Lack of quality sleep can sap your energy level, sour your mood and can effect health, work performance and quality of life. Sleep impairment has been found to contribute to ADHD-like symptoms in children and to a variety of physical disorders including hypertension, heart disease, insulin resistance and diabetes.
The answer to sleep problems is not medication! All prescription sleep drugs cause dependency (addiction) and most result in “rebound” anxiety: the create more of a sleep problem, over time, than they help. Over-the-counter sleep preparations typically contain diphenhydramine or doxylamine, powerful antihistamines that result in next day drowsiness, dry mouth, urinary retention and memory impairment.
If you or a loved one suffers from sleep problems, it is important to explore the causes with lab testing to rule out medical and nutritional issues and to evaluate the medications and nutrients you are taking. CHS can help!
Natural Treatment Approaches
Western medicine, Western Naturopathy and Traditional Chinese Medicine have different approaches to insomnia. To Western conventional doctors, insomnia is the inability to sleep soundly. If there is no obvious physical reason, such as pain, for the sleeplessness, it will usually be seen as an emotional problem such as stress, anxiety, or depression. A patient with a mild case of insomnia is told to “relax more, cut back on caffeine, try a hot bath or warm milk before bedtime.” For chronic insomnia, the usual response is sleeping pills, tranquilizers or anti-depressants.
The Western Naturopathic approach is increasingly being adopted by conventional physicians who have seen the harm done by prescription sleep medications. Synthetic sleep chemicals are addicting and produce many adverse side effects. CHS recommends that you avoid these drugs in favor of lifestyle changes, psychological therapies including meditation and hypnosis, and careful use of natural nutrients and herbal preparations, which are non-addicting and much safer.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the root of a sleep problems is a dysfunction or imbalance of the fundamental substances (qi, blood, Yin, Yang, Jing, Shen), or of the major organ systems (Lungs, Heart, Spleen, Liver, Kidneys). When a person suffers from insomnia, the two organs most often out of balance are the Heart and the Liver.
According to TCM, difficulty in falling asleep means the body has accumulated heat or fire pathogens; restless sleep means the body has both pathogen accumulation and certain aspects of deficiency; easily arousal from sleep and difficulty falling back to sleep are simply deficiency usually seen in a weakened spleen and heart. When associated with signs like abdominal distention, gastric discomfort, belching and lack of appetite, the insomnia is usually due to spleen and stomach disorders. Heart disorders may also appear with symptoms such as dream-disturbed sleep, dizziness, headache and forgetfulness; frequent fearful awakening, timidity, irritability and sighing are associated with disorders in the liver and gallbladder.
The body’s energy or qi circulates through the organs on a 24-hour rhythm. The time at which a person regularly wakes up identifies the organ that is related to that particular sleeplessness. According to the TCM clock, these are:
- 11pm-1am, gall bladder
- 1am-3am, liver
- 3am-5am, lungs
- 5am-7am, large intestine
AVOID Sleep and Anxiety drugs. They are among the most addicting substances! They will actually create their own anxiety after as little as six weeks of use (“rebound anxiety”). Withdrawal can be worse than with heroin, with a risk of hallucinations and death. If you have been taking these chemicals routinely for 1 month or more DO NOT stop without professional guidance. Seek help from a qualified Medical Psychologist who will work with your primary physician and psychiatrist in developing a treatment plan.
Lack of quality sleep can result in impaired mental functioning, depression and anxiety. It can sap your energy level and mood and can affect health, work performance and quality of life. Sleep impairment has been found to contribute to ADHD-like symptoms in children and to a variety of physical disorders including hypertension, heart disease, insulin resistance and diabetes.
There are 4 types of sleep issues:
Insomnia is difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, or sleep that is not restorative that persists for longer than 2 weeks. It’s effects are the same as for sleep deprivation. It can affect your clarity of thought, ability to concentrate, ability to pay attention and overall sense of well being.
Transient insomnia lasts from days to weeks. It can be caused by another disorder, by changes in the sleep environment, by the timing of sleep, by depression, or by stress. It also can be caused by medications, certain supplements and by an infection or other illness.
Chronic insomnia may last for years at a time. It can be caused by all the issues above, or it can be a primary disorder. The effects of chronic insomnia can vary according to its causes. They might include sleepiness, muscular fatigue, hallucinations, and/or mental fatigue.
Sleep apnea, a common cause of chronic insomnia, is a condition that occurs when a sleeping person’s breathing is interrupted, thus interrupting the normal sleep cycle. With the obstructive form of the condition, some part of the sleeper’s respiratory tract loses muscle tone and partially collapses. People with obstructive sleep apnea often do not remember awakening or having difficulty breathing, but they complain of excessive sleepiness during the day.
The answer to sleep problems is not medication! All sleep drugs cause dependency (addiction) and most result in “rebound” anxiety; the create more of a sleep problem, over time, than they help. For more information please click on the tabs above.
