3 Surefire Ways To Cure Insomnia While Sleeping Less!

3 Surefire Ways To Cure Insomnia While Sleeping Less!
by: Ebe Heng

Seems like you never get enough rest even after sleeping long hours? You would know part of the reasons for this fatigue, as you suffer from insomnia. But the other part on waking up tired even after a good long sleep eludes you.

A good example of how insomnia wreck havoc in a person live can be found my friend, Darren. Suffering from insomnia, he finds it very difficult to concentrate and stay awake during the day. This leads to a couple of failed relationship and lost opportunities for promotion, because his tiredness is seen as insincerity and no interest.

Highlighted above shows the mild effects of insomnia, the tragic ones with many lives lost would be traffic accidents where the drivers doze off.

Okay, now we succeeded in making you sit up and realized that sleep disorder can disrupt your life, here's 3 surefire ways to sleep once your head touches the pillow: -

Following a routine:

Following a routine would assist us to sleep better because of our sleep cycle. 1 sleep-cycle contains 4 stages of sleep with the last stage being the REM rapid eye movement sleep, which is the easiest to wake up.

Getting up before or after REM sleep would make you very drowsy and not rested. The former happens because you have not completed 1 cycle, the latter because of the halting of a new cycle. Therefore, from this experiment with your waking time, you would know what time you are the most alert and that would be the end of your REM.

And by the way, to get good sleep, you would need at least 1 cycle, which range between 5-6 hours depending on individuals. So, to get quality sleep and to feel energetic for the entire day, you do not need more sleep but waking at the right time (6 hours versus the recommended 8 hours).

Sleeping Environment:

Now, not all of us would enjoy the 'correct' sleep cycle. If you suffer from insomnia, chances are, you might have a disrupted cycle. So, we need to 'persuade' your sleep-cycle on when is the right time to sleep and wake.

To do that we need to lowered our body temperature. Low temperature makes one drowsy while high temperature makes one alert.

Creating an environment would give the body the low temperature (drowsy), sleep experts say that the ideal room temperature is 65 to 70 degrees F. This would give your body the low temperature to fall asleep.

To make sleep even more effective, we should encourage the production of a chemical known as melatonin, which induces sleep.

A darkened room (darkness) would release melatonin. These two prong approach would slowly conditioned your body to feel drowsy for you to begin your sleep-cycle

Exercise:

To even better your sleep-cycle, you need to exercise, and preferably in the daytime under the sun. Exercising under the sun contributes to raising your body temperature.

As a rule of thumb, if you maintain a high body temperature through the day, as night approaches, your body temperature would drop and you would fall asleep easily (that's assuming that you want to sleep at night).

Go ahead and learn more about sleep disorder and quality sleep. Without reading this article, would you have known that sleeping more does not mean better rest or feeling more energetic? So, to effectively cure your insomnia and get more quality sleep, try to see insomnia as your enemy, something you need to know more in order to defeat it.

"Know thy enemy and know theyself, and you can win every battles"
Sun Tzu
Art Of War


About The Author
Ebe Heng
How important is a good night sleep worth to you? Ebe Heng has co-create the ultimate, informative and useful sleep dirctories for anyone with any sleep related problems. Rid that insomnia bug and get the sleep that you deserved! Check out=> http://www.1-2-sleep.com

How To Give Up Insomnia

How To Give Up Insomnia
by: Elaine Currie, BA (Hons)


I am writing this on a Sunday morning following a very restless night when sleep just didn’t want to be my friend. I have suffered with insomnia for many years but, by using a combination of techniques, it is more or less under control.

Yesterday, I spent much too long working on changes to my website. I was enjoying it, so the time shot by. I ended up sending out for a big Chinese meal late in the evening. A vast quantity of spicy food was washed down with several glasses of wine. If you want to lie awake half the night, just do as I did. The remedy is simple and obvious. Time to get a grip on the lifestyle.

Self-inflicted insomnia is easily cured. What I call "real" insomnia is a beast of a much deeper hue, debilitating and much harder to defeat. Even so, it is not impossible to overcome and there is a whole range of things you can do to get the upper hand.

