Sleeping Without The Pill

Title:
Sleeping Without The Pill

Word Count:
585

Summary:
Very few people seek medical advice and remain unaware of the behavioral and medical options available to treat insomnia. Most people would easily resort to prescription and over-the-counter sleeping pills. However, better sleep doesn’t have to come in a pill and several studies have been reported to support this view.


Keywords:
stress, anxiety, insomnia, chronic insomnia, treatment, therapy, sleeping pills, side effects, relaxation


Article Body:
While scientists are figuring out why people have to sleep, many people are just as puzzled in figuring out why they can't sleep. Occasional sleepless nights may be due to stress, anxiety, heartburn, or drinking too much caffeine or alcohol. The condition of having difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep is called insomnia. However, when this problem of falling asleep, maintaining sleep, or experiencing non-restorative sleep occurs on a regular or frequent basis and often for no apparent reason, it becomes chronic insomnia.

Though insomnia affects all age group, the condition is more prevalent among women and the incidence increases with age.
Since insomnia is a symptom and not a diagnosis, treatment should be personal and must be focused on the underlying
condition. Treatment and therapy may include the following:

.Improving sleep habits
.Correcting sleep misconceptions
.Controlling your sleep environment
.Behavior management
.Light therapy
.Medications

Very few people seek medical advice and remain unaware of the behavioral and medical options available to treat insomnia. Most people would easily resort to prescription and over-the-counter sleeping pills. However, better sleep doesn’t have to come in a pill and several studies have been reported to support this view.
According to a report in The Journal of Family Practice, studies show that simple behavioral and psychological treatments work just as well, and sometimes better, than popular medications. Last year, the medical journal Sleep reported on 5 high-quality trials that showed cognitive behavioral therapy helped people suffering from insomnia fall asleep sooner and stay asleep longer.
From American Journal of Psychiatry, the analysis of 21 studies showed that behavioral treatment helped people fall asleep nearly nine minutes sooner than sleep drugs.
Overall, sleep therapy worked just as well as drugs, but without any side effects. Most people don't believe that these behavioral strategies for better sleep can really make a difference because they appear to be so simple to produce results.
One of the most effective methods of cognitive behavioral therapy is stimulus control. It prohibits a person from watching television, eating or reading in bed. Going to bed should be done only when you are sleepy. It encourages you to get up at the same time every day, and not to take catnaps during the day. If after 15 minutes and sleep remains elusive, get out of bed and do something relaxing, but avoid stimulating activity and thoughts.
Sleep therapy also involves sleep hygiene which includes regular exercise, light-proofing your bedroom to keep it dark, and making the bed and room temperatures comfortable. People suffering from chronic insomnia should eat regular meals and must not go to bed hungry. Limit intake of beverages, particularly alcohol and caffeinated drinks, around bedtime. Avoid looking at the clock and do not try too hard to fall asleep. Turn the clock around so you don't get to see it. Watching time pass is one of the worst things to do when you’re trying to fall asleep.
Simple though these steps may seem, but they really make a significant difference for people with insomnia. According to a report of Family Practice, these interventions are based on the notion that thoughts and behaviors can “hyper-arouse” the central nervous system and deregulate sleep cycles, resulting in chronic insomnia.
Should these steps fail, consult your doctor about a referral to a sleep therapist, who can give you additional relaxation techniques to help bring on sleep. A sleep therapist may help you reset your sleep-wake schedule which involves adjusting your bedtime each night over the course of a few weeks.

BONUS : Title:
Sleepwalkers Need Enough Sleep

Word Count:
335

Summary:
Lack of sleep does not only cause physical exhaustion. It may also lead to involuntary walking --- while a person is still fast asleep. This is one of the findings of a research team that studied the impact of sleep deprivation and how it can be associated with cases of sleepwalking.


Keywords:
sleepwalkers


Article Body:
April 1, 2008, Montreal – If you want sleepwalkers to roam around the whole night, deprive them of sleep. It may seem ironic, but a Canadian study of 40 sleepwalkers shows that when sleep-deprived, people have a greater tendency to sleepwalk.
According to University of Montreal’s Dr. Antonio Zadra and his colleagues, the study supports recommendations for sleepwalkers to “maintain a regular sleep cycle and avoid sleep deprivation.”
While sleep may seem like a steady state, it actually consists of 5 stages that cycle throughout the night. There are 5 stages of sleep including the REM (rapid eye movement) stage. A complete sleep cycle takes about 90 to 100 minutes and a regular sleep consists of 4 to 5 complete sleep cycles.
In Zadra’s study, sleepwalkers spent a night at a laboratory where they were videotaped. Researchers observed their movements while they were asleep. Most sleepwalkers don’t actually sleepwalk every night.
The researchers found out that many of the participants in the research had actually sleepwalked. Some of them did so more than once that night, for a total of 32 sleepwalking episodes.
On the following day, the participants were kept awake for 25 hours straight to find out how sleep deprivation would affect the sleepwalkers.
When they went to bed in the morning, they were all exhausted and were trying to get sleep at an unusual time. The researchers noted that after staying awake for 25 hours, the participants showed much different sleeping patterns compare to the night before. During their catch-up sleep period, 36 people sleepwalked for a total of 92 sleepwalking episodes.
This result brought Zadra and his colleagues to conclude that sleep deprivation may encourage sleepwalking in sleepwalkers. The findings could help in diagnosing and treating people for sleepwalking.
While this study didn't include a comparison group of people who have never sleepwalked, in the past work of Zadra’s team, however, they found that healthy people with no history of sleepwalking weren't more likely to sleepwalk when sleep deprived.
This study is included in the March edition of the Annals of Neurology.