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Insomnia affects sleep quality - how to overcome it?

We spent one third of our life sleeping - an activity seemingly to be useless. But we need sleep as much as we need oxygen and food.

Sleep is important to us : it increases one's work efficiency, extends one's lifespan and cures illnesses. One should not deprive him/herself of sleep.

But during our lives, we will experience some sleepless nights which are considered normal. But for some people, poor quality sleep is a recurring or even a lifelong problem.

When your sleep quality is affected, the end results could well be feelings of fatigue during the day, irritability, poor memory, loss of productivity and loss of interest in family and social life.

Therefore, achieving quality sleep is very important to your physical and emotional health. The quality of sleep is associated with the number of sleeping hours.

Doctors normally recommend that adults should need 7 to 10 hours of sleep daily and children would require more hours. But it varies among individuals. What matters is, for the duration you sleep, are you achieving the right quality of sleep?

Insomnia, or the inability to sleep well, is a common problem which could affect anyone at one time or another. A person with insomnia may have difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, wake up frequently during the night, or wake up earlier than desired the next morning.

There are two kinds of insomnia, acute insomnia and chronic insomnia.

Acute insomnia, which can last from one night up to several weeks, may be caused by:

1. A single stressful event

2. A period of emotional stress

3. Illness

4. Temporary pain or discomfort

5. Disturbances in the sleeping environment such as noise, light or sleeping in a different bed

6. A change in the normal sleep pattern, caused by jet lag or working in a late shift

7. A condition known as "Restless legs" when there are intermittent, involuntary leg movemens, particularly when lying in bed. The cause is iron deficiency, thus consuming more iron-rich foods such as pulses, dried apricots, dark green leafy vegetables and nuts especially almonds is recommended.

Acute insomnia usually doesn't last long once the root cause(s) is resolved. But be extra careful as insufficient sleep could cloud your judgement, leading to accidents while driving or at work.

Chronic insomnia takes longer time to recover, from months to even years. The likely causes are:

1. Mental or emotional conditions, such as depression or anxiety, or stress.

2. Poor sleeping habits, such as watching television programmes in bed or going to bed at different times.

3. Excessive consumption of caffeine or nicotine laden items like coffee, tea or cigarettes.

4. Excessive drinking.

5. Lack of regular exercise.

6. Existing medical health problems such as breathing or heart problems, hormonal or digestive disorder, or chronic pain.

7. Side effects of certain drugs.

8. A different sleep disorder such as sleep apnea.

Before we go on, a little more explanation is required here for sleep apnea. It is a condition whereby a person regularly stops breathing, or has slowed breathing during sleep for 10 seconds or longer.

Depending on the frequency the breathing stops (apnea) or slows (hypopnea), we classify the condition as mild, moderate or severe.

A person suffering from sleep apnea may snore loudly, and have restless sleep with difficulty breathing. As a result, he may wake up with a headache and tiredness which last the whole day.

However, sleep apnea may improve with changes in sleeping habits. Sometimes, doctors may suggest use of devices to help easier breathing during sleep or even surgery.

Insomnia can be cured as long as the victim develops a regular sleeping habit.

Here are some remedies to help you ease or eliminate your sleeping disorder:

1. Reserve your bedroom for sleeping and sex only i.e. avoid eating, working, computers, TV, video or loud music in the bedroom

2. Create a clean and comfy environment for sleeping – soft lights, good ventilation, appropriate room temperature, good support pillows, sufficient comforters

3. Avoid caffeine drinks such as coffee, tea, soft drinks or chocolate drink and/or cigarettes after 7pm in the evening. Also avoid snacking before bedtime.

4. Improve your diet by reducing meat intake and eating more fruits and vegetables especially kiwi, berries, green leafy vegetables, whole grains and cereals. Including moderate amount of starchy foods such as pasta, rice and potatoes in your dinner also helps.

5. Switch off your mobile phones, blackberries, MSN or Yahoo! Messenger, ICQ etc after a certain time at night.

6. Drink a glass of warm drink such as soymilk or herbal tea before going to bed. But remember to visit the bathroom right before bed to reduce the chances of needing to get up later to do it.

7. If you find you can't sleep after half an hour in bed, get up and read a book or listen to some soothing music.

Use warm tungsten reading lamp instead of florescent lamp and don't read books which are stimulating.

Avoid watching TV, VCDs or DVDs as the light from these devices are bright and will affect the body's biological clock, worsening your sleeplessness condition. You can return to bed as soon as you feel sleepy.

8. Exercise regularly does help to release tension, aiding sleep. But note not to do it late at night as this can result in insomnia.

9. Train your body to sleep and wake up at the same time every day regardless of whether it is a weekend or public holiday. The ideal time to get into bed is between 9 to 11pm so as to achieve the desired 8 hours of sleep.

10. If you need to nap during the day, try to keep it within 45 minutes which is sufficient to rejuvenate you. Napping too long may result in groggier mind and adversely affect your nocturnal sleep.

11. If you're working at home, stop work at least two hours before bedtime to allow your mind to unwind and relax.

With all these measures, doctors sometimes still need to prescribe hypnotics for sleep as treatment for insomnia. But these medications are meant for short term only while patients try to find solutions to their various acute stressful problems.