a thirst.

3. Make your bedroom a device-free zone
If a late-night scroll through Instagram is part of your bedtime routine, try swapping in a good book instead. “Your bedroom should be a calm place, free of stressful distractions,” says Dr Glass.

Not only can social media’s addictive nature keep you awake at night, but too much screen-time can have a sleep-suppressing effect on your brain. “Tablets and smartphones emit blue light which can boost your attention span, suppressing your body’s natural sleep hormone, and can throw out your circadian rhythm which makes for a disruptive night’s sleep,” warns Glass, who suggests leaving your device in another room. That way, you can start to properly wind down the moment you get into bed.

4. Get some aerobic exercise
If you’ve been putting off using your gym membership all year, here’s a good reason to finally get some use out of it: “Physical activity can help reduce stress and can strengthen your body clock, making it easier for you to fall asleep and have a good night’s rest,” says Dr Glass. “If you’re not normally very active, try going for a brisk walk at lunchtime – even 15 minutes can make a difference.”
Be careful not to overdo it in the evenings though, as too much exercise late at night can keep you awake, rather than putting you to sleep.

5. Eat magnesium and calcium-rich foods
If you’re struggling to sleep, your diet could also play a key role. “There is some research that suggests that magnesium and calcium may be linked to poor sleep,” says behaviour change expert, Dr Aria (dr-aria.com). “Magnesium is involved in many processes within the body, including muscle relaxation, and low intakes have been shown to make it harder to stay asleep.”
Good food sources of magnesium include green veggies, beans, nuts, seeds and wholegrains. “You may also want to consider a magnesium supplement, such as Healthspan Opti Magnesium (£11.99 for 90 tablets; healthspan.co.uk), as these have been shown to help aid relaxation, making them useful before you go to bed,” he adds.
Calcium could be another good sleep-booster. “Calcium helps the brain use tryptophan to make melatonin, and low intakes of calcium have also been shown to make it more difficult to fall asleep,” says Dr Aria. “Good sources include dairy foods, green vegetables and soy.”

6. Try a ‘body scan’

Meditation can be a handy way of slowing down those racing thoughts. A ‘body scan’ is a type of relaxation technique that helps to calm the mind and encourage sleep. It’s all about honing in on different parts of your body and resting your attention with them, to help bring you mind into the present.
“Lie down and make yourself comfortable,” says Dr Sarah Brewer, medical director of Healthspan (drsarahbrewer.com). “Focus your mind on your toes and notice how they feel – are they relaxed or tense, hot or cold?”
Now, slowly ‘scan’ each area of your body until your reach your head. Dr Brewer says that your mind will wander at times, but this is completely natural. “Acknowledge the thoughts or worries that arise, and then gently guide your attention back to your body,” she advises. “Start by trying this exercise for five minutes and then slowly build up to 20 minutes.”

https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/lifestyle/healthandlife/struggling-to-sleep-6-ways-to-relieve-insomnia-naturally-893025.html

Workplace stress and rude colleagues could be ruining your sleep

From metro.co.uk

Monday mornings are hard. They’re even harder if you haven’t had any sleep. The curse of Sunday night insomnia is real, and can leave you feeling like death warmed up for the first half of the week. New research, published in the Occupational Health Science journal, has pointed to a possible cause of your disturbed sleep – rude colleagues. It turns out that having colleagues who are rude or unpleasant doesn’t only ruin your day in the office – it can also ruin your sleep. And if your partner works in a similar field, then they could feel the effects as well.

                                                  (Picture: Ella Byworth for Metro.co.uk)

The study found that couples who work in similar fields, in the same company or the same job, will feel the impact of their partner’s workplace dramas – to the point where it could stop them sleeping. The scientists concluded that when one person has an unpleasant experience at work, they tend to take it home with them – causing troubled sleep for both them and their other half. It can be anything from condescending comments, to being interrupted in meetings, or a disrespectful email. The results show that all of this workplace incivility can have a profound effect on a person’s ability to sleep. The report authors added, ‘interventions aimed at alleviating negative work rumination may help reduce work-home spillover as well as crossover, particularly for work-linked, dual-earner couples.’ So if you take steps to minimize rude encounters at work, it could really help both you and your partner to relax and sleep better when you get home.

