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3 Natural Remedies for Insomnia

Fall Asleep & Stay Asleep

If you toss and turn at night and then feel lethargic during the day, using natural remedies for nsomnia may help. Sadly, many Americans walk around in a zombie-like state during the day, only getting a few hours of sleep each night – far less than the recommended 7 to 8 hours. In fact, the number one reason people experience daytime fatigue is due to an inability to fall asleep or stay asleep at night. You would think with busy schedules and our “run everywhere”, hectic American lives, sleep would be the easiest thing to come by! But, as many as one in three people suffer from insomnia at some point during their lifetime. What’s more, approximately 10 million Americans currently take prescription sleep aids. What about you? Are you “tired” of feeling “tired” every day?

Why Your Body Needs Sleep
Sleep is critically important to health – so important that some scientists have hypothesized a person can die from a total lack of sleep sooner than they’ll die from starvation. Why? Aside from the feelings of excessive tiredness experienced during the day, lack of sleep affects both mental and physical health. Mentally, insomnia contributes to mood swings, irritability, depression, anxiety, and lack of concentration and focus. Extreme, chronic lack of sleep can even cause brain aberrations leading to hallucinations and paranoia. Physically, lack of sleep leads to elevated blood pressure, headaches, dizziness, body aches/pains, hormone alterations, food cravings, and weight gain. Furthermore, while we sleep our body repairs itself and our immune system is strengthened; therefore, lack of sleep can increase the likelihood of catching an illness.

Prescription Sleep Aids
While prescription sleep aids may keep you from counting sheep, like many prescription drugs, they are not always safe to use. First and foremost, most of these medications are addictive so many people who use them become dependent upon them. In reality, some of these prescriptions are actually habit-forming narcotic drugs and are not intended for long-term use. This means that even when a person’s sleep disorder is resolved, trying to get off of the medications poses a whole other set of challenges.

Prescription sleep aids also come with a host of side effects:

  • Daytime drowsiness (hang-over effect) and excessive tiredness
  • Hallucinations and nightmares
  • Amnesia
  • Impaired judgment
  • Binge eating
  • Irregular heartbeat
  • Muscle spasms and pain
  • Headache
  • Dry mouth
  • Sweating
  • Digestive issues such as heartburn and diarrhea

Besides the potential dangers associated with sleep aids, these drugs aren’t always needed. In fact, many doctors espouse that most people don’t actually needa prescription sleep aid, and the vast majority of people with sleep disorders can find relief in other ways.

How to Overcome Your Insomnia without Drugs

Sometimes the root cause of insomnia can be complex and involve hormone imbalances or adrenal dysfunction, and those cases will need to be corrected. But many people just need a little assistance, and thus, trying one of these 3 time-tested natural remedies for insomnia makes a lot of sense. These natural remedies are non-habit forming so you’re very unlikely to become dependent or addicted to these therapies: There is little downside to trying one of these approaches and it might be just the thing you need to get a good night’s rest.

If you suffer from sleep issues, I invite you to try one of these natural therapies for insomnia. Let us know how it worked for you – Leave us a note in the Comments section on our website. We’d love to hear if one or more of these remedies helped you finally catch some Z’s!

Original article written by Jami Cooley, RN, CNWC 08/16/2013