Here I should state that I do not pretend to have any special medical or therapeutic knowledge and I would not advise anybody to stop taking their prescribed medication. I am just sharing my experiences in the hope that they might help other people who are struggling through wakeful nights.

The following tips for getting off to sleep are pretty well known but I think they are worth repeating :

1. Keep the bedroom just for bed with no reminders of daytime activities like work or study. Decorate the room in restful colours and use soft lighting. Make sure the temperature is comfortable and the ventilation adequate. Hang curtains which are heavy enough to block out the early morning light.

2. Have a bedtime routine. This does not involve doing anything special, it is just a matter of doing the same things in the same order each night. We all have things we do regularly: empty the dishwasher, put out the cat, lock the front door, set the alarm, brush teeth etc. These routine things are our steps away from the activity of the day, towards the restful night.

3. Make a soak in a warm bath part of your nightly ritual. Adding a few drops of aromatherapy oil to the water makes it doubly relaxing, soft background music makes the experience positively decadent.

4. Don’t drink alcohol late at night. A nightcap might make you feel drowsy but it will disrupt your natural sleep rhythms and exacerbate your problem.

5. A warm milky drink is the best thing to have last thing at night. (Yes, our mothers were right when they made us drink cocoa.) There are tons of instant milky drinks available and most ranges have low fat options. If you don’t like this milky, chocolatey type of drink, try out herbal teas but avoid anything containing caffeine.

6. Exercise is important but should be performed several hours before bedtime otherwise the adrenaline will still be pumping around your system and keeping you awake.

What if you follow the above tips, fall peacefully asleep and then wake up three hours later, in the dark middle of the night? To me, this is the most distressing type of insomnia. I know how it feels to wake up at 2.00 am, listen to the clock chime every hour round to 7.00 am, fall asleep and be rudely awakened by the alarm at 7.30. I always feel worse after that final snatched half hour of sleep than I felt in the middle of the night and sometimes get up insanely early to avoid it. The following tips can help you get back to sleep.

1. Recognise why you are awake. If you are too hot, cold or uncomfortable in any way, fix that problem. I often wake up thirsty, so I always have a jug of water at my bedside. Sometimes a drink of water is all that’s needed to get back to sleep.

2. Relax by breathing slowly and deeply and by concentrating on tensing and then relaxing every muscle in your body, one by one, starting with toes and working upwards to your head.

3. Keep a pen and paper by your bed so if you are worrying about things you have to do, you can write them down in a list. This way you can stop worrying about forgetting anything important. As you write each thing down, visualise it leaving your brain and lodging itself on paper where you will find it safely in the morning. I find this exercise helps a lot if I have things on my mind.

If all this fails, you have been awake for over half an hour and know you are in for a long wakeful night; give up, get up, go do things. You won’t feel any worse and you will probably feel better. There is no point in wasting those hours just lying there worrying about insomnia. If you feel sleepy further into the night, you can always go back to bed.

I gave up insomnia by sleeping whenever I could and getting up and doing things when I was wide awake even if it was the middle of the night. I decided to sleep when I could, not worry if I woke up at strange hours and not waste time tossing and turning in search of sleep. The decision to stop worrying was the key to my recovery.

I was fortunate in that I was not tied to a 9-5 work schedule, most of my work was done at home or in the library. All I had to do was make sure I was there for my children who were all school age.

Over a few weeks I "enjoyed" a strange lifestyle. I would go to bed at my normal time, get up at any time of night when I couldn’t sleep (usually between 3.00 am and 5.00 am) and read or write essays or do quiet household chores. Then I would get the children up and see that they had breakfast and got off to school. I would then, depending how I felt, carry on working or go to bed. My alarm would be set so that I did not have to worry about being asleep when the children came home from school (I never was: I think mothers have an internal alarm clock). I would sleep for as long as I needed and then get up and carry on with my day. At weekends I could sleep while the children were doing homework or out with their friends.

Gradually, my night-time sleep became longer and my spells of daytime sleep grew shorter. Without any effort or worrying, I reverted to a normal sleep pattern and resumed a conventional timetable.

Several years afterwards I came across this quotation: "If you can't sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there and worrying. It's the worry that gets you, not the loss of sleep". -- Dale Carnegie. I couldn’t have put it better myself!