https://metro.co.uk/2018/12/17/workplace-stress-rude-colleagues-ruining-sleep-8255831/

Insomnia: The Memoir Everyone Who Struggles With Sleep Should Read

By Kate Leaver

If you’ve ever been awake at 4am, you know. You know the way the darkness seems to hover in the air before you, the way time stretches, the way street lights sneak through curtains. You know the feeling of dread as morning starts to show itself and you know the panic of being on your own in the dark. You know the madness of the night, too; the way your mind can snag on a single thought and think it for hours, over and over. It’s a lonely time, 4am.

Reading Marina Benjamin’s memoir, Insomnia, has made me feel less alone in all that sleeplessness. She has made me feel seen. She could be describing the choreography of my own nights when she writes: "Unable to settle in one position for more than a few beats, I try them all out in turn: the plank, the foetal curl, the stomach-down splat – as if I’d landed on the mattress from a great height. Each of these poses is contrived insofar as it corresponds to an idea of what relaxation looks like." In fits of insomnia, we lose that ability to relax – and certainly, to sleep. Benjamin knows the dull panic of our sleepless nights and she speaks it back to us, which is oddly comforting.

Most writing on the subject of insomnia is about curing it or trying to trick yourself into sleeping. It’s about turning your phone off two hours before you go to sleep, having a regular bedtime, keeping your bedroom pitch black and possibly putting some foul-tasting oil under your tongue. Benjamin’s writing is not like that. Apart from a few mentions of strong herbal or pharmaceutical supplements, Benjamin scarcely offers a medical solution, which is somewhat of a relief. If you’re an insomniac, you’ve likely already googled how to sleep and still it evades you, no matter how rigorous your bedtime routine. Instead, Insomnia is a lyrical, thoughtful meditation on sleeplessness. It’s about Odysseus and Penelope, Oedipus and Athena, Nabokov and Gilgamesh, and Rumi and Robinson Crusoe. It’s about art and literature and mythology and creativity and productivity and peace. It’s not about fixing it so much as understanding it. It’s a book to make you feel less alone.

"The more you chase sleep, the more it eludes you. But if you turn your back on it, it might visit you, like a gift, or it might ambush you," Benjamin tells me. "You will not succeed if you chase sleep. You can’t lie there waiting for it to come. That’s when you fall prey to the crazy mind, the crazy self that comes in the night."

This is when insomnia is at its cruellest; when it taunts you with fear and worry and madness. I spend most of my waking nights obsessively thinking, unable to silence a single nasty thought for hours on end. Benjamin grew tired of that particular torture and started getting out of bed, going downstairs, switching the light on, curling up next to the dog and reading or writing – sometimes this very book.

"It’s so unpleasant to lie there, so I started getting up so I didn’t feel like I was a victim of this thing. I wasn’t its prey. I just started to think of it like I was occupying a slightly different time zone or head zone. That’s what led me to accommodate the insomnia. In a calm frame of mind, that’s me making a cup of tea, putting the computer on and doing a couple of hours' work. It was a good way of capturing some of the things I noticed at night: the textures of the night, the colours of the night, the animalistic qualities of the night."

Meanwhile, upstairs, Benjamin’s partner – to whom she refers only as "Zzzz" in the book – sleeps on. Love him though she does, she cannot stand to stay awake beside his sleeping form. This, too, is familiar to me, the alienation you feel lying next to the still, snoring body of your beloved. They cannot help you, they cannot hear you and their slumber seems almost a rebuke.

"I think the loneliness is exacerbated when your partner is sleeping next to you, because you can’t wake them, you can’t reach them, they’re not there. They’re very present, they are a lump, a rock, but they are also absent, they are not themselves." In contrast, she is too present, lying or sitting or turning awake. She is hyper vigilant of her surroundings, of her temperature, of the feeling of her skin against the bedclothes. "Rather than approaching insomnia as a lack of sleep, I think of it as a violent presence," she says. Awake at night and in the early hours of the dawn, we are on a different plane of existence from our snoring bedfellows. This is something Benjamin has, remarkably, taught herself not just to tolerate but perhaps even enjoy.

