Many people with insomnia end up taking pills that don’t solve their problem in the long run. There are other, more effective treatments that begin by getting rid of anxiety and the desire to fall asleep.
- What is insomnia?
- Sleeping pills are not always effective
- What are the causes of insomnia?
- How to get rid of insomnia? Relaxation and meditation
- Mobile phone apps to treat insomnia and sleep better
Sleep is essential for physical and mental recovery. In fact, you can’t live without sleep. Therefore, difficulty falling asleep can be described as a temporary disorder: the affected person may not fall asleep when he wants, but in the end, he goes to sleep, unless he suffers from one of the very rare diseases that affect the brain’s control of sleep, such as Creutzfeld-Jakob disease or fatal familial insomnia. A genetic alteration that affects only 40 families in the world.
WHAT IS INSOMNIA?
However, insomnia (this temporary difficulty falling asleep at the right time) is a disorder that affects one in three people at some point. Actually, we say that we have had insomnia when we have not managed to sleep well one night, but the medical diagnosis requires suffering it three times a week for more than three months and must be accompanied by fatigue during the day, irritability or difficulty concentrating. This insomnia increases the risk of depression, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer’s.
Insomnia can produce tremendous anxiety. The person who suffers from it wants above all to fall asleep and resorts to the necessary means. Sometimes an infusion of valerian is enough, but many people resort to sleeping pills, pills that actually induce sleep, although not of the same quality as natural and also have side effects. Some prescription sleeping pills can even be addictive.
SLEEPING PILLS ARE NOT ALWAYS EFFECTIVE
A study led by Dr. Andrea Cipriani of the University of Oxford reviewed published evidence on 30 sleeping pills. Only two of the 30 drugs tested managed to act relatively quickly (within a month) and provide relief for at least three months, being well tolerated.
Modifying habits is the most sensible and effective therapy to avoid insomnia: waking up early, every day at the same time, exposing yourself to natural light in the morning, relaxing as night approaches, and going to sleep every day, too, at the same time. Giving up coffee from noon, complete darkness and silence in the bedroom, as well as a good mattress, help.
However, it is possible that doing everything right, bedtime comes and Morpheus does not appear. In that case, the desire to sleep can become a torture worse than insomnia itself and achieves precisely the opposite: anxiety about sleeping keeps sleep away.
WHAT ARE THE CAUSES OF INSOMNIA?
If the reason is not obvious, such as bad habits, abuse of night parties, being subjected to external noises or intense worry or stress, the causes of insomnia must be sought in the underlying mental processes.
Studies indicate that people with recurrent insomnia experience hyperarousal, fueled by ruminant thoughts, which makes them feel anxious and physically upset. This makes it harder for them to fall asleep at bedtime or not go into a deep sleep, making them more likely to wake up during the night.
People with insomnia seem to have difficulty regulating emotional states and stress responses. Instead of finding solutions, your mind often spends too much time on circular or ruminant thinking, dominated by fixed, repetitive patterns, and too often with negative ideas.
This type of mental dynamic is reinforced by insomnia itself. When bedtime approaches, the person with insomnia begins to get nervous, their thoughts go into a loop, and sleep becomes virtually impossible. The more they worry about sleep, the worse the symptoms, regardless of how many hours they sleep. Some even claim to suffer from insomnia, fatigue, concentration problems, etc., although they sleep enough hours.
HOW TO GET RID OF INSOMNIA? RELAXATION AND MEDITATION
Learning relaxation and meditation techniques, if possible, under the guidance of a professional, can go a long way toward disconnecting the mind from worries and preparing for sleep. These techniques allow ruminant thinking to be “switched off” as soon as it is launched.
Meditation allows you to observe in a serene, physically relaxed way, the thoughts that inevitably come to mind. In this way, ruminant thinking loses its ability to generate anxiety.
Another thing that the person with insomnia who is already lying in bed with their eyes open can do is stop wanting to fall asleep and not only that, but want to stay awake. You can, for example, be glad to have time to read a good and long book or, better yet, to paint a nice mandala. This counterintuitive technique, called “paradoxical intention,” can reduce “performance anxiety” and lead to a faster fall in sleep.
MOBILE PHONE APPS TO TREAT INSOMNIA AND SLEEP BETTER
- Sleep. As reported by the New Scientist magazine, public health in England and Wales recommends the application of Sleep as an alternative to drug treatment. This application is a resource when public health does not have enough qualified people to offer adequate psychological therapy to the large number of people with insomnia. This application works as a six-week course that adapts to the needs and responses of each person, thanks to an artificial intelligence algorithm.
- Sleep Space. This app also offers personalized advice and also provides short pulses of relaxing sound at night. These sounds are designed to induce the correct frequencies of slow brain waves associated with sleep, and can be connected to intelligent light sources that will change pitch to suit the stage of the circadian rhythm.
