Insomnia and Your Health

Did you ever have problems falling asleep at night? How about problems relaxing? If you answered yes , then you are certainly not alone. Every night there are millions of people who can t sleep. So, what is it that is keeping us up at night? In most cases, anxiety is the answer. We live in a world that is constantly moving and changing. We are more competitive now than we ever were due to the fact that America is in the midst of a complete economic crisis and on the verge of entering into a depression.

Because of the various economic problems we are facing, many of us are worried about whether or not we will have a job the next day, who is coming up behind us to take our place, how much work we will have to get done, how we will be able to pay the bills, etc. We worry about the rising cost of health care, which ironically enough, causes us to fall ill. We worry about worrying. Perhaps if we busied ourselves then we wouldn t have all of this time to worry. But even when we are keeping busy, we are still worrying. It s the worrying that drives us to work well beyond the required 40 hour workweek. Some of us think that by working more hours, it will somehow impress the boss. In the meantime, we neglect our health and our families: more stress.

One way to help relieve some of the symptoms of insomnia is to create an atmosphere in your bedroom that is conducive to getting a night of restful sleep. Clear out any clutter in your bedroom. When you have the option to work from home, do your work at a table or some other surface than your bed. Reserve your bed only for laying down to sleep. This will subconsciously train your body to prepare for sleep upon laying down. What is the lighting like in your bedroom. Use soft lighting or mood lighting if you can. If you don t have this as an option, you can always pick out lamp shades and/or light bulbs that will give off a softer glow.

When you prepare to sleep at night, do you typically go to sleep with the television on? Do you use a radio or sleep with headphones in? While listening to soothing sounds of nature such as gentle ocean waves lapping against the shore or rain falling is very relaxing, it is generally not a good idea to fall asleep to a television. Some researchers think that the television gives off irritating light which is inconsistent due to changing scenes, and sometimes we may find our dreams being affected by what we subconsciously hear being played on the television! For example, I am the kind of person who cannot fall asleep in total silence, so I will usually leave the television on. The other night I had a dream that my mother and father were arguing over selling our house and the price that they paid for it. I woke up suddenly to find the television on and two people, a male and a female, talking loudly but amicably about home buying options.