Everything about Insomnia and cure for insomnia

Insomnia is defined as insufficient or poor-quality sleep that involved trouble falling asleep, waking up too early in the morning, frequent awakenings throughout the night. One definition of insomnia is inadequate sleep that does not allow us to be fully energetic and productive the next day.

Insomnia is a sleep disorder characterized by chronic problems falling asleep, staying asleep or only sleeping for several hours and being wake unable to fall back to sleep. It is typically followed by functional impairment while awake. Both organic and non-organic insomnia constitute a sleep disorder.

It can be caused by another disorder, by changes in the sleep environment, by the timing of sleep, or by stress. Researchers do not know exactly why people need sleep, but we do know that lack of sleep can kill. Humans deprived of sleep for long periods begin hallucinating and develop other mental problems.

If your sleep is not quality sleep, your health and wellness can suffer. The best way to get better rest is for you to learn more about how you are sleeping.

People vary in their need for, and satisfaction with, sleep. Insomnia isn’t only about the number of hours a person sleeps each night; rather, it is also about a person’s perception that his or her sleep is inadequate. A feeling of inadequate sleep may be caused by:

• Difficulty falling asleep
• Difficulty staying

Insomnia is described by how long it lasts.

• Transient Insomnia: lasting for a short time
• Intermittent Insomnia: occurring on and off
• Chronic Insomnia: occurring on most nights and lasting for a month or more.

Zoloft is FDA approved to treat depression, certain types of social anxiety conditions, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) in adults over age 18. It is also approved for OCD in children and adolescents age 6-17 years. When your insomnia is being caused by depression, social ansiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) then yes, the Zoloft will help with your insomnia.

As Zoloft helps with the underlying disorder, your sleep should return to normal.

Insomnia is defined as insufficient or poor-quality sleep that involved trouble falling asleep, waking up too early in the morning, frequent awakenings throughout the night. One definition of insomnia is inadequate sleep that does not allow us to be fully energetic and productive the next day. Types of Insomnia include temporary or chronic. The form of solution for insomnia depends on the cause of the sleep disturbance.

If your sleep is not quality sleep, your health and wellness can suffer. The best way to get better rest is for you to learn more about how you are sleeping.
People vary in their need for, and satisfaction with, sleep. Insomnia isn’t only about the number of hours a person sleeps each night; rather, it is also about a person’s perception that his or her sleep is inadequate. A feeling of inadequate sleep may be caused by:

• Difficulty falling asleep
• Difficulty staying asleep

Insomnia is described by how long it lasts.

• Transient Insomnia: lasting for a short time
• Intermittent Insomnia: occurring on and off
• Chronic Insomnia: occurring on most nights and lasting for a month or more.

For women, menopause can interfere with sleep. And they can be given a hormone. Prometrium can be sedating, bringing sleep on. It also balances estrogen’s effect on serotonin and norepinephrine, which both act to “overcaffeinate” us–causing us to be wired. It also helps too improve breathing patterns, even making sleep apnea better in some. It’s important to remember though that it’s bio-identical progesterone that makes the biggest difference. There was a study that compared women on either Premarin or Provera (synthetic progestin) or Premarin and Prometrium (bio-identical progesterone). Women taking the Prometrium found they fell asleep more easily and stayed asleep for more of the night. On the other hand, too much progesterone can be sedating and create fatigue, so you can have too much of a good thing.
The severity of hormonal problems may increase with age, but it is not aging per se that is the root of declining health. Exposure to environmental toxins and the cumulative effects of stress cause disruption of the natural rhythms.

How long does it take for prometrium to help with insomnia? As long as it takes to get your hormones back in balance which is different with everyone. Prometrium can be taken for the rest of your life – but there are trade offs and side effects just as there are with any drug. Your doctor is the best person to discuss the balance or imbalance of your hormone system.

Resource: Yahoo support group

That depends on why you are having problems sleeping.

Sleep deprivation is getting more and more common in our stressed-out society. Nine out of ten people of the working population would sleep longer in the morning if they had the chance, and almost one third of the population suffer from sleep deprivation. About ten percent of the population are constantly getting too little sleep. Half of these cases are due to problems falling asleep and the other half are due to disturbances by, for example, children or noise. Sleep deprivation is more common with women than men.
Most people need between six and nine hours of sleep per day and on average adults sleep eight and a half hour if they are allowed to sleep as much as their body needs. An adult sleeps on average seven and a half hour per day.

