How to Cure Insomnia

In order to be at our best we generally need between seven and eight hours of good sleep each night.

But with the modern day stressful life the numbers of people with sleep problems are getting worse. Over one third of the population regularly has problems sleeping and one in ten have chronic insomnia. This is where there are problems falling asleep, waking in the middle of the night or waking too early. Where you consistently have problems functioning the next day.

There are actually a number of reasons leading to sleep problems. The most common causes are stress, worry, and depression. In addition medical problems could be the cause, or pain, some medications have an effect on your sleep, over use of alcohol or caffeine.

To resolve the problem it's important therefore to find the specific cause. It makes sense to discus your sleep issue with your family physician to get any medical problems treated first. Your physician can also prescribe medications that will help anxiety and depression.

If you feel that your sleep problems are caused by stress, worry or even depression then it makes sense to talk to a psychologist or counselor. There are some good programs that have been proved to decrease levels of stress, anxiety and depression. This in turn will improve your quality of sleep.

A psychologist can give you techniques to help you relax and ease the stress away. Psychologists generally have a range of other behavioral strategies to help reduce your sleeping problems. About 75% of people with insomnia report significantly improved sleep after completing this type of psychological treatment.

Family physicians regularly prescribe hypnotic medications that help people to sleep. These do help individuals who are going through a particularly stressful period. However these medications should only be used for a short period as they are become addictive. They can make your simple sleep problem a lot more difficult to resolve. They also become less effective if you use them over longer periods of time.

In addition some of these medicines will cause feelings of drowsiness and lead to difficulties in concentrating the next day. Over the counter sleep supplements are not always reliable solutions and are often just a waste of money as they simply don't work.

Sleep Medicines can help you catch up on some good sleep but don't by themselves fix the issue. They would need to be used alongside some other treatment or program that will resolve the actual cause. Where the underlying problem is successfully treated then the sleep problems will disappear too.

In summary, sleeping medication can be helpful only as a short term 'fix' but don't actually solve any underlying problem, whereas psychological treatments are effective in the long-term but may take a while to work.


Autor: Matthew Bettison

To find out more about Sleep Problems and Insomnia, the problems it can cause and how to overcome it then visit >= http://www.BestInsomniaRemedies.com

Added: October 30, 2009
Source: http://articlerich.com/Article/How-to-Cure-Insomnia/54~