"The enjoyment comes in thinking of insomnia differently. There’s a beauty in the familiarity with nocturnality that we don’t have unless we are insomniac," she says. "There’s a different wellspring of ideas and thoughts that you can tap into at night. There’s a different vocabulary available, whether it’s artistic or verbal or even musical."

Marina Benjamin has found a way to make insomnia productive, even inspiring. It makes me feel inadequate, lying in the dark, waiting for sleep like I do. But perhaps also hopeful. Maybe there’s a way to silence the nasty thoughts, curl up next to a dog and make use of our surplus hours awake. I’m going to try.

https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/marina-benjamin-insomnia

The secret that will allow you to forget about insomnia

From bobrpost.com

Yoga is a Indian spiritual path aimed at achieving Union with the Supreme Consciousness. The followers of yoga are called yogis. Why people are addicted to yoga? Short answer – because yoga makes you feel better. The implementation of poses, breathing exercises and meditation heals your body, mind and spirit. Yoga allows you to “tune” the body, learn to feel it. Magicforum figured out how yoga can help beat insomnia.

How you could benefit from yoga

Three hours of the night. Trying to sleep from 23: 00. You understand that you desperately want to sleep, need to sleep to rest, but your eyes drawn to the ceiling, the mind is agitated, and the body wants to relax. The more you try to sleep the more awake. You’ve tried counting sheep, watching the last show on TV, but all in vain. In desperation, you take a sleeping pill. This is a common scenario in developed countries, where approximately one third of all adults suffer from sleep disorders.
Insomnia (most common type) is defined as the inability to fall asleep after you went to bed within thirty minutes, or the inability to sleep more than a few hours without waking up.

We are all faced with various forms of insomnia at particularly stressful times of our lives. Normally, when you do not sleep with stress for 1-2 nights; insomnia becomes a problem only when it becomes chronic.
Ayurveda (the science associated with yoga) tells us that all diseases are caused by disorders of the stomach.
One of the reasons why insomnia is bad or junk food. On the physical level, indigestion is caused by bad food or poor digestive system and leads to such consequences as heartburn (in addition to insomnia), diarrhoea and so on.
But sometimes “mental” indigestion — inability to stop thinking about a particular incident or unpleasant situation. It may not be for you personally a tragedy as the earthquake in Japan, someone’s criticism or problems at work.

“Emotional” indigestion – re-experiencing of the problematic situation, often causing sadness and anger. The fact that the emotion was not sufficiently “digested” during the origin of the situation and can just appear without any apparent cause.
Mental and emotional indigestion are the most common causes of insomnia. Some of us even clench your teeth, erasing them to the gums during sleep, in an attempt to chew and digest returning thoughts and emotions.
Modern explanations for insomnia, in principle, repeat these ancient claims. Our bodies are designed to fall asleep easily after a long day. When it happens, when we can’t sleep, there are many ways to encourage the body and mind to relax and gently sink into a restful sleep.
To get started, create an environment that will help you sleep. Your bedroom should be quiet and cosy. Eliminate unnecessary lights and any noise that can disturb your sleep. If possible, do not place in the bedroom other than sleeping with a TV, books, the computer must be in the other room.

Go to bed at the same time every night. Create a routine procedure that prepares you to sleep. Might be some program, which you follow until the moment when you go to bed — teeth brushing, reading, and so on. This procedure is a way to tell your subconscious that it’s time to sleep.
Make sure that this routine is relaxing, not exciting, after it, your brain can relax. If you look before you sleep news & find them disturbing, skip the last transmission. If you live in a safe area, take a leisurely walk. Read something pleasant and soothing. Take a bath. These tricks should calm down your mind and your nerves to sleep.
Attempts to compensate for the disturbed sleep of the night by a longer sleep in the morning only destroy your sleep cycle. Stand on time, even if you don’t feel enough rest at night you will be able to more easily fall asleep.

