Nancy Ho asked:


Insomnia

Individuals will normally vary in their need for and the satisfaction they derive from sleep. Insomnia may cause problems during the day, such as tiredness, a lack of energy, difficulty in concentration and irritability.

Insomnia can be classified as transient (short term), where a person has not been able to get any sleep from the last few days or weeks, intermittent (on and off) or acute.

Transient insomnia lasts anywhere from a single night to a few weeks. If episodes of transient insomnia occur from time to time, insomnia is said to be intermittent.

A person with acute insomnia will either not be able to sleep properly, or will have difficulty sleeping for about 3 weeks to six months. Insomnia is considered to be chronic if it occurs on most nights and lasts for a month or more.

The Causes of Insomnia

Individuals with certain physiological and psychological conditions are more likely to be affected by insomnia. The following are some examples:

Advanced age (insomnia occurs more frequently in those age 60) Female gender A history of depression or having a negative mindset Other conditions (such as stress, anxiety, a medical problem, or the use of certain medications) including the above conditions, insomnia is likely to happen on the individual.

There are many causes of insomnia. Transient and acute/intermittent insomnia usually occur in people who are temporarily experiencing one or more of the following:

Reaction to Stress Environmental noise Extreme temperatures, too old or too warm Change in the surrounding environment i.e bedrooms Sleep/wake schedule problems such as those due to jet lag The side effects of medication Treating Insomnia

Many people with insomnia believe that they need medication to treat it. However, there is no guarantee that these will have long-lasting effects, and even then medication may have undesirable side-effects such as addiction to sleeping pills. There are alternative treatments to medication.

In general, the available treatments for chronic or acute insomnia may consist of:

First, diagnosing and treating the underlying medical or psychological problems Identifying behaviors that may worsen insomnia and stopping (or reducing) them Possibly using sleeping pills, although the long-term use of sleeping pills for chronic insomnia does not solve the problem and there may be health-damaging side effects, such as addiction Trying behavioral techniques to improve sleep, such as relaxation therapy, sleep restriction therapy, reconditioning or hypnotherapy

Hypnotherapy is by far the most effective tool as it targets the hidden roots of the problems that cause insomnia, especially acute and chronic insomnia.

Relaxation Therapy

There are specific and effective techniques that can reduce or eliminate anxiety and body tension. As a result, the person’s mind is able to stop “racing,” the muscles can relax, and restful sleep can occur. It usually takes much practice to learn these techniques and to achieve effective relaxation.

Sleep Restriction

Some people suffering from insomnia spend too much time in bed unsuccessfully trying to sleep. They may benefit from a sleep restriction program that at first allows only a few hours of sleep during the night. Gradually the time is increased until a more normal night’s sleep is achieved.

Reconditioning

Another treatment that may help some people with insomnia is to recondition them to associate the bed and bedtime with sleep. For most people, this means not using their beds for any activities other than sleep and ***.

As part of the reconditioning process, the person is usually advised to go to bed only when sleepy. If unable to fall asleep, the person is told to get up, stay up until sleepy, and then return to bed.

Throughout this process, the person should avoid naps and wake up and go to bed at the same time each day. Eventually the person’s body will be conditioned to associate the bed and bedtime with sleep.

Hypnotherapy as a treatment for Insomnia

Hypnotherapy can be a rapid technique to break the debilitating habit of sleep deprivation. Using hypnotherapy (usually in two or three sessions) can make getting to sleep easier, getting back to sleep after waking up easy, giving a better quality of life.

In the hypnosis session, we use several techniques, besides relaxing you deeply, which is exactly what you need for your body and mind to ‘tip over’ into sleep. We are also able to reprogram the mind to get normal natural sleep. In some of the chronic cases, we will get to the source of the insomnia and thus freeing you from sleeplessness.

Additionally, hypnosis is excellent for stopping the ‘chattering mind’ that plagues so many insomniacs.

We also teach our clients to use Self-Hypnosis. The following is a quick review of what we do:

How to use Self-Hypnosis to get to sleep Hypnotizing yourself Guided Self-Hypnosis for Insomnia

Here’s a short script for a guided self-hypnosis. Find yourself a quiet and comfortable place where you won’t be disturbed. Make sure that you take of all your accessories, switch off your handphone before you begin so that you won’t be disturbed.

