Today, more than 80 sleep disorders are known. The most common of these are insomnia and obstructive sleep apnea (when people who snore stop breathing during sleep). Depending on the type of violation, treatment tactics should be different. In this article, we will talk about how to improve sleep with insomnia.
Insomnia is a very common occurrence. Every third adult faces it regularly, every seventh suffers from its chronic form. In order to solve the problem of insomnia, sleeping pills are used, traditional medicine is used, various methods of relaxation, meditation and sleep control are practiced.
How to improve sleep quality without medication
If you have insomnia, the first thing to do in this situation is to reconsider your lifestyle. If you always go to bed at different times, on weekends you let yourself sleep off before dinner, if you use tonic drinks such as tea, coffee and cola just before bedtime or a few hours before bedtime, the occurrence of insomnia is quite expected.
Here are some tips on how to improve your sleep that you can give to anyone:
- Follow the daily routine. Go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time.
- Reduce the time you spend in bed. Sleep less, and you can improve your sleep if it doesn’t suit you right now.
- Don’t force yourself to sleep. If you don’t feel like sleeping at all, it’s better to spend your rest in another way: for example, reading a book or watching TV.
- Don’t be afraid that you won’t be able to sleep. Even if you go all night without sleep, the next day you will be able to do your work as usual: the loss of one night of sleep does not significantly affect mental and physical abilities.
- Do not try to deal with problems right before bedtime, postpone them until tomorrow or solve them a few hours before the planned rest.
- Do physical education 3-4 times a week for an average of half an hour to an hour. This will help you improve your sleep, also because physical activity is an excellent stress reliever.
- Avoid tea, coffee, cola, energy drinks 6 hours before bed.
- Smoke less or don’t smoke at all.
- Don’t eat 2 hours before bed and don’t go to bed if your stomach is growling with hunger.
- Create a ritual for yourself – a certain sequence of actions that you will perform every evening. It will help you sleep better by making you fall asleep faster. Take a warm bath, listen to soothing music, or create something of your own.
How to improve sleep folk remedies
Fans of traditional medicine can be advised to take infusions, decoctions or herbal tinctures with a calming and hypnotic effect at the same time as restoring the correct daily regimen. Plants such as valerian, cyanide, lemon balm, motherwort, peppermint and field, hawthorn, hop cones, oregano can improve sleep.
Do you want to find an effective and pleasant way to improve sleep with folk remedies? Then look into aromatherapy. Vials of essential oils are sold in specialized stores. If you want to experience the full power of aromatherapy for yourself, buy rose and juniper oil, lavender, sandalwood oil. To heat the oil, use an electric incandescent aroma lamp or one that uses fire as a heat source.
How to improve sleep with folk remedies without the use of herbs? After all, they can develop allergies, primarily allergic rhinitis, which is manifested by a runny nose, nasal congestion and sneezing. For people with this problem, other home remedies for insomnia can be recommended, such as a warm bath before bed – a proven remedy to relieve physical fatigue and nervous tension.
If you are not allergic to herbal ingredients, to enhance the positive effect, add a cloth bag with soothing herbs to the water or a little essential oil that has a hypnotic effect.
Sleep-improving drugs
Relatively safe for health and at the same time effective means for improving the quality of sleep are valerian and motherwort. Valerian is allowed even for pregnant women and young children. Funds can be bought at any pharmacy in the form of drops or tablets. There are combination preparations based on dried herbs or plant extracts – Dormiplant , Persen , Novo Passit . Of the other drugs that can be purchased without a doctor’s prescription, we recommend Melaxen . This tool is synthesized artificially from plant amino acids. It is an analogue of the human hormone melatonin, which is responsible for circadian rhythms.
Sleep enhancing products
We get most of the substances necessary for life with food. So there is nothing surprising in the fact that food can improve sleep or, on the contrary, prevent its onset.
The most effective means for sleep are herbal teas – chamomile, oregano, mint tea. Among the “sleepy” products are also called bananas, oatmeal (hercules), almonds, milk, honey.
If you want to improve the quality of sleep, do not forget that you should not fill your stomach at least 2 hours before rest. Even if these are products that promote the onset of sleep.
How to improve your child’s sleep
We’ve all heard the saying, “sleep like a baby.” Indeed: children sleep very soundly. But only if they don’t care. If a child does not sleep well at night, there is usually a reason. For babies in the first three months of life, gases in the intestines are the most common irritant . In such situations, the pediatrician may recommend drugs that suppress gas formation, such as simethicone or plantex . Massage of the abdomen in a clockwise direction and positional therapy (keep a “column” after feeding until the gases from the stomach) help well. Often it is enough to follow these recommendations to find the answer to the question of how to improve the baby’s sleep.
From traditional medicine and medicines, valerian can be used in the recommended dosages for children. Persen is allowed to be taken from the age of 3, Dormiplant – from the age of 6, Novo Passit – from the age of 12.
If following these tips did not help you find the answer to the question of how to improve your child’s sleep, it’s time to make an appointment with a sleep doctor. Chronic insomnia leads to a persistent decrease in concentration, memory, slows down the speed of physical reactions. If a child’s sleep is disturbed, this can lead to a slowdown in mental and physical development (growth hormone is produced mainly during sleep!), deterioration in social adaptation and other problems.
Where can I go to solve sleep problems?
If you suffer from insomnia, and folk remedies and compliance with general recommendations do not give the desired effect, you should not postpone a visit to the doctor. The longer the “experience” of insomnia, the more difficult it is to treat. In the Rehabilitation Clinic in Khamovniki, there is a sleep medicine center staffed by experienced specialists – sleepologists. Insomnia therapy is carried out in the best traditions of the Kremlin medicine, and the center has all the conditions for a comfortable stay, if required. Doctors will conduct an examination, establish the causes of sleep disorders and select a treatment for insomnia that will return energy, high performance during the day and good sleep at night to everyone who needs it.