What is Insomnia? Tips for managing insomnia and get a better sleep
What is Insomnia?
It is the sustained impairment in the ability to initiate or maintain sleep. Its condition of sleeplessness can generate considerable anxiety and interfere with the quality of life. Of the most commonly reported health-related problems insomnia is rated as the most frequently reported complaint. insomnia is diagnosed across all age groups but is usually common among middle-aged group people.
Presence of insomnia can eventually lead to the development of anxiety disorders in some of the insomnia sufferers.
This article gives you tips for managing insomnia and you will get a better sleep.
How do we know that we are suffering from insomnia?
To understand that whether we are suffering from insomnia or it is just stress that will last few days and will be ok on its own with time. The criteria of diagnosis of insomnia are:
Difficulties in the maintenance of sleep or non-restorative sleep or difficulty in the onset of sleep. And this problem lasts for at least 1 month. There are no such cutoffs for how disrupted the sleep must be. the convention often found is that the time spent awake at the beginning of the sleep period or in the middle of the night is greater than 30 mins and this problem in onset and maintenance in sleep should occur three or more nights per week.
What are the symptoms of insomnia ?
Some of the major symptoms of insomnia listed in the research diagnostic criteria for insomnia are:
- Negative mood throughout the entire day.
- Social and vocational dysfunction or poor school performance in the case of students.
- Somatic symptoms such as tension, headaches, anxiety.
- Daytime dizzyness.
- Worry about sleep.
While some clinicians do not consider the above mentioned as symptoms of insomnia; in actuality, insomnia is best characterized as a disorder with manifestations throughout the 24 hr period.
For instance insomnia cannot occur exclusively during other sleep disorders such as narcolepsy, breathing-related sleep disorders, cardiac rhythm disorders or para insomnia, or other mental disorders such as major depression, and anxiety disorder. Lastly, it cannot be due to the psychological effects of a substance such as any type of medication or drug abuse.
TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE BENEFITS OF SLEEP CHECK SLEEP: BENEFITS OF SLEEP IN THE BODY
What are the different types of insomnia?
There are different varieties of wakefulness which include various type of cerebral disturbances which constitute insanity, cerebral exhaustion, chronic alcoholism, and different forms of meningitis.
Some of the types of insomnia are:
- Insomnia in acute affections of the brain – this may result from general diseases like rheumatism, eruptive fevers, tubercular infiltration, insolation, development of tumors, or syphilitic growths.
- Insomnia in insanity – Continuous insomnia is often one of the premonitory symptoms of insanity. It can be due to the excited state of the brain or by an exhausted and irritable condition of the cerebral substances.
- Insomnia in chronic alcoholism – This is usually due to the habitual consumption of alcohol that causes morbid changes in the digestive apparatus and the nervous system.
- Insomnia in disease of heart and blood vessels – This is due to problems such as cardiac dyspnoea, angina pectoris, simple cardiac neuralgia etc. In such cases, doctors often recommend exhibition of alcoholic stimulants, hydrate of choral, or nitrite of amyl, etc.
- Insomnia in respiratory diseases- This includes problems such as Pneumonia and bronchitis are accompanied by wakefulness. Mostly in their earlier stages due to harassing cough.
What are the tips of managing insomnia and get a better sleep?
Some of the means to prevent insomnia are
- Taking a hot bath – When heat is applied in the form of a hot bath it is considered an important means of tranquilizing the brain. The water should have an agreeable temperature and the bath should not last longer than ten minutes.
- Food – In most of the insomnia cases the problem lies in food intake. One of the major causes of insomnia can be a weakness of the nervous tissues. Exhausted by work or deliberated by the loss of blood or half-starved during a long course of illness like typhoid fever, a condition of weakness may establish which if not taken care of properly may lead to other greater problems. And the most important remedy of such problems lies in food, which must be soluble, stimulant, nutritive, and diffusible. Such as Milk, alcohol, eggs, and meat juices. But excess of everything is harmful so slight food moderation can help a lot.
- Regular exercises – No need of extreme workout sessions moderate exercises such as swimming or jogging can help insomnia a lot . So exercise is really necessary.
- Write down the worries – Worrying about the task of the next day is mainly responsible for insomnia. In such cases, it is better to write down the tasks and place them near your bed so that, even if your sleep disrupts at midnight you can assure yourself that it is written down.
- Do not smoke – Nicotine is a stimulant. It is important to not smoke especially at night. Control in smoking can help to prevent insomnia.
