What is insomnia?
Insomnia is a sleep disorder. Thousands of people all over New Zealand live with insomnia. People with insomnia generally find it hard to either fall asleep or/and stay asleep. It basically leads to lethargy, daytime sleepiness and a feeling of being physically and mentally ill. It is mainly categorized into three types-transient insomnia, chronic insomnia and acute insomnia. Although insomnia may affect people at any age, it’s more predominant in adult males and adult females.
Causes of insomnia:
Insomnia is generally caused by physical as well as psychological factors. Often it occurs as a result of excess conditions such as liver fire, heart fire, depression, food stagnation and anxiety disorder. It is also a symptom of deficiency, especially heart yin, blood, or qi deficiency. an underlying medical condition can cause chronic insomnia as well. Sometimes, medications are also the cause the sleep disorder. However, transient insomnia can be due to a recent occurrence or an event.
Symptoms of insomnia:
There are many symptoms, which are associated with insomnia. These include difficulty falling asleep during the night, awakening earlier than needed, awakening during night, feeling tired even after a night’s sleep, day time sleepiness or fatigue, depression, irritability or anxiety, poor focus and concentration level, gastrointestinal symptoms and many more.
Who suffers from insomnia?
The people who are more likely to get insomnia than others include the travellers, the drug users, the shift workers with frequent changes in shift timings, young adult students, elderly people, menopausal women, people with mental health disorders and pregnant women.
Treatment options:
Although the treatment options for insomnia varies, in most of the cases people suffering from insomnia respond well to the variations of Emperor’s Tea. The Emperor’s Tea has nourishing sedatives along with the herbs, which clear heat. A number of other Chinese herbal remedies for insomnia are also available in form of patent medications including An Shen Bu Xin Wan and An Mien Pien.
If you suffer from insomnia, lifestyle changes may even help you. Exercise daily, avoid caffeine at night, don’t keep your stomach empty or eat too much when going to bed, don’t smoke and make sure that the environment where you are sleeping is comfortable.
Only go to bed when you feel sleepy. Refrain from reading, TV, worrying in bed or eating, set an alarm for same time every day in the morning and avoid long daytime naps.
Use relaxation techniques like muscle relaxation and meditation.
Receive an acupuncture treatment from a licensed and experienced acupuncturist in your area.
There are many people who rely on prescription sleeping pills, antidepressants and other medications for treating insomnia. However, try to avoid these medical treatments as much as possible.
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