Tips that will help you sleep

Losing a few minutes to relax just before “entering” the bed is the perfect way to wind down and get ready for bed. A great benefit would be if you just “talk” with the body.
Lie on your back, arms extended, legs slightly spread. Close your eyes and refer to each part of your body. Start with your skulls and move to the toes. Start to relax your forehead, eyes, face and jaw. Tension and then relaxing each group of muscles helps the muscles to relax, especially in the neck and shoulders.
Pay attention to what you eat. It is better to eat a light meal in the evening (especially if you dine late). You will sleep more deeply when the body is finished digesting food before sleep. Rich, heavy food consumed before bed will prevent relaxation and cause drowsiness in the morning.
Avoid caffeine, especially after noon. It is in coffee, tea, chocolate, etc. Coffee “lives” within four to six hours. This means that this time is spent on the digestion of half drunk coffee, and another four to six hours required for the next quarter, get out of the body. No wonder you still feel awake at eleven at night if I drank a Cup of coffee after lunch.

Sugar can also cause problems. The exclusion of sugar in the evening is necessary, as it immediately enters the bloodstream. That is why it gives a burst of energy, keeps you awake and causes excitement. The absorption of sweets before bedtime can make you restless and nervous, can not let you sleep.
If you are used to pamper yourself before bed, a glass of warm milk — the best choice.

Alcohol and tobacco that you consume before bedtime can affect deep sleep. It is true that a drink a night will make you sleepy, but the sleep is light, restless and does not allow to have a rest normally. Similarly, you may think that cigarette before going to sleep is relaxing, but it actually increases the strain on the body. Tobacco causes heart rate and increased blood pressure. It is best to eliminate these foods from eating for 1-2 hours before bedtime.
If we conducted a survey of farmers and other people who do manual labour, that few of them had complained about insomnia. But for most of us, hard work applies only to the mental sphere, so we need to tire your body, if you want a good sleep.
Exercise at least 3 times a week will improve your possibilities of a good night’s sleep. Before bed is just fine to do yoga, it will relax the muscles and prepare for bed. Pick the asanas that relax, not stimulate.
Do not use medical preparations; it is better to drink decoctions of herbs – Valerian root and so on.
Source: News Yu

https://bobrpost.com/the-secret-that-will-allow-you-to-forget-about-insomnia/3860/

Here’s Why Insomnia Gets Worse This Time of Year

From brit.co

If you find yourself feeling a little bit off this time of year, or maybe are tossing and turning in bed more than usual and then waking up groggy, you’re not alone. The lack of sunlight we’re getting during the winter can really mess with our hormone levels, especially melatonin, the sleep regulator, and can cause a case of the winter blues (which can range from simply feeling a bit down to full-blown seasonal affective disorder). That’s right — the feeling is not just in your imagination, and the fluctuation in hormones can have a real impact on your sleeping habits and sense of calmness. We asked sleep and mental health experts to further explain the connection between insomnia and the winter months and the effect sleep has on our overall mood and energy. Keep reading for the tips and tricks you need to keep your sleep schedule on track and your well-being in check during what should be the most peaceful season.

WHY INSOMNIA HAPPENS

Our bodies are designed to wake with the sunlight, and when the sun rises later and sets earlier, our circadian rhythms (the body clock that regulates our sleeping and waking and can even affect things like our mood and menstrual cycle) can get out of whack.
“In winter, waking up when it is dark prevents our ‘wake cycle’ from starting. Sunlight essentially triggers our wakefulness, which needs to complete its cycle before hormones that induce sleep (such as melatonin) can be released,” explains Katharina Lederle, a London-based doctor of human sleep physiology.

Melatonin imbalances can cause depressive symptoms as well; too much melatonin may be one of the culprits of seasonal affective disorder, says Nada Milosavljevic, a faculty member at Harvard Medical School and founder of Sage Tonic. While this may not cause insomnia, it may have similar after-effects: a heavy layer of grogginess and the inability to engage with others as usual or stay energized throughout the day. On the opposite end of the spectrum, low melatonin levels are what can really keep you awake at night. And it may have something to do with all that Netflixing and chilling you’re doing in bed during the chilly weather, multiple studies show. The blue, artificial light emitted from our favourite devices while binge-watching or scrolling through Instagram before going to sleep can really mess with our circadian rhythms, therefore disrupting disrupt our body’s sense of sleeping and waking, according to new research. More research has tied blue light even closer to insomnia. “Researchers from the National Sleep Foundation have found that increased exposure to blue light from people using electronic devices before bed causes a decrease in levels of melatonin in their bodies, making it harder to fall asleep and making them less alert in the morning,” Milosavljevic says.

