How to Cope Successfully with Sleeping Well - The Drug-Free Way

Good, restful, sleep is an important part of your total health. There is no uniform pattern to sleep problems, a great deal depends on an individual’s make-up.

Many people suffer from a poor night’s sleep due to the fast, stressful pace of life that has now become normal. We need to take positive steps to manage stress or we could develop a tense, wound-up state of mind.

Sleep problems include difficulties in switching off, frequent waking and a sense of being unrefreshed on waking. Other factors that can contribute to a poor nights sleep include over-reliance on caffeine, alcohol or chemical sedatives to help us unwind. Bad working habits play a large part in preventing sound sleep. Why are we surprised that we find it difficult to switch off when trying to sleep?

This book contains positive strategies to solve these problems and break the negative cycle. Sleeping Well the drug-free way covers a wide range of help including, a positive lifestyle changes, practical advice on stress management, nutritional support and a range of alternative and complementary medical advice to help induce a refreshing night’s rest.

Contents
Introduction

• The importance of sleep
• The nature of sleep
• Sleep and the mind
• Preparing the body for sleep
• Nutrition and sleep
• Medicated sleep: What GPs have to offer
• The alternative medical approach
• Aromatherapy, herbal and homoeopathic self-help
• Stress-reduction techniques that promote sound sleep

Recommended reading
Useful addresses

How to Cope Successfully with Sleeping Well - The Drug-Free Way

Disclaimer: The aim of this book is to provide general information only and should not be treated as a substitute for the medical advice of your doctor or any other health care professional. The publisher and author are not responsible or liable for any diagnosis made by a reader based on the contents of this book. Always consult your doctor if you are in any way concerned about your health.

Introduction

Good, restful, sound sleep is one of the most important building blocks of high-quality health. If you have any doubts about this, just ask anyone who suffers from sleep problems how much they would give to have a good night's rest, and you'll have your answer!

Why are sleep problems so common?
The reasons why so many of us complain of suffering from a less- than-perfect night's rest are likely to have some connection to the fast, stressful pace of life that has become the norm. We need to take positive steps in stress management if we don't want to end up becoming victims of a tense, wound-up state of mind. Sleep problems - including difficulties in switching off, frequent waking and a sense of being unrefreshed on waking - are common symptoms of unmanaged, escalating stress levels.

Additional factors that can contribute to a disturbed night's rest include an over-reliance on caffeine during the day, and alcohol or chemical sedatives to help us unwind at night, plus a tendency to neglect environmental factors that can also play their part in stopping us from winding down. Noisy, poorly-ventilated and uncomfortable bedrooms can make the sleeping hours a challenge rather than a delightful experience of relaxation and renewal!

Bad working habits can also play their part in interfering with sound sleep. These are especially problematic since they are so insidious, creeping up on us slowly until they have reached such an obvious, problematic level that we realise something must be done to rectify the situation. A perfectly common example of this sort of negative working pattern includes the tendency to work later and later into the early hours of the morning. Is it any wonder, then, that we find it difficult to switch our minds off when we may be preoccupied with solving work problems until the moment we are getting ready for bed? Grim as all of these problems sound, there are practical solutions to each one. These positive strategies are to be found in the pages of this book.

When are we especially vulnerable to broken sleep?
Even those of us who can normally take a good night's rest for granted when life is going smoothly are likely to have found that we become tetchy, moody and lacking in 'get up and go' if we hit a phase where we are prevented from sleeping well. Common lifestyle factors that can disrupt our slumber can include any of the following: short- term escalation in stress levels, bereavement, nursing a sick family member, the arrival of a baby, or unwise changes in the quality of food and drink that we may rely on in response to an escalation in negative stressors in our lives.

If any of these lifestyle changes occur, it's important to be aware that there are practical measures we can take to get our sleep patterns back on track within the shortest period of time. After all, no one needs the additional stress of feeling powerless in the face of a rapid downturn in the quality of our sleep!

Breaking the negative cycle can best be done by taking simple, positive steps to improve your individual situation. Feeling powerless in the face of seemingly insurmountable problems can often lead to additional emotional, stress-related symptoms such as anxiety and depression. Since both conditions are known to have a negative impact on sleep patterns and sleep quality, it is extremely important to take positive action before the situation is allowed to escalate in this way.

The individual response: How and why sleep deprivation affects different people in different ways
It can be very helpful to understand that there is no uniform pattern to sleep problems, and that a great deal depends on your own individual make-up. The latter is often referred to as your 'constitution' - this term can embrace the main qualities that mark us out as individuals on emotional, mental, and physical levels. For example, constitutional type A may live on his nerves, be highly-motivated and ambitious at work, have a fast metabolism that keeps his weight low, and have a tendency to stress-related health problems such as digestive upsets and a pattern of light, fitful, unrefreshing sleep.

Constitutional type B, on the other hand, may frequently feel lethargic and unmotivated, with a metabolic rate that is equally slow to tick over. Problems that can occur in this type of sluggish constitution may include weight gain, constipation and chronically low energy levels, with ongoing anxiety and lack of confidence as a result of poor motivation. Sleep problems in this sort of constitutional type may take a different pattern, with a persistent feeling of never being able to get enough sleep.

The fact that each individual experiences his or her sleep problems in a way that is unique is of central importance when arguing in favour of the alternative/complementary models of treatment. Unlike conventional medicine, which takes a fairly uniform approach to treating sleep problems (usually a drug-based approach that consists of the short-term use of sedatives), the major systems of alternative medicine described in this book take a rather different perspective.

From an alternative medical viewpoint, effective treatment for a chronic, well-established problem such as poor or interrupted sleep patterns can be established once enough of the patient's individual features and unique circumstances have been identified. In other words, alternative therapists tend to be more interested in the differences that exist between one patient's insomnia and another's than in the common features they share. This is likely to be the case whether you consult a homoeopath, traditional Chinese practitioner, Western medical herbalist or Ayurvedic practitioner (more detailed explanations of the theory and practical application of a selection of alternative and complementary therapies can be found in Chapter Seven).

About the author:
Beth MacEoin trained at the Northern College of Homoeopathic Medicine for four year before setting up her practice and becoming a registered member of the Society of Homoeopaths. Beth has over 14 health books to her credit published by Thorsons, Bloomsbury, Carlton and Headway. She also acts as an adviser to journalists on many magazines and newspapers and writes a regular column for Here’s Health magazine. She broadcasts on BBC Radio Newcastle and has appeared several times on Tyne Tees television to give advice on general health topics. Beth lives in Newcastle upon Tyne.