What is insomnia? Is there’s a cure for it? Is it harmful to the body or is it just normal for a person to have it that no one should worry or pay attention to? Many people actually have this problem and we should never underestimate it even though Insomnia is a common problem Insomnia can result from a range of issues, which may involve physical or mental health. In some cases, they are environmental or relate to lifestyle factors, such as shift work and caffeine or alcohol use.
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Many patients claim that what really should be done. Various methods have been used by people with have this problem. Insomnia disorder is 'absolute misery' but experts say it can be treated without sleeping pills. Other did the meditation, herbal supplements, a change in diet, medication and psychology. Many was desperate to find a solution to the seemingly never-ending spiral of disrupted sleep followed by days of exhaustion. Some experience such hardness of sleep and be in tears in the middle of the night out of pure frustration because they couldn't understand what was going on. "It's absolute misery. And if you haven't been through it, you don't understand it...
Insomnia disorder is defined by a failure to fall or stay asleep for three or more nights a week for three months or longer. While many people experience disruptions to sleep during times of upheaval or anxiety, the difference in patients with insomnia is the sleep problem will persist even after the initial stress trigger is resolved, says Sean Drummond, a professor of clinical neuroscience at Monash University. People might try to cope by going to bed early, napping during the day, drinking extra caffeine, spending more time in bed looking at a phone, or being overly sedentary. While these behaviors are understandable among people who are feeling tired, Professor Drummond said they often became "perpetuating factors" that could ultimately make the situation worse.
Dr Junge said cognitive behavioral therapy was the "gold standard" for insomnia. (Supplied: Moira Junge) "You have less tolerance for tiredness, and everything gets blamed on the tiredness. A lot of people develop a misattribution that everything is to do with sleep – like, 'If only I slept better, I'd be the Prime Minister'." Professor Drummond said trying too hard to sleep is unhelpful. "People develop what's called an attention bias towards sleep," he said. "Everything they're thinking about is related to sleep. "It leads to almost an obsession. Sleep is one of these funny things that the harder you try to do it, the less likely it is to actually happen." As a person becomes more fixated on sleep, and anxious at the prospect of another sleepless night, the body responds to bedtime counterintuitively, by generating stress hormones – rendering the person almost physically incapable of sleep and developing an association with bed as a place of stress, not rest.
"The person develops what we call conditioned arousal," Professor Drummond said. "As soon as they go into the bedroom and lie down in bed, that conditioned arousal kicks in and bang, their eyes open and their brain starts to go and they can't turn it off, and all of a sudden they can't fall asleep. "It's all because the bed now has become a symbol to the brain that, 'Hey, you're supposed to be awake and anxious and stressed out' rather than, 'You're supposed to be relaxed and sleepy'." Many clients with insomnia also develop anxiety around the negative health effects of prolonged sleeplessness, Dr Junge said.
"I get so worried when I hear headlines around: 'Less than eight hours sleep will cause dementia' and the like," she said. "This is fantastic, great quality research… but when you've got insomnia, the last thing you need to hear when you're driving to work is that your lack of sleep is going to harm you." While researchers are still investigating genetic risks for insomnia, both Dr Junge and Professor Drummond agreed there was a typical personality profile prone to the condition. "Somebody who generally runs a little on the anxious side, somebody who we used to call the 'Type A personality' that's really driven, always switched on, a go-go-go kind of person, somebody who ruminates a lot and has a hard time turning their thoughts off, is like more likely to develop insomnia," Professor Drummond said. There’s a reason why you can’t switch your brain off at night. Researchers are sounding the alarm that this can lead to issues beyond a lack of concentration and grumpiness, and can increase the risk of chronic illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes and obesity. "We say they're the three pillars of health — sleep, exercise and diet — and that's really important," Sleep Health Foundation chair Dorothy Bruck said.
According to study that "One of the really interesting new findings is that during the night, your frontal lobe — which is your rational part and tells you to think about things clearly — disconnects from your emotional part of your brain. So a lot of people wake up in the night and worry and problem-solve and they catastrophize about the electricity bill or whatever, where in the calm light of day it all looks different. So one tip is to think, 'Well, now is not the time to problem-solve, to worry about things, because my frontal brain is not engaged and I can't problem-solve at this time of the night'." Simply choosing to "switch off" may be easier said than done. Professor Bruck said most people needed between seven and nine hours of sleep a night, but many people didn't get this because their lives were so full.
People with insomnia were likely to be fastidious in their attempts to improve their sleep, which might include following a regimented "sleep hygiene" program of avoiding caffeine after lunch, exercising vigorously but not too close to bedtime, and less screen time at night. While this advice often works well for the general population, Dr Junge said following a sleep hygiene program too religiously could be problematic for those with an insomnia disorder as it could instill the belief sleep is impossible without following an elaborate list of rules, and even feed anxiety. "Once you've got insomnia, those lists of dos and don'ts become quite rigid and ritualized and … really counterproductive," she said.
The frontline treatment is not medication' Professor Drummond said the solution to insomnia was not sleeping pills or other medication but "unequivocally" a course of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Cognitive therapies are usually psychologist-administered and involve identifying and challenging a patient's unhelpful thoughts and beliefs around sleep, as well as encouraging them to adopt behaviors more conducive to sleep. Behavioral therapies include re-establishing the association of bed and sleepiness by asking the patient to get out of bed if they don't fall asleep after 10-15 minutes and only returning when they feel tired again. Avoiding phone time in bed is a common 'sleep hygiene' tip to improve sleep quality, but may not be an effective measure on its own for patients with insomnia disorder. Another intervention is what Professor Drummond calls "sleep efficiency therapy", a mild form of sleep deprivation where the patient limits their time in bed in order to increase their sleep drive and maximize the amount of time, they are asleep. While effective insomnia treatment involves intervention by healthcare professionals, studies show awareness around identification and treatment of insomnia disorder within the healthcare profession may be lacking.
October 2020 narrative review found while deficient sleep had been recognized as a current health crisis, Veronica follows a strict pre-bed routine involving meditation, relaxing music and affirmation recordings. Helena has a flexible schedule at work in home in order to fit in with her disrupted sleep pattern, and says it's been working for her. "While I'm still working on my own sleep, it has definitely improved from when my insomnia began," she said. "I do have days where I feel refreshed, and it's like, 'Oh, this is what it's like to be a normal person and have a productive day'. Over the years, both Helena and Veronica have developed methods to manage and live with their insomnia. "I don't want my story to be a message of hopelessness, but one of being a journey to find the right solution for me."
Gratifying to know the tip seen in this article that a strict pre-bed routine related to meditation, relaxing music and affirms recording. Have that modified work schedule at home to fit that disrupted sleep pattern. This can help to those people have that insomnia.
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