Because of the lack of sunlight, our vitamin D levels are also low this time of year, which can mess with sleep quality and quantity. “Low levels of vitamin D are connected to lower sleep efficiency scores,” says Carolyn Dean, a medical doctor, naturopath, and member of the Medical Advisory Board for the Nutritional Magnesium Association. “This can mean it takes a long time to fall asleep or that sleep is restless and disrupted with many awakenings in the night,” Dean says. It’s important not to let your health fall by the wayside this time of year, especially when it comes to vital vitamins and minerals. The mineral magnesium is also crucial to sleep because it helps the body process both vitamin D and melatonin correctly. “Magnesium also relieves the muscle tension that can prevent restful sleep,” says Dean.

Then, there are the usual winter habits you have, like bundling up in heavy pyjamas and blankets and cranking up the heat in your home. This can actually disrupt your sleep, says Tara Youngblood, co-founder and Chief Scientist at Kryo Inc. “If our bodies are unable to lower our core temperature, as they are naturally programmed to do, we are unable to reach optimized Slow Wave Sleep and get the benefits of more deep sleep and better sleep density,” she explains. Don’t forget the poor diet and exercise habits you may have from the influx of holiday parties you’re attending, and the shopping, baking, and wrapping too. You may be feeling too sluggish to hit the gym when it’s cold and pitch-dark in the morning, but your eating habits play a major part also. “Holiday foods are chock-full of sugar, dense carbohydrates, and fattening ingredients. Not only can these foods affect your appetite and metabolism, but they can also interfere with the balance of a hormone called leptin, which is known to influence our sleep cycle,” Youngblood says. And, Youngblood adds, it’s high time for colds and the flu, which often cause sleep to be restless and interrupted.

Don’t blame sleeplessness on a stuffy nose or too many sugar cookies — you can’t discount the stress of the holiday season or pressure to keep your list of resolutions either. “It is likely that insomnia is further exacerbated by the financial, social, and familial stresses that often occur during and immediately after the festive period,” Lederle adds. All the more reason to step back and give yourself the gift of self-care this time of year, no matter how many people are on your shopping list.

HOW TO FIX YOUR SLEEP HABITS

To get yourself back on track after a stretch of insomnia, start by regulating your bedtime and wake up calls. It’s best if your phone, alarm clock, or other blue light-filled devices are nowhere near your bed, Milosavljevic says. It may seem like the oldest trick in the book, but stashing electronics and alarm clocks across the room from where you sleep can force you up and out of bed to start the day.

Sleeping habits can also improve when you take stock of the amount of vitamins and minerals you’re putting into your body. Try a vitamin D and a magnesium supplement like magnesium citrate if you’re struggling with sleep. “Magnesium citrate powder is a highly absorbable form that can be mixed with hot or cold water and sipped in the evening and throughout the day for deep, restful sleep,” Dean says. For more help drifting off to sleep, Youngblood says sleeping in cooler temperatures may help you fall asleep faster and can even give your metabolism a boost.

Many other natural remedies can help prep the body to relax and wind down; one of the body’s most instinctive is exercise. Even a moderate bedtime yoga flow can help your mind and body ease into sleep mode. “A simple pose like child’s pose can relax the body, ease muscle tension, and clear the mind from daily stresses that can impact a restful night’s sleep,” says Milosavljevic. To go along with that child’s pose, use some lavender essential oil or sip on an herbal tea, particularly one containing lavender, valerian root, and dandelion root, all geared toward combatting sleeplessness and encouraging the body to rest, she adds. If you really need some coaching, a meditation app can help, or some background sounds of white noise or nature sounds will have you in dreamland in no time.

https://www.brit.co/why-you-may-have-insomnia-during-winter/

Anxiety, stress and insomnia – what do to about it?

