Insomnia is a sleep disorder in which a person have trouble falling and/or staying asleep.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The condition can be short-term (acute) or can last a long time (chronic). It may also come and go.
Acute insomnia lasts from 1 night to a few weeks. Insomnia is chronic when it happens at least 3 nights a week for 3 months or more.
Types of Insomnia
- Primary insomnia: This means patient’s sleep problems aren’t linked to any other health condition or problem.
- Secondary insomnia: This means patient have trouble sleeping because of a health condition (like asthma, depression, arthritis, cancer, or heartburn); pain; medication; or substance use (like alcohol).
- Acute insomnia refers to short-term sleeping difficulties that generally last no more than a few weeks.
- Chronic insomnia refers to insomnia that affects your sleep for 3 or more days each week on a regular basis, typically for a period of 3 months or longer.
- Onset insomnia describes difficulty falling asleep. Trouble getting to sleep might happen as a result of caffeine use, mental health symptoms, or other common insomnia triggers, but it can also develop with other sleep disorders.
- Maintenance insomnia refers to trouble remaining asleep once patient get to sleep, or consistently waking up too early. This type of insomnia might relate to underlying health and mental health symptoms — but lying awake and worrying the patient won’t get enough sleep can make it worse.
- Behavioral insomnia of childhood involves consistent trouble falling asleep, refusing to go to bed, or both. Children with this condition often benefit from learning self-soothing strategies and following a regular sleep routine.
- Paradoxical insomnia: When you have paradoxical insomnia, you underestimate the time you’re asleep. It feels like you sleep a lot less than you really do.
- Mixed insomnia: With this type of insomnia, you have trouble both falling asleep and staying asleep through the night.
Causes
Primary causes of insomnia include:
- Stress related to big life events, like a job loss or change, the death of a loved one, divorce, or moving.
- Things around you like noise, light, or temperature.
- Changes to your sleep schedule like jet lag, a new shift at work, or bad habits you picked up when you had other sleep problems.
- Your genes. Research has found that a tendency for insomnia may run in families.
Secondary causes of insomnia include:
- Mental health issues like depression and anxiety.
- Medications for colds, allergies, depression, high blood pressure, and asthma.
- Pain or discomfort at night.
- Caffeine, tobacco, or alcohol use, as well as use of illicit drugs.
- Hyperthyroidism and other endocrine problems.
- Other sleep disorders, like sleep apnea or restless legs syndrome.
- Pregnancy.
- Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia.
- Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
- Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and menopause.
Ever spent a night lying awake worrying about something you couldn’t control?
Insomnia commonly happens with anxiety, and the link can go both ways.
You might find it tough to fall asleep when you can’t soothe persistent feelings of worry and fear, for one. But chronic insomnia can leave you anxious about all the sleep you’re not getting, not to mention make it more difficult to manage difficult and unwanted emotions during the day.
If your insomnia is related to anxiety, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) may be an effective way to manage both conditions.
Evidence suggests a close link between insomnia and depression:
- A 2016 meta-analysis of 34 studies Trusted Source concluded that poor sleep, especially during times of stress, appeared to significantly increase the risk of depression.
- In a 2018 study Trusted Source involving 1,126 adults who didn’t have a diagnosis of either insomnia or depression when the study began, the risk of depression increased as persistent insomnia symptoms worsened over time.
Insomnia Risk Factors
Insomnia affects women more than men and older people more than younger ones.
Other risk factors include:
- Long-term illness
- Mental health issues
- Working night shifts or shifts that rotate
Insomnia Symptoms
Symptoms of insomnia include:
- Sleepiness during the day.
- Fatigue.
- Grumpiness.
- Problems with concentration or memory.
Insomnia Allopathic Treatment
Acute insomnia may not need treatment.
The most common treatments are:
- therapy, including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
- antidepressants
- lifestyle changes, including improved sleep habits, regular exercise and meditation.
Insomnia Complications
- A higher risk of health problems like high blood pressure, obesity, and depression
- A higher risk of falling.
- Trouble focusing.
- Anxiety.
- Grumpiness.
- Slow reaction time that can lead to an accident.
