Insomnia
Insomnia' signifies a lack of proper sleep and is popularly used to indicate any interference with the duration or depth of sleep. The amount of sleep required varies from person to person and from age to age. The duration of sleep reduces with advancing age. An infant requires about 12 to 15 hours of sleep while an adult is satisfied with 6 to 8 hours of sleep. As old age dawns, a person can sleep for as little as 4 to 6 hours. Common causes :
- Emotional or psychological aspects are the most important cause. Tensions regarding business and family, monetary tensions, worries about health, disease, fear of some specific kind, such as darkness, ghosts, closed rooms, etc., or too many dreams
- Physical pain or discomfort in the body, such as flatulence or colic can give rise to sleeplessness
- During fever and certain organic brain diseases the patient may not be able to sleep for several days and nights at a stretch.
Common Symptoms
Insomniacs are of different types. There are people who don't sleep well for the first night or two in a different bed or while travelling, or in the presence of unfamiliar noises. These are temporary cases of insomnia. Basically, it is important to realise that sleep, like other physiological processes of the body, has a certain cyclic rhythm about it. Three broad insomnia patterns are found:
- The first type may sleep early at night but can sleep only for short periods. They may doze off at ten in the night only to wake up by two or three in the morning finding it impossible to sleep.
- The second type have trouble falling asleep. They may hit the bed at ten and toss and turn till past midnight.
- For the third type, the hours of sleep may be normal but the quality of sleep is poor. Such patients usually wake up frequently during the night.
Conventional treatment with sedatives, is very habit forming and has side effects like confusion, respiratory depression, fall of blood pressure, etc.
What actually should be treated is not the sleeplessness. This is what is done in Homoeopathy and not in any other form of treatment.
A homeopath, while taking the case history, tries to determine the anxiety factor in his patient. Thus the result is total freedom from tensions, worries and anxiety. And a good night's sleep.
Yoga for a Better Night's Sleep:
Yoga will benefit your sleep in many ways. The quality of your sleep will improve because of the stimulatory effect yoga has on the nervous system, and in particular the brain. The practice of certain yoga postures will increase the blood circulation to the sleep center in the brain, which has the effect of normalizing the sleep cycle.
You will need less sleep because yoga increases the elimination of toxins from the body and rejuvenates the entire body right down to cellular level. The practice of breathing allows for more oxygen in the body providing clarity in the mind.
It has been claimed that on average, for every minute you put into yoga you will need one minute less sleep. This makes yoga an excellent time investment.
Yoga will help you fall asleep sooner and improve the quality of your sleep so that you need less. You will have a more restful sleep because of the relaxing aspect of yoga and the subsequent relieving of stress, tension and fatigue.
You will wake up every morning ready to go instead of wishing you could stay in bed.>