Approximately 40 percent of the population use medicines or herbal medicines at least once a week because of sleeping problems.
Sleep is a complicated process that is needed in order to give the brain and body rest, time to recover and process impressions. Sleep is important for growth during childhood and adolescence. During the day, but especially when we sleep, the body produces growth hormones that, among other things, strengthen the bones and build muscles.

A sleep disorder (somnipathy) is any disruption in the sleep patterns of an individual. While some sleep disorders may leave you feeling unrefreshed, a number of symptoms are more severe including excessive sleepiness, snor¬ing, difficulty falling asleep during normal sleeping hours and abnormal be¬haviors such as restless leg syndrome. There are even disorders that cause you to get too much sleep. One type of sleep disorder is insomnia.

Insomnia may mean you have a hard time going to sleep or that you have a hard time staying asleep. Usually, you will know if you are experiencing insomnia because you will remember tossing and turning or being awake at night.

Insomnia is a sleep disorder characterized by an inability to sleep and/or inability to remain asleep for a reasonable period. Insomniacs typically complain of being unable to close their eyes or “rest their mind” for more than a few minutes at a time.
Insomnia can be caused by fear, stress, anxiety, medications, herbs, caffeine, depression, or other mental conditions and sometimes occurs for no apparent reason. An overactive mind or physical pain may also be causes. Finding the underlying cause of insomnia is usually necessary to cure it.

Insomnia can also be the symptom of many other illnesses which one of these is depression. Studies have shown that when given Paxil for depression, the patient will sleep better.

Paxil is not indicated for insomnia unless it is insomnia caused by depression. Paxil also has many withdrawal problems when a person have been on Paxil for some time, so a patient should not just stop taking Paxil without the knowledge of your physician as he will probably want to take you off Paxil gradually.

So the answer is, yes – if you are suffering from a sleep disorder caused by depression, Paxil will help with your sleep.

Plato may have been wiser than he knew when he said, “Nothing more excellent or valuable than wine was ever granted by the Gods to man.” Those of us who have come to enjoy the variety and tastes that wine have to offer can now look to red wines for greater health benefits. Recent studies show that drinking one glass of red wine every day may have certain health benefits. Research indicates that moderate red wine consumption may help protect against certain cancers and heart disease, and can have a positive effect on cholesterol levels and blood pressure.

The antioxidants in red wines have been shown to provide certain health benefits. Antioxidants act like warriors, preventing the oxidation process whereby reactive particles known as “free radicals” cause damage to healthy cells. For the moderate drinker, drinking one to two glasses of wine daily, the antioxidants in red wine offer some protection against heart disease.

Liver cirrhosis as a result of alcohol abuse is one of the ten leading causes of death in the United States. Individuals with a family history of alcohol problems should not begin drinking in response to any positive studies of the benefits of red wine, nor should those with pre-existing health conditions, including
• high blood pressure
• arrhythmias or irregular heartbeats
• liver disease
• stomach ulcers
• severe acid reflux
• sleep apnea.
In sleep apnea, with each period of breathlessness (as many as twenty in an hour) the carbon dioxide level in the blood rises and there is a corresponding decrease in the blood oxygen levels . This, along with the stress and the struggle to draw breath, puts a strain on the heart.

In pure central sleep apnea , the brain’s respiratory control centers are imbalanced during sleep. Blood levels of carbon dioxide, and the neurological feedback mechanism that monitors it does not react quickly enough to maintain an even respiratory rate, with the entire system cycling between apnea and hyperpnea, even during wakefulness. The sleeper stops breathing, and then starts again. There is no effort made to breathe during the pause in breathing: there are no chest movements and no struggling. After the episode of apnea, breathing may be faster (hyperpnea) for a period of time, a compensatory mechanism to blow off retained waste gases and absorb more oxygen.

So, will a glass of wine help with sleep – yes, but more than that can cause serious sleep disorders.

About ten percent of the population are constantly getting too little sleep. Half of these cases are due to problems falling asleep and the other half are due to disturbances by, for example, children or noise. Sleep deprivation is more common with women than men.
Most people need between six and nine hours of sleep per day and on average adults sleep eight and a half hour if they are allowed to sleep as much as their body needs. An adult sleeps on average seven and a half hour per day.

There seems to be a connection between long term sleep problems and cardiovascular diseases and depression. Sleep deprivation also lowers the immune defense and can cause heightened sensitivity to pain, which can worsen the symptoms of pain diseases like fibromyalgia and arthritis. Sleep deprivation can also be a factor behind elevated blood pressure. Sleep in itself has a reducing effect on blood pressure and with too little sleep the body’s ability to regulate blood pressure is reduced.