Insomnia Prevention
Good sleep habits, also called sleep hygiene, can help one beat insomnia. Here are some tips:
- Go to sleep at the same time each night, and get up at the same time each morning. Try not to take naps during the day, because they may make you less sleepy at night.
- Don’t use phones or e-books before bed. Their light can make it harder to fall asleep.
- Avoid caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol late in the day. Caffeine and nicotine are stimulants and can keep you from falling asleep. Alcohol can make you wake up in the middle of the night and hurt your sleep quality.
- To get a good night sleep get regular morning exercise (bio clock). Try not to work out close to bedtime, because it may make it hard to fall asleep.
- Don’t eat a heavy meal late in the day. But a light snack before bedtime may help you sleep.
- Make your bedroom comfortable: dark, quiet, and not too warm or too cold. If light is a problem, use a sleeping mask. To cover up sounds, try earplugs, a fan, or a white noise machine.
- Follow a routine to relax before bed. Read a book, listen to music, or take a bath.
- Don’t use your bed for anything other than sleep and spouse jobs.
- If you can’t fall asleep and aren’t drowsy, get up and do something calming, like reading until you feel sleepy.
- If you tend to lie awake and worry about things, make a to-do list before you go to bed. This may help you put your concerns aside for the night.
Essential oils
Essential oils are strong aromatic liquids made from herbs, flowers, and trees.
People often inhale these oils or massage them into their skin to help ease symptoms of various conditions. This practice is called aromatherapy.
A 2015 review of 12 studies found evidence to suggest aromatherapy could potentially improve sleep quality.
Homeopathic Treatment of Insomnia
Kalium Phosphoricum
Insomnia due to: anxiety, nervous dread, lethargy. Indisposition to meet people. Extreme lassitude and depression. Very nervous, starts easily, irritable.
Brain fag; hysteria; night terrors. Somnambulance. Loss of memory. Slightest labor seems a heavy task. Great despondency about business. Shyness; disinclined to converse.
Cells of the brain contains Kali Phosphoricum, nerves, muscles, blood (corpuscles and plasma), and intercellular fluids; and a disturbance in the motions of its molecules produces:-
1) In Thought cells: Despondency, anxiety, fearfulness, tearfulness, home-sickness, suspiciousness, agoraphobia, weak memory.
2) In Vasomotor Nerves: First, small and frequent pulse; later, retarded.
3) In Sensory Nerves: Pains with sensation of paralysis.
4) In Motor Nerves: Weakness of muscles and nerves even to paralysis.
5) In Trophic fibres of Sympathetic Nerve: Retarded nutrition; even total arrest in a limited area of cells and then a softening.
Depression is the characteristic of its action; conversely it cures depressed states of mind and body, hypochondriasis, hysteria, neurasthenia, nervous insomnia,
Coffea Cruda
Gaiety, easy comprehension, irritability, excited; senses acute. Impressionable, especially to pleasurable impressions. Full of ideas, quick to act. Severe headache worse from noise, smell, narcotics.
Wakeful; on a constant move. Sleeps till 3 am, after which only dozing. Wakes with a start, sleep disturbed by dreams. Sleepless, on account mental activity; flow of ideas, with nervous excitability. Disturbed by itching of anus.
Nux Vomica – For Insomnia during Latter Half of Night
Nux Vomica is a valuable medicine for second half night/late night insomnia; patient have no trouble falling asleep, but wakes up around 3:00 am – 4:00 am after which cannot sleep. Intense drowsiness, tiredness and weakness during day time. Sleeplessness linked with an excessive intake of coffee, tobacco or alcohol. Sleeplessness due to gastritis.
Amaurosis. Amblyopia. Anger, effects of. Apoplexy. Asthma. Anguish, anxiety, and excessive uneasiness, often with agitation which allows no rest whatever; Melancholy, bewildered, and confused.
