By Foteini Lioliou,
In recent times, one of the most common problems that people deal with is insomnia. Insomnia is essentially the lack of sleep and the inability to fall asleep.
In particular, there is a great number of people who cannot go to bed at night or others who wake up in the middle of the night and cannot fall back to sleep. Another difficulty that people encounter that is related to sleeplessness is the constant feeling of exhaustion. There are many cases in which people feel tired even though they just woke up or cases in which people cannot wake up because of this tiredness.
First, let us take a look on what are the main causes of insomnia. The fundamental reason why people suffer from this situation is anxiety. It is true that people’s routines have become more and more stressful these days and that has created anxiety problems and panic attacks. These feelings cannot easily abandon people’s hearts and therefore their stressful minds cannot easily go to bed at night. All of their anxious thoughts join them the only time that they can actually relax and thus they do not let them fall asleep.
Another significant reason that causes insomnia is of course the number of substances people consume. When someone is into drugs and alcohol, then it is extremely difficult for him or her to just sleep. These dangerous substances can not only cause health problems but can also cause sleeplessness. To state it simply, alcohol consumption negatively affects your sleeping schedule and most of the time it leads to apnea. Furthermore, the surroundings of the environment that you are about to sleep in have an impact on your sleep. For instance, if there is noise in the background, it will be extremely hard for you not to stay awake. Moreover, your screen time is also a determiner of your sleeping routine. The more you use your phone before taking a nap, the harder it will be to turn it off and focus on the act of sleeping. It is a well-known fact that spending a lot of time surfing on the Net makes you obsessed and ruins your sleeping schedule. All these reasons and many more such as the lack of exercise greatly affect the sleeping habits of people.
Nevertheless, it is imperative to mention the ways that we can combat this issue of sleeplessness. One of the most promiscuous tricks to falling asleep is to avoid drinking or smoking. This will keep your adrenaline at a low level and will foster your ability to sleep. Another trick is to watch ASMR. It is quite unorthodox way to fall asleep but it is certainly one of the ways that will relax you and make you go to bed early. What is more, letting go of the stress of the day is crucial. You need to learn how to release all the tension that you hold before going to bed. Otherwise, it will not be easy to fall asleep. A good idea would be to meditate or even collect all of your negative thoughts and put them all away at night. The final suggestion is to reduce your screen time before taking a nap. In other words, it would be preferable if you refrain from using your phone when you want to rest. Generally speaking, the key to curing insomnia is to alter your current sleeping schedule. Try new and innovative ways to fall asleep and let go of your exhaustion. Only if you attempt to change your sleeping routine will you find the solution to apnea.
References
- Insomnia. nhs.uk. Available here
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Alcohol & Insomnia: How Alcohol Affects Sleep. americanaddictioncenters.org. Available here
