Insomnia - what to do? Causes of sleep disorders, remedies for insomnia at home

Many people, regardless of age, suffer from insomnia. It causes serious discomfort, and with prolonged sleep disturbances, health disorders are possible. Those who are faced with a similar problem, it is useful to know what to do with insomnia.

Causes of Frequent Sleep Disorders

If insomnia is tortured, first of all it is necessary to deal with the causes of its occurrence. They are divided into physiological and psychological.

The first category includes the following factors:

• Bad conditions for rest. Stuffy or cold, extraneous noise can prevent a person from falling asleep. Also, an uncomfortable bed does not contribute to a full sleep.
• Physical overwork. As a result of heavy loads or active sports, muscle tension occurs, which manifests itself in pain and cramping, which makes it difficult to relax and fall asleep.
• High activity in the evening hours. Due to overexcitation, the body continues to remain in good shape, which adversely affects the state of the nervous system and leads to difficulties with falling asleep.
• A plentiful and high-calorie dinner. Products with high nutritional value supply the body with energy, thereby disrupting the processes of inhibition, which provide a healthy sleep.
• The use of tonic drinks. If you drink strong tea, coffee or an energetic in the evening, this will “beat off the dream” for a long time. The same effect is observed on cigarettes.
• Health disorders.When a person feels discomfort in one or another part of the body, this will not only prevent him from falling asleep quickly, but also make him often wake up at night.
• Taking medications. Some medications have a strong effect on the nervous system, which leads to difficulty falling asleep in the evenings or to increased drowsiness during the day.

The following factors are considered the psychological causes of insomnia:

• Nervous overexcitation. Everyone knows the concept of “not my day,” when everything goes awry in the morning, and by the evening a lot of fatigue builds up, and it’s quite difficult to sleep in such a mood.
• Stress and emotional overload. These conditions quite often occur in people who lead an active lifestyle, and do not devote enough time to rest. Accumulated fatigue leads to the development of stress, against which chronic insomnia may occur.
• Active mental activity. When a person is busy thinking about a problem, quite often he is not able to stop, and continues to “digest” it, lying in bed. Anxious and obsessive thoughts do not allow you to relax to the extent that you fall asleep.

By identifying the reason why the dream went missing, dealing with insomnia will become much easier. But sometimes eliminating the annoying factor is not enough to solve the problem, and you need to resort to various treatment methods.

How to treat insomnia

You can treat insomnia with drugs and folk remedies, and physiotherapy procedures also help. It is better to combine these techniques.

Drugs for the treatment of insomnia

Safe medicines for restoring sleep, which are sold in pharmacies without a prescription, are based on natural ingredients. They include extracts of plants with a mild sedative effect. These are valerian, mint, chamomile, lemon balm and others.

The following drugs are considered the most effective:

• "Valemidine";
• valerian tablets;
• "Dormiplant";
• motherwort on alcohol;
• Melaxen
• peony tincture;
• Nervohel;
• NovoPassit;
• Persen.

Tip. Before using this or that drug, you should carefully read the annotation. Despite the natural origin of the components and their relative safety, if used improperly, these products can harm health.

Folk remedies for sound sleep

In pharmacies, there are many complexes based on herbs that help cope with insomnia. But you can compose them yourself, combining different components.

The most effective are mixtures of such plants:

• oregano and valerian root;
• calendula, motherwort and thyme;
• sage, lavender and mint;
• motherwort, lemon balm and valerian roots;
• sleep herbs and daisies.

The components are mixed in equal proportions and poured with boiling water at the rate of 220 - 250 ml of liquid in 2 tablespoons of collection. After that, you need to insist a little drink, and then drink in small sips. To prepare and consume such tea, you need to shortly before you go to bed.

Diet for insomnia

Digestive problems can interfere with a good rest, forcing you to get up at night more than once. And overeating affects the process of falling asleep, because people who are intemperate in food often suffer from belching, heartburn and flatulence.

To cope with insomnia, you need to review your diet. It is better to eat light food, which is well absorbed by the body, ignoring fatty and high-calorie foods. It is also important to monitor the volume of servings, especially during the last meal. The stomach should not be full, and after dinner, you should not immediately go to bed. It is worth giving food to digest, which requires at least 3 hours.

In addition, you need to limit the use of coffee, cool black tea and energy drinks, especially in the evening.

On a note.Many people mistakenly believe that alcohol helps relieve stress and sleep better. This is fundamentally wrong.

