How to deal with insomnia if you are a man

Sleep is as essential to us as food, air and water While insomnia is not an illness and not life-threatening, it can be very distressing, frustrating, exhausting, depressing and at worst it can make you feel like you're going crazy.

There are two broad categories exist:

Transient insomnia - lasting for a few nights or weeks Chronic insomnia - lasting for several weeks, months or even years

Difficulty falling asleep - more common among young people Sleeping lightly and lying awake- more common in people over 40. Waking early and unable to get back to sleep - more common in older people

The common Symptoms are if you

are tired and not refreshed on waking up.

take longer than 60 minutes to fall asleep. wake up many times during the night. wake up far too early and are unable to get back to sleep. only get to sleep with the aid of sleeping pills or alcohol then you are probably suffering from insomnia.

Insomnia may caused by something that is not obvious and the following list may give a clue: anxiety, depression, worry, anger, grief, anticipating a difficult event - moving to another dwelling, starting school, noise, discomfort in bed, time zone change- pain, drugs, caffeine, heroin, cocaine, amphetamines, LSD, cannabis sleeping pills and tranquillizers, contraceptives, diuretics, slimming pills, beta-blocker, stimulants.

What can you do about insomnia? A great deal. The good news about insomnia is that you can cure yourself. However you must be prepared to make some changes in your lifestyle.

Things you can do to help yourself

Change Your Environment You need a comfortable bed and a quiet, dark room with agreeable temperature. If your mattress is sagging either change it (after 10 or 15 years you should change mattress) or put a 3/4 inch thick plywood under it.

We were visiting Washington DC and stayed in the hotel where Nixon stayed once 40 years ago. Well, the hotel deteriorated since. We asked for a bed board for the sagging mattress I have described above. Instead we got part of a skid. Was it good? No, but it pulled us through.

Make sure your bedding is clean and that you are warm under the cover but not too hot. If you can afford use silk filled comforter. (Read about it in this web site)

Use curtains and/or put a sleep mask over your eyes. Noise - a common cause of sleeplessness! Use earplugs. (There are many different type of ear plugs on the market. Some are very good and some are useless. Contact a Safety Supply Store)

If your neighbor is noisy let them know it and ask them to quiet down. If that doesn’t work buy them a gift and then ask them to quiet down. It is amazing what a gift can do. Keep a radio by your bed and use it to mask other noise.

Change Your Lifestyle if you are serious about solving the problem.

You will need to cut down on all stimulants. Including: coffee and tea, alcohol, nicotine, cola drinks, food additives, junk food, slimming pills or appetite suppressants.

Here are other suggestions.

Exercise regularly but not in the evening.

Go to bed only when you are feeling really tired and sleepy.

If you can't sleep, get up and only go back to bed when you're sleepy again.

Establish a routine that gives you 7-8 hours sleep.

Get up at the same time each day.

If you like to sleep-in, force yourself to get up earlier.

Relax mentally and physically for an hour before bedtime.

Have a warm bath, do some yoga or take a light walk before turning in.

Make a list of the things you have to do next day and write them down.

Do a security check - but only once!

Replace your thoughts with the suggestion. Read about it at the ACTION PAGE

DO NOT:

Take stimulants, sedatives or alcohol.

Sleeping during the day no matter how tired you are. Siesta is not for the insomniac.

going to bed when you're stressed, wound up or not ready having arguments at bedtime or in bed using your bed for working, watching TV, eating, telephoning lying in bed awake for more than 40 minutes smoke when you get up during the night drinking too much liquid in the evening getting angry if you can't sleep.

Out of these decide which would be most helpful and start with those. If that doesn't help, try others until you are sleeping better. Your aim is to break the cycle of habit. You achieve this by establishing a good bedtime sleep routine and by reinforcing the connection between bed and sleep.

Depression

Seek some help. See your doctor. Depression can be cured and you don’t have to suffer from it. The best result you’ll get is if you see an MD and psychologist or psychiatrist. You’ll need both counseling and pill to overcome depression. Psychologist can’t prescribe but able counsel.

Food and drink.

There are some foods that may aid sleep. Here are some suggestions: if getting to sleep is the problem, eat a carbohydrate-high meal 2 hours before bed if staying asleep is the problem, have some bread and honey or a bowl of cereal at bedtime have a warm milk at bedtime herbal tea is helpful, especially camomile hot water, lemon and honey or hot red grape juice are good alternative hot drinks.

Alcohol and sleep.

Alcohol is more disruptive to sleep than caffeine! Your body will produce adrenaline. Alcohol also makes you thirsty. You don't have to give up alcohol altogether but in the interests of establishing a healthy sleeping pattern, cut it down by not drinking late evening.

Anger and Sleep YOU ARE NEVER ANGRY FOR THE REASON YOU THINK YOU ARE ANGRY. think back in your life which relate to today’s anger. deal with your original cause of your anger accept and understand your feelings do physical exercise such as squash or hand ball or racket ball. this might help you get anger and frustration out of your system.

The major help is what you’ll give yourself Turn to ACTION PAGE. In it you’ll find a simple technic that you’ll able to master in short time and live with it happily for the rest of your life. You may even find that many of the above advise will become either an additional help or redundant.

Here is a life saving philosophy in four points: • Bless the present. (Be grateful for what you have) • Trust myself (Yes you can do whatever you decide to do, you have the power) • Expect the best (Aim for the moon and if you fall, you’ll still amongst the stars) • There is always another way to do anything.