Most problems sleeping are just bad sleep habits. Let’s look at what these sleep habits are.

• Short naps during the day is an effective cure if you are tired. Fifteen minutes of sleep in the middle of the day is more rejuvenating than the last two or three hours of sleep during the night. The downside is that sleeping during the day might negatively effect the night sleep.
• Change your evening habits. Demands from friends and family can be just as stressful as a work. Thus you should make sure that you don’t have any obligations during the evenings and try to go to sleep earlier.
• Alcohol consumption and smoking deteriorate the quality of your sleep. Thus it might help to quit smoking and/or cut back on alcohol consumption.
• Stress increases the metabolism which in turn prevents the sleep from being as deep as it should, and it also makes it easier to wake up. This means that it will take longer for you to fall asleep and you will more often wake up during the night or early in the morning.
• Create a good sleeping environment. Most people sleep best in a dark, cool (14-18°C/57-64°F) and quiet room with a good bed.
• Avoid alcohol and stimulating beverages such as coffee, tea, energy drinks and cola for at least six hours before you go to bed.
• Don’t go to bed hungry.
• Sleep at regular hours.
• Try to have some physical activity every day.
• Wind down before you go to bed. This can be done by for example reading, watching TV, playing with children or anything else that makes you feel relaxed without feeling like an obligation.
• Take a warm bath an hour before going to bed.
• If you can’t sleep it might help to get up again and do something else until you feel sleepy.
• Learn relaxation techniques that you can use when going to bed.
• Learn “thought stop” to stop ruminative thoughts.
• Place your alarm clock so that you can’t see what time it is from your bed. It can be stressing to see how long you have been lying awake.

If you are doing all of the above and are still having trouble sleeping, you may have a sleep disorder and should visit with your family doctor.

But studies have shown that most people have trouble sleeping because of poor sleep habits.

This is definitely a strange sensation — you get up out of your seat, and all you feel from one foot is an uncomfortable tingling. Or you wake up in the middle of the night, and you can’t move your arm at all. And then, as your body part “wakes up,” the strange tingling intensifies. Just what is going on here?

Usually, you feel this familiar sensation after you’ve been putting pressure on part of your body — sitting on a foot, sleeping on an arm, etc. When you apply this pressure for a prolonged period of time, you actually cut off communication from your brain to parts of your body. The pressure squeezes nerve pathways so that the nerves can’t transmit electrochemical impulses properly. Nerve impulses carry sensation information from nerve endings in the body to the brain, as well as instructions from the brain to the parts of the body. When you interfere with this transfer by squeezing the nerve pathways, you don’t have full feeling in that body part, and your brain has trouble telling the body part what to do.

This pressure can also squeeze arteries, stopping them from carrying nutrients to body cells. Without these nutrients, the nerve cells may behave abnormally, which can further interfere with communicating bodily sensations.

Due to both these factors, the information transmitted from the body part becomes somewhat jumbled, and the brain receives strange messages. Some nerve cells don’t transmit any information and others start sending impulses erratically. This causes you to feel a strange tingling sensation, which actually serves an important function. Your foot falling asleep for 10 minutes doesn’t pose any health threat, but if you were to cut off circulation for an extended period of time — several hours — you could suffer serious nerve damage. The initial tingling sensation tells you that you might want to readjust your position.

Once you do move your foot, stretch your legs, or roll over off your arm, the nerve impulses begin to flow properly again. You don’t regain feeling right away, however. There is a certain amount of re-adjustment time before the nerves transmit impulses correctly again. This increases the intensity of the tingling, causing the familiar “pins and needles” sensation.

If this has ever happened to you, you know that there are actually a few distinct sensations you go through as your body part “wakes up.” The tingling may be followed by a more uncomfortable burning sensation, before your body part finally returns to normal. This happens because the nerves in your body are made up of separate long nerve cells that carry different sorts of impulses. These nerve fibers have different surrounding structures.

Some nerve fibers have thicker “insulation” around them and so take longer to begin transmitting impulses properly after they’ve been squeezed. The fibers that transmit pain and temperature information are relatively thin, so you feel the tingling situations pretty quickly. Motor control fibers are thinner than the ones carrying touch information, so you can move the body part before you’ve regained complete feeling in it. Eventually, all the nerve fibers return to normal and you regain full use of the sleeping body part.

So, this is a simple explanation of why your legs (or arms) fall asleep and give you that strange tingling sensation.

Reference: HowStuffWorks.com