Many strong drinks stimulate the bladder, which leads to increased urge. Even if a person falls asleep quickly after taking alcohol, a natural need will make him soon awaken.

Physiotherapy as a treatment

When insomnia is caused by physical fatigue, relaxing massages will help to cope with it. This procedure will reduce muscle tension and eliminate cramps that prevent sleep.

With emotional overload, therapeutic sleep procedures are used to help restore the normal functioning of the nervous system. They are carried out under strict control and only with the appointment of a doctor.

Aromatherapy and relaxing baths are also effective. Such procedures can be carried out at home, using essential oils with needles, lavender or mint.

And in the bath water, you can add sea salt, coniferous extracts or decoctions prepared from a mixture of the following components:

• hops and daisies;
• mint, calendula and conifer needles;
• valerian and motherwort;
• lemon balm and mint;
• daisies and oregano.

The cooked broth needs to be slightly cooled and filtered, and then poured into bath water. The duration of the procedure is from a quarter of an hour to 35 - 40 minutes.

Treating childhood insomnia

If the child suffers from insomnia, you must first contact a pediatrician. Perhaps sleep disorders are caused by any health problems. In such situations, the first step in dealing with the problem will be the elimination of the underlying disease.

But if the baby is healthy, you can restore normal sleep by observing these rules:

1. Adhere to the regimen. The child should fit and wake up at about the same hours.
2. Exclude active games in the evenings. Overexcited, the baby will not fall asleep for a long time, or his sleep will be restless, which does not contribute to a good rest.
3. Prevent the child from watching TV or playing on the computer before going to bed. The luminescence of the screen and rapidly changing pictures lead to an increase in brain activity and slow down the process of inhibition, as a result of which the baby will stay awake for a long time. Better to read him a fairy tale.
4. Do relaxing baths before bedtime. During bathing, it is worth adding to the water a decoction of a string, mint or valerian. This procedure will help the baby calm down and quickly fall asleep.
5. Give your child soothing teas. The most effective and safe for children is considered to be the products of "Grandmother's basket". These fees contain only natural ingredients and have a mild sedative effect.

Important! There are many medications suitable for treating insomnia in children, but they cannot be prescribed on their own.

The pediatrician should deal with the selection of medication, taking into account the individual characteristics and age of the small patient.

What to do during pregnancy

Pregnant women often suffer from sleep disorders. In the early stages, this is due to changes in the hormonal background, when progesterone is produced in larger quantities than usual. The increased content of this enzyme leads to the fact that the first months the expectant mother is drawn to sleep during the day, as a result of which failures occur in the regimen.

At later dates, fetal movements interfere with sleep, and an enlarged stomach does not always make it possible to take a comfortable pose. In addition, during pregnancy, increased pressure on the bladder, resulting in increased urge, and a woman has to get up several times at night.

Another reason for sleep disturbance is the psychological state of the expectant mother. A rare woman does not worry about whether the birth will pass safely and whether the baby will be born healthy. Anxiety and the game of imagination do not give normal relaxation, hence the insomnia.

To combat sleep disorders during this period, you can not use chemical medicines.It is better to turn to folk methods and drink decoctions of motherwort, valerian, mint and thyme. But before you start using any kind of collection, you should consult a doctor.

In addition, it is important for the expectant mother to be more in the air and avoid overwork. It is also required to equip a berth so as to ensure a comfortable rest throughout the night.

Tips from experienced doctors to get rid of insomnia

In the fight against insomnia, such funds that are best used in combination will help:

• intake of vitamins;
• walks in the open air;
• adequate physical activity;
• swimming;
• easy homeopathic remedies.

When sleep disturbances are associated with emotional shocks and stresses, as well as a prolonged depressed state, a visit to a psychologist is shown, and in some cases, hypnosis sessions.

It will not be possible to quickly get rid of insomnia, and to facilitate falling asleep, you must follow these recommendations:

1. Choose a mattress of medium hardness. It should not be hard or very soft.
2. Ventilate the room for at least half an hour before going to bed.
3. Avoid physical overload and watching television programs in the evening.
4. About an hour before you go to bed, drink herbal tea or warm milk with honey.
5. Take warm baths, listen to calm music or meditate to relax.

It is important to realize that in the absence of proper rest, one's well-being worsens sharply, attention and mental activity decrease, and irritability and nervousness increase. And if insomnia has become chronic, it entails severe disorders of a physical and emotional nature. Therefore, in case of problems with falling asleep or frequent waking up at night, it is necessary to take measures to restore sleep.