From thefrisky.com

Stress, anxiety, and insomnia are quite common today. 70% of adults in the United States claim that they feel stressed or anxious on a daily basis. However, that’s not something you should just accept and get used to. There are ways for you to help yourself feel better, calmer and more in control.
Exercise regularly. Exercise is a very effective way to combat stress, anxiety, and insomnia. On the long run, exercise lowers the body’s stress hormones and helps release endorphins – the natural painkillers that also improve your mood. Exercise has best effects when is performed regularly.
You can also try exercising an hour or so before bed in case you have trouble with falling asleep.

Jogging or walking involve repetitive movements that are particularly stress relieving. Exercise also keeps your level of confidence on a higher level. So, next time instead of sitting in front of a screen watching your favourite show before bed, go outside for a quick run or a walk or do yoga.
Listening to music, meditation or a good massage can be very effective for releasing tension and clearing your head. Distance yourself from the rest of the world for a minute and enjoy your favourite activity.
Sometimes a candle, essential oils or even a blanket specially designed for combating stress can be helpful. When it comes to candles and essential oils, lavender, rose, bergamot, vetiver, roman chamomile and geranium have been named as some of the most calming scents.
You could also try YnM weighted blankets. They claim that the blanket will keep you cosy and warm during the night while providing physical ease and giving a boost to your serotonin levels in the brain helping you alleviate stress. The pressure is distributed evenly on your entire body and provides therapeutic help which is particularly useful for people suffering from anxiety, insomnia, restless leg syndrome and aches or pains.
Reduce your caffeine and alcohol intake. Caffeine can be found in coffee, tea, chocolate, and energy drinks, and high doses can increase your anxiety and make it harder for you to fall asleep. It is recommended that your last coffee should be around 3 pm and not later since it can severely affect your sleep. Alcohol helps you fall asleep faster, but the quality of the sleep is drastically decreased causing you to wake up tired.

                                                                       Source: Irish News

A good way to handle insomnia and stress is writing a journal. Write down everything that stresses you and your daily habits. Keep track of the changes you’re making in your daily schedule and whether they are helping you sleep better and stay more relaxed or just making things worse.
Also, by focusing on positive things while keeping a journal, you can help yourself relieve stress and anxiety.
Spend more time with your friends and family. It gives you a feeling of being a part of something bigger than yourself, and that can help you in tough times. Good friends and family can keep you smiling and avert your attention from the daily stress.
Find someone to share hugs and kisses with. Positive physical contact increases your oxytocin levels, lowers your blood pressure and heart rate helping you get rid of the stress.
You can share that love with your pet as well. They provide companionship, give you a purpose and help you stay in a better mood. What’s better than having someone doing the happy dance and licking your face every time you get home or wake up? Walks with your pet and playing fetch are also very relaxing, fun and healthy!

https://thefrisky.com/anxiety-stress-and-insomnia-what-do-to-about-it/

How to make sure your child is getting enough sleep

From indianexpress.com

Watching TV late at night or spending more time on laptops, cellphones and digital games is the main reason for insomnia among children. Children may sleep late at night, but need to rise early to attend school.

Insomnia, considered a disease that occurs at a mature age, has been observed affecting children as well, having an impact on their physical and mental development. Even in the world of Ayurveda, sufficient sleep is considered necessary for the psychological and physical wellbeing of any child.
Every parent wants their child to be healthy. For attaining physical strength and muscular growth, rest is essential, along with adequate sleep. While parents take care of their child’s hobbies and physical exercise, they forget to monitor their sleeping patterns. As a result, the child becomes a victim of Insomnia. According to research conducted by the American Sleep Foundation, children attending school are required to take eight hours of sleep each day. But due to modern lifestyle and social, physical problems, children cannot sleep adequately and hence fall prey to insomnia.

