29 Oct Is Insomnia Keeping You Up All Of The Time?
You try to close your eyes to drift off to sleep but for some reason, your body doesn’t want to cooperate. You take deep meditative breaths, count sheep and try to not to look at the numbers on the clock. Most people experience the distress of insomnia at least once in their lives, but you should be concerned if it’s keeping you up all of the time.
Insomnia is a disorder that makes it difficult for people to fall or stay asleep — this can happen for a single night, it can span several days, or it can be a chronic problem that plagues someone for a long time. Other than the initial inability to go to bed, insomnia symptoms are related to physical exhaustion from sleep loss like feeling tired during the day, increased errors, diminished focus and general irritability. You will notice how the condition impacts your daily life, showing low performance at work, poor marks in school and problems with operating a vehicle.
Insomnia can crop up during major upheavals or traumatic events, such as a loss of employment or the death of a loved one. If these don’t relate to your current situation, there are a number of other reasons why you have insomnia — these are behaviours that you can try to remedy so that you can return to a healthy sleep schedule. One of the habits that will make it hard to relax is smoking cigarettes before bed because they contain nicotine. Nicotine is a potent parasympathomimetic stimulant that will make your body more alert, even if you don’t notice it.
Another one of the common habits linked to insomnia that you may not think about is overindulging in coffee or energy drinks — caffeine can stay in your in your system for more than ten hours and will affect your sleep if you’re not careful. The influence of caffeine grows stronger with age so an adult in their forties or fifties will be more sensitive to the consequences of a post-dinner latte than a person in their twenties.
Here is a list of other things that you should stop doing close to your bedtime to make sure you don’t ruin your sleep:
- Exercising
- Eating heavy meals
- Drinking alcohol
- Scrolling through your smartphone
- Checking social media or the news
It’s very possible that you have the disorder obstructive sleep apnea, which is causing you to wake up in the middle of the night and to have poor sleep. The major symptoms of sleep apnea are very similar to the signs of chronic insomnia and they can be easily misconstrued — the symptoms include restlessness at bedtime, daytime fatigue, reduced concentration and irritability. Making lifestyle changes to address insomnia will not give you a full night’s rest when sleep apnea still disrupts your breathing.
Doing continuous positive airway pressure therapy will instantly improve symptoms of sleep apnea — a CPAP machine is designed to keep your airway open so that there is no obstruction or pause while you are sleeping. The devices and the attached face/nasal masks force oxygen to reach your brain, which will make you feel refreshed in the morning. People who use CPAP supplies and equipment to treat their sleep apnea have given positive feedback about their health benefits, saying that they finally wake up rested and full of energy.
Browse through the website to see the wide selection of CPAP devices from innovative companies like ResMed and Philips Respironics. If you would rather see your options in-person, you can go to one of the stores to talk to representatives — you can get CPAP machines in Mississauga or other Ontario locations like Toronto, Vaughan and Barrie.
Tossing and turning every single night of the week is a sign that there is something wrong. Your body needs to have time to relax, otherwise, you will spend the day feeling emotionally and physically drained. Find out the ultimate cause behind your restlessness so you can get the right treatment and obtain the rest that you have been craving.