Your nights do not have to be frustrating or sleepless anymore! There are many home remedies for curing chronic insomnia, and these remedies do not have the considerable risks and side effects of sleep medications. An insomnia home remedy is less expensive, non-addictive, and provide relief for a longer amount of time.
Relaxation techniques are known for quieting your mind and reducing stress to lead to deeper sleep. Another critical technique is altering your thoughts and beliefs associating with sleeping, a process known as cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT.
Insomnia Home Remedy #1: Watch Your Sleeping Habits
Look at your life and your sleeping habits to see what might be causing your insomnia. Sometimes the answer to your problems is as simple as cutting out that little cup of coffee or putting up dark shades to block out the streetlight.
Food and medications:
What you eat and drink during the day–even in the early morning–can affect how well you sleep at night. Too much smoking, caffeine, and/or alcohol before bed all contribute to a restless night’s sleep. Also, some prescription medications will interfere with restful sleep.
Your habits:
Too much stimulation before bed can make it difficult to sleep, including watching violent movies or stories on the news, rigorous exercise, or horror novels. Avoid television altogether when you are trying to wind down.
Your sleeping environment:
You need to make sure your bedroom is quiet and dark. Too much light or excess noise can make you wake up frequently.
Your physical and mental health:
Stress is a common cause of insomnia. For example, if you are anxious about problems at work, worried about your financial situation, or apprehensive about some kind of family conflict, you may be up at night agonizing over it. Plus, if you are not physically healthy, pain or discomfort may be waking you up in the middle of the night.
Try using relaxation and stress management techniques to help quiet your mind, ease your pain, and improve your sleep. These techniques can take practice and time, but the benefits are well worth it.
Insomnia Home Remedy #2: Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
The significance of fretting about sleep is often overlooked. Have you had one of those nights where it is absolutely imperative that you get a good night’s sleep? And didn’t you end up having even a harder time sleeping?
The more you agonize over how you should be asleep, the harder it usually is to sleep! Only one or two nights of sleeplessness can quickly mutate into more because of your concern and anxiety about sleeping deeply.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy, known as CBT, is a significant insomnia home remedy. It involves confronting and changing your assumptions, beliefs, and behaviors regarding sleep. All these things may be preventing you from getting the rejuvenating sleep that your body is craving.
The first part of CBT is changing your thoughts (or your cognitions) to create more positive sleep associations. For example, the following are common thoughts that insomniacs have, and they show you how CBT can help to ease these worries:
“I can’t sleep tonight. This means I will not be able to sleep tomorrow or the next night or the next…”
>>> CBT response: “I will sleep exceptionally tomorrow night. I can get up and take a warm bath for relaxation and try again later. What happens tonight does not determine what happens tomorrow night.”
“I must have at least 8 hours of sleep a night to function effectively at work the next day.”
>>> CBT response: “I don’t necessarily need to have 8 hours of sleep every single night. Each person’s requirements for sleep are not the same.”
The second part of cognitive-behavioral therapy includes altering behaviors and habits that may be influencing your sleep. If you are used to falling asleep in front in front of the television while sipping on a glass of brandy, you have trouble. Why? Because your body depends on specific routines and times of the day to fall asleep.
Changing such behaviors as watching television and drinking a nightcap before bed will lead you to better, more restorative sleep. Try instead to read a book while drinking a mug of decaffeinated hot tea. It will probably take your body a few days to get used to any insomnia home remedy, but once it becomes adjusted, you will sleep better.
Leanne Witt says
Nice tips. I specially agree with the 3rd point (Your sleeping environment). The environment around you matters a lot while you sleep. Too much light and noise may break your sleep quite frequently that may lead to frustration and mental stress.