If you have commitments which prevent you from using this "cure", I suggest you give it a try over a holiday weekend or any other time you can manage to be home for three or more consecutive days. You will not find sleep if you search for it or worry about it, relax and it will come to you.


About The Author
This is one of a series of articles published by the author, Elaine Currie, BA(Hons) at http://www.huntingvenus.com

Insomnia Fighters - How To Sleep When Your Work Is On Your Mind

Insomnia Fighters - How To Sleep When Your Work Is On Your Mind
by: www.sleepsecrets.info


Excerpt from "How to sleep without pills"

Mr. S. was the account executive of a big advertising agency. His day consisted largely of a series of conferences, all of which both he and the agency considered at least as important as a convocation of the United Nations. At night there was a client to entertain or a client's radio or television show to listen to and worry over. By the time Mr. S. was in bed he was so tense that he tossed half the night, rehashing the day's work, reconsidering his decisions, and in general, making himself as unfit as possible to do a good day's work the next day.

Thousands of business executives take their work to bed with them, believing that with a little midnignt mulling, difficult problems will suddenly solve themselves. Occasionally this may happen, but it can't happen if you make a habit of taking your work to bed with you, if you toss and turn, fruitlessly considering decisions in a state of tension, and finally become panicky and fail to get enough sleep.

SOLUTION

Worrying over your work night and day won't make you richer, but it may make you die sooner. It's even bad economics. For example, a $100,000-a-year executive who dies fifteen years prematurely has lost $1,500,000. Isn't it good business for such a man to ask himself whether his nightly wrestling with his work is going to net him an extra $1,500,000?

Mr. S. once believed that taking his work to bed was necessary to his career. By the time he came to me he wanted to break this habit, but couldn't.

His first step was to learn that sleep really begins at 8:00 a.m. If you are tense all day, you will be tense at night and pay the penalty of being unable to sleep. Mr. S. had to be taught to relax during the day.

At first he protested that this was impossible. But he had been thinking in terms of free hours, when all he needed was free minutes. I taught him the ABC Round Robin, and later the Sleep Exercise. It took him three weeks to master the Round Robin to the point where he could feel himself relaxing physically.

When a conference was over, instead of rehashing the discussion with his secretary and his colleagues at the water cooler, he closed his office door and consciously relaxed with the Round Robin. He did this right in his swivel chair, making himself comfortable by propping his feet up on the desk. After the Robin he did the Sleep Exercise. Just before he went to sleep (right at his desk) he said to himself, "I will awaken in exactly fifteen minutes. When I awaken in fifteen minutes, I will feel completely relaxed and refreshed." Mr. S. found that he could learn to sleep in a matter of seconds and wake up at exactly the time he set for himself.

Once he could make himself relax consciously during the day, he found he hardly needed the Round Robin and the Sleep Exercise to put him to sleep at night. Not only will Mr. S. live longer now that he has learned to relax and sleep at night, but he is doing better in his business and getting more out of life.

SUMMARY

To sleep when your work is on your mind:

1. Learn and master the Round Robin and the Sleep Exercise.

2. Make it a definite point to relax during intermissions in your day's work. Make yourself comfortable at your desk and then put yourself to sleep with the Round Robin and the Sleep Exercise. If before you drop off to sleep, you give yourself a set time to sleep—say fifteen minutes—you will find that you will awaken in that exact time. So don't be afraid of oversleeping.

3. When you have mastered the Round Robin and the Sleep Exercise and made a habit of relaxing during the day, you will sleep well at night. Not only that, but there will be little likelihood of your dropping dead from hypertension when you are in your fifties, as do many men who have never learned to make themselves relax.


About The Author
ABC Round Robin and Sleep Exercise and more are included in "How To Sleep Without Pills"
http://www.sleepsecrets.info

Insomnia Fighters - How To Go Back To Sleep When You Wake Up In The Middle Of The Night.

Insomnia Fighters - How To Go Back To Sleep When You Wake Up In The Middle Of The Night.
by: www.sleepsecrets.info


Excerpt from "How to sleep without pills"

When you wake up in the middle of the night, it may be for one of several reasons of which you are not aware:

Perhaps you unconsciously became hungry during the night.

