• Subjective insomnia: you think you have insomnia, but you really don’t.
• Initial insomnia: taking a long time – 30 to 60 minutes - to fall asleep.
• Sleep maintenance insomnia: lying awake during the night between sleep cycles.
• Delayed sleep phase insomnia: you can’t sleep before 2:00 to 3:00 a.m.
• Unfinished sleep insomnia you snap awake at 5:00 a.m. and can’t fall asleep again.
• Disturbed sleep insomnia: when you are shocked awake by a terrifying nightmare, and this goes on night after night. It is quite rare.
  
  If you wake up each morning feeling fresh and recharged and you function efficiently during the day both physically and mentally, you probably do not have bonafide insomnia. The symptoms of true insomnia is feeling drowsy and uncomfortable during the day with a definite impairment in creativity, memory recall, cognitive ability, and mood, or falling asleep when you should be awake.

Nutrition in the prevention and treatment of insomnia

• Mild insomnia might benefit from ingesting a carbohydrate-rich snack approximately one hour before bedtime, ½ a banana or a cup of warm milk. Other foods that are high in tryptophan and promote sleep are dates, figs, milk, nut butter, tuna, turkey and whole grain crackers or yogurt. Eating these at your evening meal is another way of increasing tryptophan and serotonin levels in the brain, which is effective in inducing sleep.
• Avoid alcohol. A small amount can help induce sleep initially, but in disrupts deeper sleep cycles later.
• Avoid stimulants such as smoking, caffeine-containing beverages or heavy meals three hours before bedtime.
• Avoid bacon, cheese, chocolate, eggplant, ham, potatoes, sauerkraut, sugar, sausage, spinach, tomatoes and wine close to bedtime. These foods contain tyramine, which is a brain stimulant.
• Disturbances in sleep can be caused by foods containing monosodium glutamate (MSG), food allergies or lactose intolerance, spicy or gas-forming foods, or heavy meals that stimulate and prolong digestion. Diets that severely restrict calorie intake can disturb sleep by increasing night awakenings
• Avoid taking nasal decongestants and other cold medications late in the day. While many of their ingredients cause drowsiness, they can have the opposite effect on some people.

Establish a set of habits and follow them consistently to establish a healthy sleep cycle:

• Go to bed when you are sleepy
• Use the bedroom only for sleep, not reading, eating or watching television
• Set an alarm clock and set a pattern no matter how you slept the night before
• Do not nap during the day unless required. If nap is required due to stress of shift work, naps should be limited to 20-30 minutes (to the point that you are just starting to sleep) More than that will disrupt your regular time for sleeping.
• Exercise regularly but not right before bedtime. Physical exertion is an excellent way to make your body tired so that sleep comes about more easily.
• Take a hot bath (not a shower) an hour or two before bedtime.
• Keep the bedroom comfortable and quiet. If it is too quiet, you may wish to run a fan or other background sounds that tend to relax you.
• Slow your mind down by letting go of worries and concentrating on pleasant memories and thoughts. Meditation or guided imagery is extremely helpful in getting sleep patterns back to normal for some people. Put worries out of your mind by taking 10-20 minutes to write them down and knowing that you can refer back to them anytime.
• If you snore try sleeping on your side.

Sleep experts advise that people who get seven to eight hours of sleep each night live longer, happier, healthier lives than those who skimp on sleep.

Children sleep well due to their innocence. When adults can let go of their preoccupations and become innocent like children, they start releasing the thoughts that interfere with their natural state of sleeping. When we stop long enough to observe our thoughts, we will find our answer.


Disclaimer: The advice detailed in this article assumes that you are a normally healthy adult. The author, publishers cannot accept responsibility for loss or damage suffered by individuals as a result of following advice in this article.

CJM LeBlanc Healthworks, 319 St.George St., Moncton, N.B. E1C 1W8, tel: (506) 863-9404, fax: 532-8644, e-mail: charlottel@nb.aibn.com, web site: www.wellness-healthworks.com