Chamomilla Vulgaris – For Disturbed Sleep, Frightful Dreams
Rheumatic, drawing pains, chiefly at night, frightful dreams. The person wakes suddenly with a start;
and be weeping or fearful. These episodes occur several times at night resulting in disturbed sleep. TSleep. Yawning and stretching. Sleepiness, during the day, without being able to sleep, on lying down. Coma, and coma-vigil, with pulling pain in the head, and nausea, or with feverish restlessness, short respiration, and thirst. Nocturnal sleeplessness, with attacks of anguish, visions, and illusions of the sight and hearing. Snoring breathing when asleep. On sleeping, starts with fright, cries, tossing, tears, talking, raving, groans, snoring, and constant separating of the thighs. Fantastical, lively, quarrelsome and vexatious dreams, with morose and sullen aspect. Nocturnal delirium.
Pulsatilla Nigricans – For Insomnia during First Half of Night
Very easily excited to tears-they are very apt to burst into tears, inclination to commit suicide, whenever insomnia appearing during the first half of night. The person stays awake and restless during the first half of the night. A fixed thought keeps revolving in the mind that prevents sleeping. fear of ghosts at night or in evening. The person eventually falls asleep during the late hours (towards dawn). The person wakes up feeling tired and may experience excessive yawning and sleepiness during the daytime.
Cries and weeping, flow of very changeful ideas. Nocturnal raving, humming in head.
Ignatia Amara – For Insomnia from Grief, Depression
Anger, depressed and full of cares and worries, sadness and concentrated sorrow, anxiety, melancholia, sleep, disordered. He/She may get entirely absorbed in profound grief that leads to sleeplessness. Other attending features are a desire to be alone, tearfulness, and sadness with deep sighs. The person keeps thinking about the sad occurrences in the past. Excessive brooding, moaning, and an indifferent behavior to everything, Fear of robbers at night.
Opium – For Insomnia where Person is Sleepy but Unable to Sleep
Anxiety and uneasiness, great flow of ideas, sleeplessness or sleep, with anxious dreams. He/She may remain awake for long, there is restless at night with constant tossing and tumbling in bed. The person may have acuteness of hearing, and small noises may disturb the person and cause sleeplessness.
Calcarea Carb – For Sleeplessness at Night with Daytime Drowsiness
Calcarea Carb is another excellent medicine for the treatment of insomnia. The individual requiring Calcarea Carb is sleepless at night and very drowsy during the daytime. He/She may sleep for a short duration, and experience sleeplessness post 2 am. At night, a heated sensation, agitation and pulsating in the head appears due to insomnia. The person often feels exhausted in the morning with a desire to sleep, and the head may feel heavy.
Drowsiness in the day and early in the evening. Retarded sleep and sleeplessness from activity of mind, or in consequence of voluptuous or frightful images, which appear as soon as the eyes are shut. During sleep, talking, groans, cries, and starts, anxiety which continues after waking, or movements of the mouth, as if one were chewing or swallowing. Snoring during sleep.
Dreams frequent, vivid, anxious, fantastic, confused, frightful, and horrible; or dreams of sick and dead persons. Sleep disturbed, with tossing about and frequent waking. Sleep of too short duration, from eleven in the evening till two or three in the morning only. Waking too early, sometimes even at midnight. At night, agitation, asthmatic suffering, anxiety, heat, pains in the stomach and in the precordial region, thirst, beatings of the head, toothache, vertigo, headache, ebullition of the blood, fear of losing the reason, pains in the limbs, and many other sufferings. On waking, lassitude, exhaustion, and desire to sleep, as if the patient had not slept at all.-Fearful of fantastic dreams during sleep.
Robinia – For Insomnia due to GERD
Heartburn and acidity of stomach at night, GERD worsening of symptoms at night which disturbs sleep. Symptoms like heartburn and sour belchings become worse at night, disturbing the sleep. Homeopathic medicine Robinia treats GERD and its acid reflux symptoms, and this usually resolves the problem of disturbed sleep. Sleepiness and dullness in limbs and head (with stinging pain in temples), changing from r. to l. side.-Restless sleep all night on account of frequent sneezing; from indigestion.
Rhus Tox – For Disturbed Sleep from Chronic Pain
Frequent, violent, and spasmodic yawning. Spasmodic yawning without inclination to sleep, and with stretching of limbs and pain as from dislocation of articulation of the jaw. Yawning in general; with violent stretching of the limbs; falling asleep late; lying on the back during sleep. Strong disposition to sleep during day, and also in morning in bed. Somnolency, full of distressing and broken dreams. Sleeplessness, especially before midnight, generally caused by a sensation of heat, ebullition of blood, and uneasiness which does not permit patient to remain lying down.