You may have too much covering on and not realize it. Being too warm may make you just uncomfortable enough to wake you and keep you awake, yet not uncomfortable enough for you to know why you awoke.

Maybe you are not physically tired—maybe you -went to bed too early. Don't think it's necessary for you to have eight hours (or any other particular amount) of sleep every single night.

SOLUTION

If hunger is the cause of your awakening, get up and take a light snack, such as crackers and warm milk. Food will bring the blood from your head to your stomach. Get into bed, turn off the light and do the ABC Round Robin and the Sleep Exercise. You will find that you will quickly go back to sleep.

If you are hot, take off any excess covers and make sure you are comfortable. Do the ABC Round Robin and the Sleep Exercise and you will drift off to sleep.

If you cannot sleep and are not hungry or uncomfortable, turn on the light and read a book, provided it does not disturb the other occupant of the room. Make sure it is not an exciting book. Read until your eyes feel tired. Then turn out the light, relax in a comfortable position and start to do the ABC Round Robin and the Sleep Exercise. In most cases, you will find that long before you have completed the Exercise you will have drifted back to sleep.

You may be allowing for more sleep than you really need. If this is the case you can go to bed later and still get plenty of sleep.


About The Author
ABC Round Robin and Sleep Exercise and more are included in "How To Sleep Without Pills"
http://www.sleepsecrets.info

Insomnia: Stop the Frustration

Insomnia: Stop the Frustration
by: Mark Idzik

A sleep disorder that has affected many people world-wide, insomnia is unfortunately quite common in today. But the consequences brought on by insomnia may not be as ordinary as they seem.

The frustration of repeatedly looking at your clock while moving around in your bed can be emotionally and physically draining to say the least. The tension builds up to its peak when you see the sun rise, and you go to the office lacking energy after experiencing a sleepless night.

You don't have to suffer anymore. Here are some tips to help you sleep peacefully and faster than you could ever expect.

1) Don't eat within 4 hours before you go to bed. In case you go hungry, try some crackers, an apple or a light snack. But don't indulge in an "all-you-can-eat" feast right before bedtime. Your food won't be digested properly, resulting in poor and uncomfortable sleep.

2) Don't drink caffeine or alcohol. Caffeine can hinder your ability to sleep. Alcohol can make you drowsy, but it can wake you up in the middle of the night and bring on side effects that will adversely affect a peaceful night’s sleep.

3) Develop a consistent routine of waking up and going to bed at the same time everyday, even on the weekends. Some insomniacs tend to sleep at any time of the day to catch up on some sleep they lose during the night. This is the one of the biggest mistakes you can make if you’re looking to sleep peacefully. It alters your body clock and will only worsen your insomnia. If you can't sleep one night, get up at the usual time the next morning. You'll be sleeping soundly the next night.

4) Relax, stay healthy and fit. Avoid a stressful lifestyle. Engage in activity and exercise daily to release tension. Practice deep breathing exercises to relax your body often.

5) Don’t force yourself to sleep. Trying your best to sleep requires some work. You don't want to work when you want to doze off. Sleep comes best if you are in a relaxed and comfortable state. Just lie down, relax, and let yourself fall into sleep naturally.


About The Author
Mark Idzik reports on natural and alternative health and is the editor of Sound Sleep Right Now. Visit his site at http://www.SoundSleepTips.com for more sound sleeping tips and ways to achieve peaceful, rested sleep.

Yoga - The Solution for Insomnia

Yoga - The Solution for Insomnia
by: Paul M. Jerard Jr.

At one time, or another, all of us have experienced insomnia for any type of reason. There are times when lack of sleep just can’t be helped, such as: the loss a loved one, going through a divorce, and losing your job.

These are some of life’s serious crisis situations, where we have to let time heal, and try not to fall apart in the process. Some of the solutions below will help insomnia, but they will not heal grief.

However, if you are continually staying awake over trivial matters, these solutions will aid you to get a good night’s rest. Remember - not every solution will work for everyone, so try the easiest ideas and make them fit into your lifestyle.