Why is it necessary for children to get adequate sleep?
During sleep, the digestive system, liver and kidney function of the body get time to work correctly and regenerate any damage in our body. The brain receives oxygen from the body, which it stores for tasks the next day. Dreams are also a way of processing the goings-on of the day. Children are generally more active, both physically and mentally, as compared to adults. Therefore, little ones require more time to rest their body as their internal organs need to do more work, for which sufficient sleep is necessary. If sound sleep, which includes dreams, is not enjoyed by children, it can leave side effects or even affect their memory.

                             Good quality sleep is essential for kids. (Source: Getty Images)

What are the problems associated with insomnia?

The effect of lack of sleep is visible on children’s behaviour as well. As a result, symptoms of irritability, as well as weakening memory, headache, irritation in the eyes and lethargy can be observed. The weakening of the digestive tract is also a frequently occurring problem. Insomnia, if not detected or attended to in time, can lead to symptoms of serious illness like Hyperactive Nocarlepsy or a “sleeping trance”, which can lead to sudden falls and the possibility of injury. Children suffering from insomnia are also unable to concentrate on studies, which leads to an inferiority complex as well.

What are the reasons for insomnia?

Watching TV late at night or spending more time on laptops, cellphones and digital games is the main reason for insomnia among children. At the same time, due to their busy lifestyle and lack of awareness of the importance of sleep, parents tend to not focus on the problem. Children may sleep late at night, but need to rise early to attend school. Guests, late-night dinner parties, shift duties of parents that force them to return late at night are some significant reasons for a child’s sleep being disturbed. On the other hand, physical problems during sleep such as snoring, snoring, tonsils in children can also be a cause of insomnia. Family feuds between parents or close ones, school-related problems, nightmares are also responsible for causing disturbances in proper sleep.

What can parents do?

If the child shows signs of insomnia, then do not neglect him. In such a situation, consult a doctor first. If there are no physical problems, it is necessary to make a meaningful effort to make the child understand the importance of adequate sleep and bring about a change in his lifestyle. Parents should restrict the time to watch TV, mobile gaming or working on a computer for the child. Parents should also try to stay away from the TV and mobile phones after a set time, which can set an example for children. Do not let children stay awake late in the night except for exams or unusual circumstances. At the same time, encourage the child to play or do some physical exercise in the evening. Tiredness will inculcate a habit of sleeping early in the child. Do not let the child rest for too long in the afternoon or else he will not tend to feel sleepy at night.
Lying in bed about half an hour before bedtime is beneficial for children who sleep with their parents. Tell younger children exciting and inspirational stories so that they can revisit them in their dream period. Making a prayer before bedtime can also help children sleep better and more quickly.

https://indianexpress.com/article/parenting/health-fitness/how-to-make-sure-your-child-is-getting-enough-sleep/

Nighttime Light Pollution May Increase Insomnia Risk in Older Adults

From belmarrahealth.com

Light pollution is a term most of us have heard, but what does it really mean and why are its effects important to understand? In short, light pollution is excessive exposure to artificial light. It is what causes us discomfort when faced with too many brightly lit screens or signs, such as in Times Square. It is also what causes “urban glow” or the light reflecting from inhabited areas onto the night sky, lightening it.

Light pollution reduces our ability to enjoy the beauty of the night sky in populated areas and can disrupt our body’s natural ability to rise and rest with the sun. According to new research, though, light pollution may also be having detrimental effects on our health.
Researchers for the study gathered data on 52,027 adult participants, aged 60 or older, collected through the National Health Insurance Service-National Sample Cohort for over 10 years. Any participants with known sleep disorders were excluded from the study.

Information on exposure to light pollution was obtained from the National Centres for Environmental Information. The researchers compared the information on light exposure to the rates at which participants used two different hypnotic drugs to help them sleep.
In total, approximately 22 percent of the participants were prescribed hypnotic drugs. The researchers found that increased exposure to light pollution, particularly at night, was linked to an increased intake of hypnotic medications and an increased dosage of them.
These results were most prevalent in older adults, who were more likely to take hypnotic drugs on a daily basis and at a higher dosage when exposed to more light pollution.

