Insomnia Treatment

Insomnia treatment

        Most people are seeking for medical care when their insomnia becomes more chronic. The insomnia treatment mostly focuses on finding the cause. Once the cause has been found, it is very important to control the underlying condition, because this alone will eliminate the insomnia. If you are trying to treat the insomnia symptoms without first finding out which is the cause, you will have a failure. Insomnia treatment consists in some therapies that are used in conjunction with therapies directed towards the underlying medical or psychiatric cause. Usually the insomnia treatment attracts non-medical and medical aspects. Specialists have discovered the fact that, by combining a medical treatment with a non-medical treatment is more successful in treating insomnia that either one alone.

Non-medical insomnia treatment and the behavioral therapy

       The non-medical therapies are: sleep hygiene, stimulus control, relaxation therapy and sleep restriction.

Sleep hygiene

       The sleep hygiene is a type of behavioral therapy for insomnia. In order to improve your sleep quality and quantity you need to follow some simple steps. The steps that you need to follow are:

• You must sleep as much as you need until you will feel rested, but do not oversleep.
• You should exercise regularly for at least 30 minutes every day, and it will be a lot better if you exercise 4-5 hours before you go to sleep.
• Do not force yourself to sleep.
• Try to keep a regular sleep and awakening program.
• Try to not drink caffeinated beverages later than the afternoon (like tea, coffee, soft drinks). Avoid alcohol.
• Stop smoking, especially in the evening.
• Do not go to sleep if you are hungry.
• Prepare the room (lights, temperature, noises).
• Leave your worries behind when you go to bed, try to fix them before you go to sleep.

Insomnia treatment relaxation therapy

       Relaxation therapy consists in meditation and muscle relaxation or shut the light and listen some classic music before you go to bed.

Insomnia treatment stimulus control

       The stimulus control is a therapy that consists in a few simple steps which can help the patients with chronic insomnia. The steps are:

• Do not go to bed until you feel sleepy, tired.
• Try to not watch TV, read, eat or worry in bed. You should uses your bed only for sleep.
• If in one hour you didn't succeed to fall asleep, get up and go to other room and do your relaxation methods.
• It's important to set your alarm to wake up at the same time every morning, including the weekends too. Try to not oversleep.

Insomnia treatment sleep restriction

       Try to restrict your time in bed only to sleep and this will improve your sleep quality. It is accomplished by averaging the time in bed that you spend only sleeping. Uncomfortable bed time and wake up time is set, and so you are forced to get up even is you are sleepy. This helps you sleep better the next night because of the sleep deprivation in the previous night. Sleep restriction therapy has been successful only in some cases.

Medical insomnia treatment

       There are a lot of medication for insomnia. But it is advised that they should be used in combination with the non-medical therapies. There are reports of subjective improvement of quality and quantity when the sedative are used. Another medical insomnia treatment are the antidepressants. These medications are used in patients who suffer from depression because they contain some sedative properties. Usually the antidepressants are not useful for insomnia in patients without depression.

       Antihistamines also with sedative properties, they are used in the insomnia treatment because they induce drowsiness, but they don't improve the sleep and they are not used in chronic insomnia. Valerian is a popular herbal medication that is also used in treating insomnia.

       It is very important to follow your doctor's recommendations. Do not lose hope if the first insomnia treatment does not give you the result you want. Ask again for medical advice.