If you are one of the 32 million adults in the UK who suffers with sleeplessness or insomnia then you must ask yourself these 3 questions and then read on to find out which treatment will help you. 3 Critical Questions About Your Insomnia: 1) What type of insomnia do you suffer with? Insomnia and sleeplessness can be either transient (temporary) or chronic, read below and decide which type you have: Transient:- Usually lasts less than 4 weeks and is often caused by stress, a brief illness, travelling or temporary pain. Chronic:- You will have suffered for more than one month and maybe several months or even years. Chronic insomnia can be caused by long term illness, chronic pain, depression and old age. 2) What treatments are available for sleeplessness and insomnia? Essentially there are 6 common treatments for insomnia and sleeplessness; some have proven more beneficial than others. If you have transient (temporary) insomnia you most likely wont need any treatment as your sleep pattern should return to normal by itself. However, if your insomnia is chronic you will almost certainly require one of the following treatments: i) Conventional sleeping tablets from your doctor. Most doctors prescribe a range of drugs called hypnotics (benzodiazepines) for the treatment of chronic insomnia. The action of these drugs is to calm the nervous system. They have shown limited success in treating insomnia. The main drawbacks are that they are not effective for more than a short period of time (a few weeks) and they are very addictive. As if that's not enough, they also cause a 'heavy headed' feeling upon waking and cause frequent drowsiness during the day. In brief, these drugs are not suitable for long term use or for people who need to be alert and able to concentrate during the day ii) Herbal remedies. There are many herbal remedies available as over the counter medicines. The vast majority of them contain a concoction of different herbs blended together in the hope that you will respond to at least one of the herbs in the mixture. The most frequently used herbs are camomile, valerian root, passion flower, and lemon balm. These can be drank as an infusion or taken in a tablet form. On the plus side herbs have very little side effects, so they can be used for long periods. The main drawback remains that the fact that a lot of people simply are not responsive to herbal properties so receive no benefit at all. iii) Relaxation therapy. Virtually all insomnia sufferers are advised to try relaxation therapy because it doesn't involve taking tablets and it's totally non-invasive. The principal behind relaxation therapy is that if your insomnia is caused by stress, pain, or depression and you relax your body before going to bed you are more likely to be able to get to sleep. Common relaxation techniques are, listening to 'inner peace' music, meditating, massage and deep breathing. If you suffer with stress, anxiety or pain related insomnia, relaxation may well help you get off to sleep, but it won't stop you from waking during the night. What's more, if your sleeplessness is caused by something other than stress or pain relaxation will not help you at all. iv) Homeopathy. Homeopathic treatments involve a trained homeopathic therapist assessing your overall health and prescribing a fusion of several homeopathic remedies to be taken daily. Many chronic insomnia sufferers have reported benefits from homeopathy but you must have a full assessment by a trained practitioner, you can not buy these remedies over the counter. Some people can take several months to respond favourably to homeopathy, persistence s a must. v) Melatonin drug therapy. In short, the hormone melatonin controls your body's ability to sleep. Quite simply, if you do not have sufficient amounts of melatonin in your body you will not be able to sleep. Obviously, it stands to reason that if insomnia is caused by a lack of melatonin in the body, then surely increasing the amount of melatonin in the body will resolve your insomnia, and that is true. This is the way to permanently resolve insomnia, BUT, and when dealing with the human body there always seems to be a but, it is not very easy to increase the body's melatonin levels, that's why insomnia has historically been nearly impossible to treat. Melatonin drug therapy involves taking melatonin supplements in tablet form. You must take a synthetic melatonin hormone on a daily basis. It is available in the USA and some other countries but has not been given a license in the UK. The main reason for this is that is when you take a synthetic hormone your body can stop or reduce its own production of the hormone because it senses a source from elsewhere, so taking synthetic melatonin could cause your body to give up melatonin production altogether leaving you totally dependant on the synthetic hormone. vi) Magnetic melatonin therapy. Fortunately the most effective method of raising melatonin levels within the body is available in the UK; stimulating your body to increase its own production of melatonin naturally, without drugs or chemicals. This is achieved by exposing the melatonin production centre (the pineal gland in the brain) to a strong static magnetic field. |
