• FOOD & RECIPES
  • HEALTH & BEAUTY
  • LIFE
  • HOME DESIGN
  • GARDENING
  • DIY
  • FOOD & RECIPES
    • Keto Diet Recipes
    • Breakfast & Brunch
    • Soups & Salads
    • Dinner
    • Dessert Recipes
  • HEALTHY LIVING
    • Diet & Weight Loss
    • Fitness
    • Healthy Tips
    • Beauty Tips
  • LIFE
    • Relationships
    • Parenting
  • HOME DESIGN
    • Architecture Ideas
    • Interior Design
  • GARDENING
    • Vegetables & Herbs
    • Ornamental Plants
    • Gardening Tips
  • PETS
  • TRAVEL
  • DIY
    • Diy Ideas
10
Sep

Home / Healthy Living / Healthy Tips / What to Do When You Can’t Sleep

What to Do When You Can’t Sleep

By recommended tips
/ tags healthy, insomnia, sleep, tips
0 Comments

There are few things worse than spending your nights tossing and turning. Whether it’s anxiety about work, stress about financial woes or just plain insomnia, when you can’t sleep, the repercussions are more serious than just feeling drowsy the next day. What to do when you can’t sleep?

Sleep is one of the most important things you can do to keep your body healthy. In fact, according to a study in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, a lapse in adequate sleep time — at least seven hours a night — can lead to a decreased attention span, depressed feelings and difficulty processing ideas.

Sleep problems can also lead to increased weight gain and increase your chances of getting sick. And there are financial repercussions of insomnia or trouble sleeping as well — as this condition is related to lost productivity, absenteeism, work-related accidents and high health care costs.

Although it seems like so many people struggle with getting restful sleep, insomnia and sleep issues are not normal and they need to be addressed.

What to Do When You Can’t Sleep


Unable to Sleep? It’s Probably Some Form of Insomnia

Did you know that one in five people have suffered from insomnia at some point in their lives? In fact, one of the most common concerns that I hear from patients is “I can’t sleep.” What is insomnia?

It’s a sleep disorder that can reduce your quality of life and overall health. Some people with insomnia have trouble falling asleep and others have difficulty staying asleep for multiple hours.

Insomnia has been defined as difficulty sleeping that occurs at least three times per week for at least a month. Although studies show that severe insomnia lasts for a medium of four years.

Adults need about seven hours of sleep per night and children need about nine hours. If you, or your loved ones, aren’t getting a full night’s sleep, you may be suffering from insomnia and may benefit from dietary and lifestyle changes.

What to Do When You Can’t Sleep


Types of Insomnia

There are two basic types of insomnia: acute and chronic insomnia.  Some also consider transient insomnia to be another type that causes symptoms lasting less than one week.

  • Acute insomnia: Acute insomnia is characterized as a brief episode of difficulty sleeping and it usually resolves without the need for treatment. This type of insomnia can be caused by a stressful or traumatic event.
  • Chronic insomnia: Chronic insomnia lasts for a longer period of time, as it’s usually defined as sleeping difficulty for at least three nights per week that lasts for three months or longer. There are many different reasons why someone might struggle with ongoing, chronic insomnia (more on these causes below).

What to Do When You Can’t Sleep

Insomnia Symptoms

People dealing with insomnia will typically develop at least one of these common symptoms:

  • Taking a very long time to fall asleep
  • Waking up frequently in middle of the night
  • Not sleeping soundly
  • Non-restorative sleep (not feeling refreshed after sleep)
  • Long periods of wakefulness in middle of the night
  • Not being able to fall back asleep when you wake up in middle of the night
  • Waking up too early and not being able to fall back asleep
  • Fatigue and cognitive impairment as a result of too little sleep
  • Difficulty at work and school, and in personal relationships as a result of too little sleep

What to Do When You Can’t Sleep


What Causes Insomnia

There are a number of conditions and lifestyle choices that can lead to insomnia. According to research published in the journal Depression and Anxiety, there is evidence linking insomnia to hyper-arousal (or increased activation) in cognitive, endocrine, neurological and behavioral domains. This means that there’s no one mechanism that causes insomnia, which is why one treatment plan isn’t effective for everyone.

The most common conditions and lifestyle factors that cause insomnia include: 

  • stress and anxiety
  • pain, such as back pain
  • frequent urination/urge to urinate at night
  • hot flashes
  • sleep apnea
  • arthritis
  • asthma
  • restless leg syndrome
  • digestive problems
  • allergies or respiratory conditions
  • working nights or shift work
  • alcohol and drug use
  • neurological conditions, such as Parkinson’s disease
  • certain medications, including antidepressants, psychostimulants, anticonvulsants, decongestants, steroids and dopamine agonists

Insomnia is more prevalent among women, especially with the onset of menstruation and menopause, and older adults. Other risk factors for insomnia include certain medical disorders, psychiatric disorders, pain conditions and working the night shifts.

Look to these 20 insomnia natural remedies if you can’t sleep

Image credit: (pixabay)

Get more stuff like this

Subscribe to our mailing list and get interesting stuff and updates to your email inbox.

Thank you for subscribing.

Something went wrong.

The form collects name and email so that we can add you to our newsletter list for project updates. Checkout our privacy policy for the full story on how we protect and manage your submitted data!

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Categories

WHO WE ARE
Recommended Tips is a positive and empowering community for everyone who want to love, grow and share! We are offering to our readers insightful and inspiring looks at real life issues, beauty, style, people, technology, travel, careers, health, fitness and so much more. At Recommended Tips we believe in designing our lives and pursuing our dreams!
LATEST COMMENTS
  • Making again today! I forgot how easy they were. The recipe sou
    Charlene
  • Very good and filling! I used cookie scoop and got 10 - 1 ounce
    NancyBanana
  • Made this tonight with a few modifications of adding cavenders se
    Darlena
POPULAR ARTICLES
  • Fluffy Keto Pancakes 393 people like this
  • Keto Key Lime Bars 375 people like this
  • Best Keto Chocolate Cake 310 people like this
  • Keto No Bake Cookies 243 people like this
OUR PAGES
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Disclosure Policy
  • DMCA Copyright Policy
  • Medical Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy & Legal Disclaimer
  • Terms of Use
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Reject Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT
wpDiscuz
0
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x
| Reply