Can you treat Insomnia naturally?

I was talking to a 25-year young girl last month, she told me that she is suffering from chronic insomnia and she hasn't slept for the past 3 days, She has been on sleeping pills since last few years and now she wants to depend only on natural things for her well-being, dig deeper on what is causing the sleep deprivation rather than choosing temporary solutions, like pills and now she wants to move towards a purer body, mind, and soul.

Again then last week a 28-year young guy was just explaining his problems and said, ''I don't know why, but I just can't sleep, I cry for hours at night for not being able to sleep and then I am exhausted when I wake up in the morning. Sometimes till 6 am in the morning, I am awake and I feel more tired and exhausted than working.

I could understand their pain, I too suffered from acute insomnia in the past and I eventually found out ways to treat it naturally.

Personal regular encounters with more and more people who are sleep-deprived made me write this blog. However, This is just a piece of advice based on my own journey and at no point I recommend anyone leaving their medications altogether and start doing this.

I am sharing what helped me so that it can help you too, in case you resonate with this stuff. It, of course, can't have any side effects for sure, because they are naturally tested simple techniques. Be free to try and apply these methods if you are suffering from it.

What this article is not about?

1) What is sleep?

2) Why it is important to sleep?

3) The physiology of sleep. The clinical issues. Sleep Cycle.

4) How it is going to affect your health?

5) What all diseases or problems are caused by not sleeping well.

**Sleep-deprived people must have already read a lot of that stuff.

This article is solely about my own personal journey. (The topics above, can be found on many other clinical trustworthy websites and articles on google)

So, lets directly go to the problem briefly and then towards how we can approach it naturally?

What is Insomnia?

Well, We all know it these days, what Insomnia is.

As per WebMD, Insomnia is a sleep disorder in which you have trouble falling and/or staying asleep.

The condition can be short-term (acute) or can last a long time (chronic). It may also come and go.

Acute insomnia lasts from 1 night to a few weeks. Insomnia is chronic when it happens at least 3 nights a week for 3 months or more.

Types of Insomnia

Primary insomnia: This means your sleep problems aren’t linked to any other health condition or problem.

Secondary insomnia: This means you have trouble sleeping because of a health condition, physical or mental.

Impact of Insomnia

If you are suffering or have ever suffered from it ever in your life, you would already know how painful it can get when your body and mind are unable to take the necessarily required rest.

Exam stress!! Fear of failure!!

Worrying too much about what already happened or what going to happen in the coming days?

Feeling Anxious and confused, depressed.

Fear!!

Work stress! Timelines!

Heartbreaks!

Physical pain or emotional imbalance!!

Hormonal imbalances! Sleep apnea! and there can be any number of reasons that can lead to Insomnia.

I realized, that in most of the cases, the bigger problems were not just the worries of life but, the worry of not being able to sleep. So,

It took me really long to figure it out that ''I can't sleep easily because I am worried of not falling asleep''

I am not a medical professional so no clinical or medical solutions here.

Here I am only going to share what helped me get back to my biorhythms like self-healing, self-talk, awareness, and mindfulness. We can call all of them a part of alternate medicines.

How I treated it naturally?

1) Do enough for the day

This was something that used to scare me the most. The thought that I couldn't do a lot during the day, what I should have actually done or accomplished.

Decide. Decide your working hours during the day and work on those.

Make a list, plan little in advance, and try to finish your work on time.

How does it help? It helps you feel content when you go to bed, that you have done your bit for the day, and rest you can leave on the universe.

2) Self induce the thoughts

We are anxious about what happened during the day or in the past

OR

What is going to happen tomorrow or in the future?

When you are on the bed, remind yourself. This is the present moment,

You neither can do anything about what happened not can you do anything about what's going to happen in the future.

None of it is in your hand. So worry about what? Crying for nothing. Let go of the past as well as the future.

Feel like you are again a small baby that has nothing to do, nothing to worry about at this moment. Just feel plenty of love for yourself. You deserve that love for yourself, hug yourself, and maintain this feeling and rhythm.

3) Be calm and just breathe.

Breathing turned out to be the best part of it. Induced breathing or just watching the natural breath. Both help. I prefer observing the natural breath. Can there be any other natural thing which can help you stay present rather than your own breath?

Breath turns out to be an excellent medium to calm your nerves, body & mind. You can take some deep breaths and some shallow ones and repeat the process, OR you can simply be aware of your natural unaltered breath. Keep watching, keep witnessing.

4) Understand the importance of routine.

I am not saying here that you should necessarily be a morning person or a night owl.

That you must decide for yourself what your own body and mind are comfortable with.

Whether you are able to be more productive by working a full day or at night.

Decide what suits your body and mind,

But have a routine and try to stick to it as much as you can religiously.

5) Keep your gadgets away.

Too much activity on the mind before sleep can make the mind more active and it takes time to calm itself down again.

Avoid excessive usage of gadgets from at least an hour before sleep.

You can engage in activities like: writing journal, reading, and any other self engaging activities that can help you let you go of the tensions accumulated during the day, the overflowing thoughts in your mind.

Using social media or engaging in any gadget gives more food for thought to your mind.

6) Try meditating before sleep.

I am not going to recommend any specific type of meditation here. You can choose what you like,

The purpose is only to lessen the activity of the mind.

If you don't prefer meditation, you can do any self engaging activity I mentioned above.

7) Move your body during the day

You don't necessarily have to go to the gym. Yoga or stretching out any simple exercise like walking would also help.

Body movements are necessary to maintain the energy body balanced and your muscles relaxed. Choose what you like and stick to some daily physical activity. You can also play the sports you prefer, It can be of great help!

8) Try things that can enhance the quality of your sleep.

Things that I regularly do,

a) Sleeping in a darker room.

b) Taking a warm bath before sleep.

c) Not drinking too much water just before sleep.

d) Keeping the room's temperature balanced as per your body's temperature.

e) Wear relaxing clothes.

f) Not eating heavy meals which are hard to digest at night.

9) Be mindful.

Even if you are unable to sleep someday, Remember, Understand that you worrying about the problem, getting anxious and angry and depressed and sad and what not,

is only going to worsen the problem.

If you understand that, without worrying, you just simply focus on your breath or sensations, Don't turn around 1000s of times, your body would get the necessary rest.

So, next time you are unable to sleep,

Don't worry about it. Just keep calm and present. Don't keep worrying the whole night and your body and mind would get the required rest easily.

10) Find the root cause.

Think calmly. What is that which doesn't let you sleep well? Dig deeper, Try finding the root cause.

What is it that is worrying you?

Ask yourself the right question?

If you can do something about it or not?

If you can, Great!! Do it and let is go. But if you can't, why worry?

You can't do anything about something, which is not in your hands. So, Be present and Sleep, as sleeping is something that you can and should when its time to sleep.

Is it a physical health issue, any mental issue,

or just your notion that sleeping is hard for you?

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I hope this article must have been of use to a few of you.

Note: If you have any serious medical condition, don't avoid visiting a doctor or a therapist. Alongside this, you can practice these harmless alternate medicine techniques to better your life and sleep.

These are personally tried and tested.

Can you add some more to it? How many of these do you already follow?

Did you ever suffer from insomnia? What did you do?

Share with us.

And Don't Forget!! Sleep like a baby!!

Thanks for reading!

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