Sleep Conditions
Sleep Problems and Insomnia
Can't sleep? It may be little consolation, but you are
in good company; an estimated 3.3 million Canadians and
32 million Americans suffer from sleep problems as well.
Is it insomnia?
Everything is on a spectrum
Different weaknesses
What can be done?
The importance of diet
Caffeine
Eating late, eating heavy
The effect of weak digestion
The obvious -- stress and anxiety
Stress
You won't fall asleep in a danger zone
Relaxation techniques
Anxiety
The excitable personality
Sleep hygiene
How I treat insomnia in my office
Is it insomnia?
Insomnia is loosely defined as the inability to fall and
stay asleep.
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Everything is on a spectrum
As far as naturopathic medicine goes, everything is measured
on a spectrum. Someone who may take 1 hour to fall asleep
each night just has a milder form of insomnia than someone
who takes 4 to 5 hours to fall asleep or who doesn't fall
asleep at all.
Along the same lines, someone who wakes 2 times per night
but goes back to sleep okay has a milder imbalance, but
an imbalance of the same nature as someone who wakes 2
or 3 (or more times) and has a difficult time falling
back to sleep.
And then, of course, there are those who sleep for 8 hours
but are not refreshed in the morning or who have vivid
and exhausting dreams.
In each example it's just a matter of being on the same
spectrum but at a different place.
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Different weaknesses
We all have different areas of weakness and different
susceptibilities.
You may have a friend, family member or co-worker who
drinks 5 cups of coffee per day, works out at night, eats
sugar all day long and then proceeds to sleep like a log.
This just means is that sleep is not at an area of weakness
for them.
But if it is a weakness for you, then you will have to
take special care in this area.
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What can be done?
There is a lot that can be done naturally for insomnia.
In my experience with insomnia, relaxing herbs such as
valerian and kava work in the minority of cases.
Most people need a more thorough and individualized approach.
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The importance of diet
There are a number of factors in diet that can contribute
to insomnia, probably much more than most people think.
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Caffeine
Caffeine, at any time of the day, can interfere with the
ability to fall asleep and can also affect the sleep cycle
so that sleep is of a poorer quality and is unrefreshing.
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Eating late, eating heavy
Eating late or eating heavy meals in the evening is a
popular cause of trouble falling asleep and of vivid dreaming/nightmares.
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The effect of weak digestion
For people who have trouble falling asleep, anything that
weakens digestion will make this worse. In many people
raw foods, salty foods and greasy/high fat foods significantly
contribute to a weakened digestive system and trouble
falling asleep.
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The obvious -- stress and anxiety
So will anything that increases stress and anxiety levels.
You can't get away from stress until death, but stress
can be managed and dealt with appropriately.
Most people "deal" with stress by stuffing their
emotions into their body, stress eating, smoking, drinking
coffee, drinking alcohol, watching TV and exercising to
excess. All of these are ineffective ways of dealing with
stress that weaken your body with time.
When your body is weakened, your weak areas will really
show up.
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Stress
If you are stressed and your mind is running, your body
is pumping out stress hormones. You will most likely not
fall asleep and if you do, you will not sleep well.
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You won't fall asleep in a danger zone
Stress hormones send a signal to your brain letting it
know that your life is in danger. It would be ridiculous
of your body to let you fall asleep at such a dangerous
time. Your brain and body do not realize that the stress
comes from your job or relationship (or any number of
other factors) and is not life threatening at all.
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Relaxation techniques
Stress needs to be dealt with through conscious relaxation
techniques (no, watching TV isn't one of them). These
include yoga, meditation, tai chi, qi gong and changing
wrong beliefs that feed the body's stress response. Example:
"If I don't do everything perfectly I am no good."
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Anxiety
Anxiety can feel similar to stress but from a naturopathic
point of view, it has a slightly different origin. Anxiety
includes constant thinking, your mind running when you
don't want it to and excess worry.
You do not need to have heart palpitations or an anxiety
attack to have anxiety.
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The excitable personality
I find that many people with excitable personalities and/or
who have a parent with either depression or anxiety tend
to have anxiety (to varying degrees) as well.
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Sleep hygiene
The easiest time to fall asleep for most people is 10pm;
this has to do with the rhythms of the day.
Watching TV, talking on the phone or being on the Internet
past about 9pm will interfere with sleep.
Reading is a good activity, but nothing exciting.
Paying bills at night or dealing with financial matters
of any kind is not a good idea.
Make sure your room is cool, but you are warm.
Make sure the room is nice and black; your sleep will
not be nearly as deep if there is light coming into the
room.
Go to bed and wake up at the same time each night. If
you go to bed late one night (eg. on the weekend) do your
best to get up at the same time the next morning anyways.
Your body loves a schedule.
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How I treat insomnia in my office
First of all, I take a good look at all the factors above:
diet, stress, anxiety, and sleep hygiene.
I then assess the patient's body as a whole and find out
what is working well and where any other health issues
are.
I assess according to conventional medical standards,
send out for blood tests where necessary, evaluate according
to both naturopathic thought and Traditional Chinese Medicine
and perform a BIA test. Then I put all this information
together into an individualized protocol.
For example:
From the factors that affect sleep, I determine which
ones are issues for each patient.
I will look at the digestive system -- any weakness here?
If yes, I look at diet, lifestyle and emotions and see
where this weakness is coming from.
What is going on stress-wise? How is the stress being
dealt with? Is it being dealt with? Are there physical
factors/weaknesses that are increasing the stress levels?
How about dietary factors?
And so on for the entire system.
So, I have each patient make the appropriate diet and
lifestyle changes and I prescribe supplements and herbs
as required. I always do my best to keep supplements and
remedies down to a minimum.
Relaxation techniques and sleep hygiene also form part
of my prescription for each patient.
For some patients with severe or long-standing insomnia,
I often will combine the above with acupuncture treatments;
I have found this combination to be very effective.
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