Insomnia is most often and indicator of an underlying problem, rather than a specific diagnosis. Insomnia can be caused by a variety of physical problems including heart, kidney, liver, nerve, and thyroid problems, food and airborne allergies, pain, breathing difficulties, diabetes, gastrointestinal problems, stroke, adrenal dysfunction, infections, hormonal dysregulation and environmental issues. Other issues frequently trigger of insomnia and other sleep problems, such as:
- Stress: Concerns about work, school, health or family can keep your mind active at night, making it difficult to sleep. Stressful life events, such as the death or illness of a loved one, divorce, or a job loss, may lead to insomnia.
- Anxiety: Everyday anxieties as well as more-serious anxiety disorders may disrupt your sleep.
- Depression: You might either sleep too much or have trouble sleeping if you’re depressed.
- Medications: Over 190 commonly prescribed medications list insomnia or sleep disturbance as a common adverse effect. Prescription drugs that can interfere with sleep include antidepressants, heart and blood pressure medications, allergy medications, stimulants (such as Ritalin), and corticosteroids. Many over-the-counter (OTC) medications can interfere with sleep, including pain medications, decongestants and weight-loss products. Antihistamines and over-the-counter sleep aids may initially make you groggy, but they can worsen urinary problems, causing you to get up more during the night, and have many adverse effects when used too often.
- Caffeine, nicotine and alcohol: Coffee, tea, cola and other caffeine-containing drinks are well-known stimulants. Drinking coffee in the late afternoon can keep you from falling asleep at night. Nicotine in tobacco products is another stimulant that can cause insomnia. Alcohol is a sedative that may help you fall asleep, but it prevents deeper stages of sleep and often causes you to awaken in the middle of the night.
- Change in your environment or work schedule: Travel or working a late or early shift can disrupt your body’s circadian rhythms, making it difficult to sleep. Your circadian rhythms act as internal clocks, guiding such things as your wake-sleep cycle, metabolism and body temperature.
- Poor sleep habits: Habits that help promote good sleep are called “sleep hygiene.” Poor sleep hygiene includes an irregular sleep schedule, stimulating activities before bed, an uncomfortable sleep environment and use of your bed for activities other than sleep or sex.
- ‘Learned’ insomnia: This may occur when you worry excessively about not being able to sleep well and try too hard to fall asleep. Most people with this condition sleep better when they’re away from their usual sleep environment or when they don’t try to sleep, such as when they’re watching TV or reading.
- Eating too much late in the evening: Having a light snack before bedtime is OK, but eating too much may cause you to feel physically uncomfortable while lying down, making it difficult to get to sleep. Many people also experience heartburn, a backflow of acid and food from the stomach to the esophagus after eating. This uncomfortable feeling may keep you awake.
- A change in activity: You may be less physically or socially active. Activity helps promote a good night’s sleep. You may also be more likely to take a daily nap, which also can interfere with sleep at night.
A Medical Psychologist’s Prescription for Better Sleep
By Keith Petrosky, PHD, ABMP
1. Get a physical workup including a sleep study for any possible physical conditions that prevent sleep such as Sleep Apnea or “Restless Leg Syndrome,” and other maladies.
2. If you suffer from depression or anxiety, see a doctoral level psychologist to reduce these emotional issues that can affect sleep.
3. Try to reduce stress and overstimulation, which often can occur in the context of performing your job or dealing with parenting and household responsibilities. In order to sleep a person has to calm down and decompress. Soothing music that is not hummable so that it does not get stuck in your head (the so-called “brain worm”) is preferable.
4. Increase your exercise. One cannot sleep if one is not sufficiently tired.
5. Use proper sleep hygiene – the bedroom should be designated for sleep rather than other activities like doing work on your laptop, looking at smart phone messages, or watching television.
6. Use relaxation exercises prior to turning off the light or right afterwards.
7. When the room is dark, think of “nothing,” stay mentally in the present, and focus on whatever gives you a feeling (or a memory) of “comfort.”
8. If your mind strays to past or future worries, regrets, or calamities, tell yourself that you need to take care of yourself and your health. You deserve a good night’s sleep. Whatever concerns you have will wait until the morning. You can only correct past mistakes by making different decisions going forward into the future.
9. Do not drink alcohol if you need to get a good night’s sleep. If you are a social drinker then have your glass or two of wine or beer on the weekend when you can give up a little bit of your rest.
10. Eat nutritious, well-balanced meals three or more times per day. Make sure you have a well-balanced lunch and eat a somewhat lighter dinner. Overeating your last meal of the day and consuming starchy/sugary foods will detract from your sleep.
11. Minimize caffeine to the least amount that your body requires to get going each day. Try not to drink caffeinated beverages after noon.
12. Do not use sleep medications unless you absolutely need to – for example having to change work shifts and being unable to stay awake.
13. To help with sleep, you can use melatonin on occasion but take 2-3 of the 3 mg. standard sized doses as 3 mg. will not do much for your sleep.
14. The herb Ashwaghanda helps many people achieve a deeper, more restful sleep. However, as with anything else, it does not work for everyone, but it is certainly worth a try.
15. The cannabinoids are in the process of being approved for sleep in many states and they could also be used if appropriate to the clinical situation.
Statements contained herein have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Information provided by CHS is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice. Any information given is only intended as a sharing of knowledge and information from scientific world literature. You are encouraged to make your own health care decisions based upon your own research of the subject and in partnership with a qualified health care professional.