Natural Cures for Insomnia Guide

Why Can’t I Sleep?

Many people struggle to fall asleep during the night.  Insomnia can make you and those around you miserable.

So, Why Do Some Of Us Just Stop Sleeping?

The internet is full of pages discussing a variety of factors which could contribute to insomnia, all illustrating that there is no single cause for this condition. I’ve witnessed many different causes having lived with insomnia myself and known people who have suffered from it.

Causes of insomnia are often separated into categories which can cause insomnia for different periods of time.  Insomnia can be transient, flitting in and out of our lives, short-term or in the worst case scenario – chronic.

One of the most prominent categories is psychological problems.  This category includes anxiety, stress and depression, which could be evoked by situations such as relationship problems, bereavement, work problems and ironically, anxiety about not being able to sleep.  Generally ‘worrying’ about something in your life can prevent you from sleeping.

If you suffer with back pain or you’ve sustained an injury, physical pain can break your sleep pattern and leave you with insomnia.  I have asthma and once had a chest infection which left a niggling cough.  I continued to wake from coughing every night for 3 months.  Many women also suffer from insomnia during the menopause, experiencing broken sleep due to hot flushes.

Medicines and drugs themselves can have side effects that reduce your quality of sleep. These are not natural cures for insomnia.  When you stop taking a medication a type of withdrawal may be experienced in the form of insomnia.

Lifestyle habits can also contribute to insomnia.  It could be your sleeping environment –excess noise or light, the temperature of your room, your partner’s snoring!  What do you do before bed, are your end of day activities stimulating you?  Playing computer games, watching TV and exercising before bed can prevent you from falling asleep.  Caffeine and nicotine are common stimulants associated with insomnia, even eating late at night can have an effect.  Many of us think an alcoholic drink, a ‘night cap’ will help us sleep, but alcohol is actually associated with sleep disruption.

Jet lag and working shifts also ‘knocks’ our natural body clock out of rhythm which causes insomnia until our body’s rhythm is restored.

As you can you see, there are many things that can prevent a good night’s sleep, once you identify your personal ‘triggers’ you’re on the road to sleeping soundly.

We will go into more depth on the various causes and how to identify your causes in future articles.

When you see and understand the source of the problem, you can find the right natural cure for you.

This article was written by Anna T.

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Tags: causes of insomnia, insomnia, insomnia causes, insomnia symptoms, natural cures for insomnia, the cure for insomnia, worrying

This entry was posted on Monday, August 31st, 2009 at 9:44 am and is filed under Causes, Symptoms. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.