Do you have one or more problems, on your mind, that are troubling you at bedtime? If so, write it down and leave it on the kitchen table where you sit in the morning. This is a form of compartmentalization, where your subconscious mind works on a solution, and you and your conscious mind get some needed rest.

You will be surprised what happens the following morning. The problem is much less important or your subconscious found the solution. This technique is so powerful that many successful people use it, even when they don’t really have a problem. This keeps you organized, on a daily basis, and you will get more accomplished in life.

That leads into the next idea, which is establishing a daily routine. Your body has a natural cycle, and most of us ignore it. Modern humans are more out of tune with their bodies than ever before, so we have to get back to basics and design a schedule for all tasks - including sleep.

You should exercise every day, but your exercise routine should end two hours before bedtime, at the latest. This allows your body and mind “cool down” time. If you can exercise earlier in the day, feel free to do so.

Exercise will give you extra energy during the day, and help you get a good night’s sleep, when you need it. If you don’t exercise, don’t feel alone, but do take action. Gentle Yoga postures are a great way to start.

If you find the right Yoga teacher, you will learn controlled breathing (pranayama), stage-by-stage relaxation, and meditation. Each is a powerful technique for winding down before bedtime. You always practice controlled breathing with either, stage-by-stage relaxation, or meditation. Some people practice stage-by-stage relaxation in bed and fall asleep in the process. This is not a bad thing, if your ultimate goal is to fall asleep.

Now let’s look at a few other ideas, such as alcohol and hidden caffeine. Alcohol has a way of getting you to sleep, but sleep is often interrupted during the night. One suggestion, if you enjoy drinking: Have one small drink; preferably wine, with your meal.

Caffeine is in coffee, many teas, many sodas, and a variety of other drinks. Drink water later in the day, and give your body a rest from caffeine.

Here are a few actions to take before bedtime: Eat very light, read a book about something peaceful, and take a shower or a bath. You don’t have to do everything, but one of the above-mentioned ideas will work for you.


About The Author
Paul Jerard, is a co-owner and the director of Yoga teacher training at: Aura Wellness Center, in North Providence, RI. He has been a certified Master Yoga teacher since 1995. He is a master instructor of martial arts, with multiple Black Belts, four martial arts teaching credentials, and was recently inducted into the USA Martial Arts Hall of Fame. He teaches Yoga, martial arts, and fitness to children, adults, and seniors in the greater Providence area. Recently he wrote: Is Running a Yoga Business Right for You? For Yoga students, who may be considering a new career as a Yoga teacher.

Do You Have Insomnia, or Just Temporary Sleep Problems?

Do You Have Insomnia, or Just Temporary Sleep Problems?
by: Candace Rice

Very few people can claim to never have difficulty sleeping. But for those who do, it may be a case of wondering do you have insomnia, or just temporary sleep problems?

Insomnia is usually a chronic, long term condition, during which a person may have any or all of the following: difficulty getting to sleep, waking up and unable to go back to sleep, early waking patterns, restless leg syndrome. It is classified into two categories: secondary insomnia, which is unrelated to any physical or environmental causes such as illness, pain, medications, etc. and primary insomnia, the repetitive sleep difficulties that seem to have no real cause or identifiable origins.

Temporary sleep problems happen to almost everyone, and can be the result of heartburn, a bad day at work, hot weather, jet lag, and other relatively minor disruptions of your daily life or sleep patterns. Insomnia on the other hand, can impact a person's ability to function, resulting in sleepiness during the day, excessive irritability, and even depression.

Insomnia can occur for a few days, or even weeks, and on a sporadic basis where the sufferer sleeps well for months and it recurs again without obvious reasons.

It's unlikely that temporary sleep problems will cause any significant disruption in a person's life. However, some circumstances such as pain due to injury, accident or surgery, may require medication to allow you to get the sleep you need to recover both mentally and physically.

If you are suffering prolonged and repeated bouts of sleep disruptions, are unable to get to sleep, and finding yourself unable to concentrate during the day, it would be wise to consult your physician. They will ask about any changes in your personal life, diet, and other factors that could have an effect on your ability to sleep. Treatment will depend on their assessment of your condition.


About The Author
Candace Rice
For a better nights sleep, visit http://www.sleepmorenow.com for more sleep tips.