Legislators Unconcerned with Light Pollution

“This study observed a significant association between the intensity of outdoor, artificial, night-time lighting and the prevalence of insomnia as indicated by hypnotic agent prescriptions for older adults in South Korea,” said one of the study authors, Kyoung-bok Min. “Our results are supportive data that outdoor, artificial, night-time light could be linked to sleep deprivation among those while inside the house.”

In general, most people are unconcerned with light pollution and how it affects their health. What many of us still do not realize is that light pollution is an environmental pollutant, just like greenhouse gases or toxic emissions. The majority of healthcare officials are far less concerned about light pollution than other environmental effects on health. The researchers behind the current study believe this is a mistake and the effects of light pollution should be taken more seriously.
“Given the recent scientific evidence, including our results, bright outdoor lighting may be a novel risk factor for prescribing hypnotic drugs,” said Min. According to the researchers, policy makers need to become educated on the adverse effects of light pollution so legislation can be put into place to minimize them on current and future populations.

Future studies are still needed to help define light pollution and discover how to decrease its adverse effects on human sleep patterns and overall health.

https://www.belmarrahealth.com/nighttime-light-pollution-may-increase-insomnia-risk-in-older-adults/

Go to Bed and Stay Healthy

From psychologytoday.com

New research says early risers are at lower risk of developing chronic diseases.

Everyone has a circadian rhythm—an internal body clock that runs on a 24-hour cycle and determines whether you are an evening chronotype, a night owl with a preference for staying up late and sleeping in the next morning, or a morning chronotype, an early bird who functions best when hitting the sack earlier in the evening and rising with (or before) the sun. Your chronotype also has an effect on other physical functions, such as when you eat. Your biological clock may also be responsible for what and how you eat and, ultimately, your risk of developing diet-related diseases such as type-2 diabetes and heart disease, according to a European review of related studies, published in the November 30, 2018 issue of Advances in Nutrition, and led by researchers at the Brain, Performance and Nutrition Centre of Northumbria University in England.

The researchers found that, overall, people who hit the sack at a reasonable hour and wake up early the next day tend to have:

More even sleeping patterns. Those who rise early tend to have pretty much the same sleeping habits on weekends as they do during the week. Night owls tend to lose sleep during the work week and try to catch up on weekends.

Better eating habits. People who go to bed early reportedly eat more fruits, vegetables, and grains, and less sugar, fat, snacks, and fast foods.

Less erratic eating patterns. Early risers eat regular, smaller meals, eat earlier and are less likely to snack at night than those who sleep in.

Lower intakes of caffeine, alcohol and products marketed as energy drinks.

While most people are morning chronotypes in infancy and childhood, approximately half switch to evening chronotypes as they enter puberty and adulthood. Many of these, however, return to a morning chronotype state as they enter their fifties. Studies have found that your chronotype, which has a genetic basis, may be influenced by your ethnicity and where you live in the world, whether you live in the city or the country, social conditions imposed by your culture, your work schedule, and how much natural light you are exposed to throughout each day. If you’ve travelled to other countries, or even to other time zones within your own country, you may have experienced the effects on your natural circadian rhythms that lead to jet lag, insomnia and fuzzy-headedness.
On the one hand, recognizing and going along with your individual chronotype can be useful because it helps you know when you are most sleepy and when you are most alert so you can know and plan the best times to perform certain types of activities, like important work. On the other hand, if your natural rhythm is causing you to make unhealthy lifestyle choices, you may want to adjust your sleep/wake cycle to the degree that it’s possible, in order to protect your long-term health. It is well established that poor eating and sleeping habits are associated with obesity and chronic disease conditions. In fact, these researchers not only found that eating later in the day increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, they noted that people with diabetes who have poorer control of their blood sugar levels also tend to be evening chronotypes.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, you can alter your circadian rhythm by dimming the lights in your home for at least an hour before going to bed in order to prepare your body for falling asleep earlier. Likewise, leave the shades or curtains in your bedroom open to allow in the morning sun or turn on bright lights first thing when you get up by alarm. You can also change the time of day that you eat your meals, or switch your exercise time from evening to morning to shift to an earlier rhythm. Take it slow and make these changes in 15 minute increments.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/cravings/201812/go-bed-and-stay-healthy