It was a Thursday night when I lay in bed and couldn’t get myself to sleep. I tossed and turned and decided to grab my phone and google why we suffer from insomnia. I found myself reading one article after the other, I was really amazed by what I came across.
Most times we do not know why we fail to sleep, we brush it off and get into bad habits just to try to get ourselves to sleep. Some of us cannot sleep without smoking a blunt or two, some cannot sleep without having a beer or masturbating. Sleep is something that should come naturally to us, long day, feel tired, lie down and dream.
Sleep has been said to be more important for the body than food. Insomnia causes fatigue, decreases positive thinking and rings about mental and physical health issues. Well, I found answers to what causes insomnia. It may not be all of them but here are the 10 I felt link perfectly to or generation.
- CHILDHOOD TRAUMA – When I saw this my eyes widened because wow! A case study was published in a journal called SLEEP. In the study, there were 1007 participants between the ages of 22 and 60.
They were split into 3 groups, those with healthy sleeping patterns, those with healthy sleeping patterns, those with mild insomnia and those with severe insomnia. Each group was asked about their upbringing in order to assess their psychosocial stress.
Issues such as parents divorcing, death of parents, being raised by parents suffering from anxiety or depression, abuse and parental mental illness were linked to those who struggled with insomnia. Parental death was the leading factor linked to severe insomnia.
This is the part where I remind you that it
is important to deal with your childhood trauma, shoving it at the back of your
mind does not count. Therapy is a start, writing about it and talking about it
are an option.
- SLEEPING DISORDERS – Yep, I also thought insomnia was the one and only sleeping disorder out there. There is a sleeping disorder called RESTLESS LEG SYNDROME (RLS) which causes your leg to move around a lot when you lie down. This disturbs your sleep, makes it difficult to sleep let alone stay asleep.
Another disorder is the SLEEP APNEA which is the constriction of your airways when you are sleeping or feeling sleepy. This results in the oxygen levels dropping in your body and so you struggle to sleep and stay asleep.
- DEPRESSION – This is a very complicated cause the cycle is vicious and kinda doesn’t come to an end. Insomnia causes depression and depression causes insomnia and insomnia causes depression and depression causes insomnia… So I guess we start by fighting the depression, so visit a doctor if you feel like depression is creeping in on you.
- ANXIETY – On this particular I was struggling with anxiety, I was about to step into the unknown again and I could not stop myself from overthinking and second-guessing myself. So I am a living testimony to anxiety-causing insomnia.
There is a solution to this, mind-body techniques and cognitive behavioral therapy are very helpful. So if you find that anxiety is the main cause of your anxiety, go speak to a doctor.
- POOR TIME MANAGEMENT – Have I not been preaching the importance of managing your time well? If you start working when you are meant to be asleep or getting hooked on drinking when you fail to sleep you are only worsening the situation.
What is that saying? There is a time and a place for everything. We are concentrating more on there being a time to work, play and sleep. Find a balance so as to allow your body to get the rest that is needed.
- MEDICATION – If you notice a change in your sleep after being prescribed with some medication then you need to go back and let your doctor know. Some of the medications found to lead to insomnia are ones for asthma, colds, birth control and heart disease.
- MEDICAL CONDITION – Allergies, asthma, lower back pain, chronic pain and sinuses are some of the conditions that can lead to insomnia. You know the solution, off to the doctor you go!
- TAKING NAPS DURING THE DAY – Yes these are awesome, I love them too but they can affect your sleeping pattern in the night especially if you take long naps during the day. So try to avoid these.
- SLEEPING IN – We love these during the weekend don’t we, but then what this does is it confuses your body clock. So when Monday comes and you are back to work, your body wants to sleep and when you come back home and want to rest, sleep can’t find you. Another thing we need to be careful with.
- GRIEF – If you have just lost a loved one then you may find that in the days to follow you struggle with finding sleep. It is normal, however, if it persists you may need to speak to a doctor.
All I want is for each of us to lead happy and healthy lives so shall we take care of ourselves. Get help if you need to. I love you. CIAO!