Firstly make sure that your body is relaxed. Relaxation occurs when your body is free from tension in the muscles. A good technique to accomplish this is to want to relax all the muscles in the different areas of your body.

Starting with the area of the feet up through the knees, next relax your thighs then abdomen, back, shoulders arms and hands, all the way to your fingertips, move to your chest, throat, ****** muscle, mouth and jaw areas. All this time feel a wave of calm relaxation flowing through those body parts.

Continue by taking gradual deep breaths through your nose, and then slowly exhale out through your mouth (The brain and body require more oxygen to enter hypnosis). Next, roll your eyes up (eyelids closed, looking up into the forehead). This causes the eyelids to “flutter”, replicating the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) of sleep.

Now concentrate on your breathing and, only on the exhale, mentally repeat “Relax, calm, peaceful, restful, sleep” or “Beautiful, deep, restful, sleep”. You will find yourself drifting off to sleep.

By now, indeed, you have hypnotized yourself, and that state of mind will draw you into unconscious sleep. During a one-on-one session with a Hypnotherapist you will be coached how to correctly do all this, and the success rate is 95%. For more information:

Rohit Chopra asked:

There are millions in this world today who suffer from insomnia. When sleeplessness moves beyond the normal range of a few days into weeks and months, you have a really serious problem afflicting you that requires express treatment. However, first you must have a basic understanding of insomnia and its different aspects.

How would you identify your problem as insomnia? For this you need to understand insomnia symptoms. The fundamental symptom that will plague you if you have insomnia is inability to sleep night after night for a long time at a stretch. You must understand that insomnia also refers to waking up in the night and not being able to get back to sleep again.

If this problem occurs regularly, you can call yourself an insomniac. As a consequence of these two basic symptoms you will suffer from other problems like, tiredness throughout the day, lack of concentration, headaches and heaviness in the mind. You may also feel like spending the daytime sleeping.

Once you are able to understand insomnia and identify it as the cause of your problems, you should look at the underlying sources of the trouble so as to get rid of the ones that afflict you. Stress is the number one cause of insomnia in todays world. Often people with trouble and anxiety on their minds keep awake thinking about it. These worrying recurring thoughts prevent them from falling asleep.

Another reason that causes insomnia is depression. At the same time, you must also understand that insomnia too can cause depression. Some medical problems are at the root of insomnia like, diabetes, kidney troubles and sleep apnoea that is a very big contributor to sleeplessness. Similarly, pain and injuries can create havoc in your sleep pattern. Certain medications, especially anti-depressants, too have an adverse effect on the sleep of people so after consultation with your doctor you should consider taking it during the daytime. If you tend to work late and go to bed with your mind buzzing with office work, you stand a good chance of losing sleep. If this becomes a habit you must understand that insomnia is round the corner.

Modern lifestyle is a big culprit in causing insomnia. If you do not exercise, or eat hearty meals just before going to bed, or have stimulants like coffee, cola etc. late in the evening, insomnia could be a likely fallout along with other problems.

To effectively tackle insomnia you must also understand insomnia treatment methods that can be used. Firstly, have a complete check up done to rule out any other medical condition as a cause of your sleeplessness. Insomnia treatment would aim at striking at the root of the problem. So, you must make an attempt to understand the cause of insomnia in your case.

If stress is affecting you employ relaxation methods like, yoga, meditation or listen to soft music to calm your mind. You may also consider joining a stress management course where you will learn to control stressful conditions without letting it affect you too much. Bring about changes in your lifestyle. Eat healthy and ensure that you have a light meal at least a couple of hours before hitting the bed. Give up stimulants or at least restrict them. Make exercise an integral part of your life.

This is one factor that you should understand would not only treat insomnia but also have a positive effect on your health in general. Avoid working late and make your bedroom a comfortable and relaxing place.

If in spite of all these measures you are unable to get a good nights sleep you must understand that your insomnia problem requires medication. Apart from the conventional sleeping pills you can try out herbal medications in consultation with your doctor.

Insomnia is a sleeping disorder that unfortunately has steadily crept into our lives. However, remember that it is curable; all that it requires is for you to understand insomnia and accordingly deal with it.