Disease Conditions

Insomnia

Introduction:

Insomnia, this word signifies want of sleep and is used popularly to indicate any impairment in its duration, depth or restorative properties. Insomnia is a sleeping disorder characterized by persistent difficulty in falling asleep.

Normally 7-8 hours of sleep is necessary for human beings. Insomnia can affect not only your energy level and mood, but also it will affect your health.

Types of Insomnia:

  • Primary Insomnia: The term primary insomnia should be reserved for those persons who throughout their lives have never enjoyed restful slumber and in whom none of the usual symptoms of nervousness, depression, or other psychiatric or medical diseases can be elicited
  • Insomnia secondary to another disease condition: Severe insomnia is a frequent complaint of patients suffering from psychiatric illnesses or neurological disorders, brain lesions or history of traumatic brain injury.

Cause:

  • Certain drugs, medications, caffeine may cause insomnia.
  • Fear, anxiety, domestic and business worries which keeps the patient's mind in turmoil can cause insomnia.
  • Shift duties and jet lag may cause insomnia. Jet lag is seen in people who travel through multiple time zones, as the time relative to the rising and setting of the sun no longer coincides with the body's internal concept of it. The insomnia experienced by shift workers is also a circadian rhythm sleep disorder.
  • Hormonal imbalance during menopause or before menstruation in young girls may cause insomnia.
  • Psychiatric illness such as depression, nervousness and brain lesions, neurological disorders may cause insomnia.
  • Certain diseases such as hyperthyroidism may cause insomnia.
  • Rebound insomnia may be due to excessive use of prescription of sleep aids.
  • Insomnia can be common after the loss of a loved one, even years or decades after the death, if the person has not gone through the grieving process due to shock after hearing the news.

Signs and Symptoms:

  • Difficulty falling asleep at night.
  • Waking up during the night.
  • Disturbing dreams are frequent and may awaken the patient; exceptionally the patient may even stay awake to avoid them.
  • Waking up too early.
  • Irritability.
  • Falling asleep at odd hours.
  • Daytime fatigue and sleepiness.

Diagnosis:

A detail medical history to exclude disease conditions causing insomnia is required.

  • Blood tests to rule out hypothyroidism and other disease conditions.
  • History regarding the patient's sleep pattern, whether the patient sleeps in the afternoon for long hours, whether he is on any medications or he has other health disorders, whether he snores and since how long he is suffering from difficulty in falling sleep is considered.

Treatment:

The conventional treatment includes benzodiazepine hypnotics ,cognitive behavioural therapy, counseling, certain stress and anxiety relieving drugs. But the biggest side-effect of these medications is that they can be addictive and they do not induce natural sleep.

Homeopathic Management

  • Homeopathic medicines are not habit forming and they are free from dangerous side effects. Sometimes the patient gets frightful dreams. There are different remedies in Homeopathy which cover them as each person is different.
  • A detail history is considered; also whether the patient has any other underlying disorder is considered and then treated with Homeopathy. After the administration of correct homeopathic remedy, the patient will enjoy sound sleep without frightening dreams. Homeopathic medicines act on mental level. It is the disturbed mind which has to calm down.
  • One patient would actually get up at night and write down his dreams in a diary; he was very intelligent and would remain occupied throughout the day and also very suspicious. Due to the disturbing dreams he was unable to sleep. He was put on homeopathy, he enjoyed sound sleep and he was restored to health.
  • Another patient was so miserable that he was about to commit suicide as he just could not sleep due tensions, worries. After administration of constitutional homeopathic medicine the patient was better, he could sleep peacefully and all his negative thoughts disappeared.

Important tips if you are suffering from insomnia

  • Listen to some good music before going to bed. Chant the name of God and you will never know when you fall asleep.
  • Avoid sleeping for long hours in the afternoon. Keep yourself busy; especially old people should do some light activity during day time to ensure good sleep at night.
  • Avoid watching television for long hours at night.
  • Youngsters should perform vigorous exercise and stay active which will give you good sleep at night.
  • Avoid taking tea, coffee after lunch and limit caffeine. Alcohol which may initially make you feel sleepy can cause unrestful sleep and frequent awakenings.

How Happy Livin will help you:

Dr. Joshi is a leading name in the field of Homeopathy who has around 16 years of experience in treating the patient in the classical way as intended by our Founder of Homeopathy, Dr. Samuel Hahnemann.

There is an attempt to bring the best quality of treatment at your doorstep.

A thorough case-taking is done at your convenience and after careful analysis of the same, the best quality Homeopathic medicines procured from Germany are delivered at your doorstep in a week's time along with certain health tips, dietary instructions to be followed according to the disease condition.