Disturbed sleep, with anxious and frightful dreams. Coma somnolent, with snoring, murmurs, and carphology. Sleep hindered by gloomy ideas. Waking caused by bitterness and sensation of dryness in mouth. Sleep at night hindered by a pressure at stomach, digging pinchings in abdomen, and nausea, with inclination to vomit. Inability to remain lying on side at night. Starts with fright and jerking of body during sleep. Incomplete and agitated sleep, with tossing and many troublesome thoughts. Vivid dreams of the business of the day, with talking during sleep. Weeping while asleep. Dreams of fire. Sleep, with open mouth and short breathing.
Zincum Met – For Insomnia due to Restless Leg Syndrome
Sleep by day, and continued disposition to sleep, especially in morning or after a meal; with inclination to yawn. Unconquerable drowsiness. Retarded sleep. Disturbed sleep, with frequent waking. Unrefreshing sleep (with unpleasant dreams). Fantastic, frightful, agitated, or disgusting and terrific dreams, with talking and cries during sleep. Excessive coldness of the feet at night. Shocks in body during sleep and frequent starts. The person needing this medicine experiences restlessness of the feet or lower limbs. They keep on moving them constantly, and this uneasiness is worse at night. The lower limbs also feel heavy. In some cases drawing pain and cramping in legs arises. Formication (sensation like insects crawling over the skin) of feet at night may also attend.
Passiflora Incarnata – Homeopathic Medicine for Insomnia in Elderly People
Sleeplessness; for restlessness of fevers for tedious labours when the patient becomes nervous and excitable for breaking off the Morphine habit; insomnia in older persons. This medicine is prepared from a plant named ‘passion flower’ belonging to natural order Passifloraceae. The person needing Passiflora Incarnata remains wakeful and restless at night. Mental worries may also be present with insomnia. This medicine is also indicated for insomnia in infants.
Cina – For Insomnia in Children
Cina is a medicine prepared from a plant named ‘Artemisia maritime’ belonging to family Composite. Cina works well to treat insomnia in children. Its use is considered when the child cannot sleep and tends to scream and kick off bedclothes. The child is cranky, irritable and restless. Cina is also indicated in children who sleep for a very short time, or in cases where a child experiences night terrors and wakes up screaming and frightened. Nocturnal epileptic convulsions. Mid night hunger, night; before midnight child wakes up frightened
Arsenic Album – For Insomnia Linked with Anxiety
Constant drowsiness, with strong and frequent yawning. Nocturnal sleeplessness, with agitation and constant tossing. Drowsiness in the evening. Coma vigil, often interrupted by groans and grinding of the teeth. Unrefreshing sleep; in the morning it seems as if more sleep were needed. Starting of the limbs when on the point of falling asleep. During sleep, startings with fright, groans, talking, querulous exclamations, grinding of the teeth, convulsive movements of the hands and fingers, sensation of general uneasiness, and tossing.
In sleep, lying on the back, with the hand under the head. Light sleep; the slightest noise is heard, though the patient dreams continually. Frequent dreams, full of cares, threats apprehensions, repentings and inquietude; anxious, horrible, fantastic, lively and angry dreams; dreams of storms, of fire, of black waters and darkness; dreams with meditation. In the night, jerking of the limbs, heat and agitation, burning under the skin, as if there were boiling water in the veins, or cold, with inability to get warm, stifling sensation in the larynx, asthmatic attacks, great agitation, and anguish at the heart. Frequent waking during the night, with difficulty in sleeping again. Sleeplessness, from anguish and restlessness, with tossing about (after midnight).
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Dr. Sayyad Qaisar Ahmed (MD {Ukraine}, DHMS) ; senior research officer Dnepropetrovsk state medical academy Ukraine; is a leading Homeopathic physician practicing in Al-Haytham clinic, Umer Farooq Chowk Risalpur Sadder (0923631023, 03119884588), K.P.K, Pakistan.
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