Insomnia Relief
April 23, 2011 No Comments
Insomnia. Ugh.
It really sucks, lying wide awake at 2 am in the morning, watching time pass by.. still unable to sleep at 4am.. and knowing very well I have to be up at 7am.. for a stressful day at work.
Yeah. I know a sleeping pill would probably take care of it. Ok, the natural alternative would be those melatonin pills they sell in the pharmacies to help travellers deal with jet lag. I tried those before. They work, but there are other ways one can get insomnia relief. Natural ways actually.
Before we can figure out how to sleep better, let’s look at what causes insomnia in the first place.
Insomnia Causes
Common causes of insomnia include
- Stress
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Hormonal imbalance (women)
- Caffeine
- Alcohol
- A medical condition.
That said, it would be wise to see a doctor to check if you do have an underlying medical condition that requires treatment, especially if you have chronic insomnia.
How To Sleep Better
First, check your diet. Is caffeine keeping you awake?
Cut down on coffee.. eliminate it altogether if you can, to see if caffeine is the cause of your insomnia. Chocolates too are another culprit. I found that on days when my friends and I gorged on chocolates, we’d suffer from insomnia those nights.
The environment could keep you awake. In my case, a snoring partner certainly did. I’d poke him so he’d turn over and the snoring would stop momentarily.. hopefully long enough for me to fall asleep.
Is stress affecting you? Give yourself a break. Have a relaxing bedtime ritual.. like a nice long bath to destress before you sleep.
One great way to relax is to drink a cup of chamomile tea before you go to bed. A friend of mine swears by it. She says it helps her sleep.
Another pal who is very well versed in aromatherapy taught me this. Add a few drops of lavender oil and a drop or two of geranium essential oil into a foot bath and soak your feet in it. That combination does make one rather sleepy. Alternatively, you could mix 4 drops lavender oil and 2 drops essential oil in a tablespoon of olive oil and massage your feet in it at bed time.
A word of caution though. Geranium essential oil is a stimulating oil and could cause insomnia in certain people. An alternative is to mix lavender with chamomile oil instead, for relaxing combination that helps you sleep.
I found off-the-shelf sleeping pills in a chinese medical store, bought some, but chickened out before using them. Actually, there are chinese herbs to treat insomnia too. You may want to visit your Traditional Chinese Medicine physician for them. Insomnia is viewed as a symptom of a deeper problem and the physician would need to examine the patient in order to treat the root of the problem, which in TCM could be an imbalance of the heart or liver.
To cut the long story short, I found insomnia relief by running.
At first, I ran 2km every morning before going to work. By the end of the day, I was physically tired enough to sleep soundly at night. Slowly, I increased the distance of my runs to 10km a day. For me, that worked.
Natural Health Tips
