The Cure to Insomnia: 4 Main Ways to Improve Your Sleep Health

07/20/2022 | SLEEPON | Blog | 2 Comments

Have you had those nights of loss of sleep?

You are not alone, based on Sleep Foundation, between 10% and 30% of adults struggle with chronic insomnia. The lifetime risk of having insomnia in women are even as much as 40% higher than men.

Have you been looking for the cure to insomnia?

This article will tell you about 4 main ways to improve your sleep health because we know the relationship between sleep and wellness, and even lack of sleep and mental health. And we hope, with the help of the recommended solutions and a little add-on, you will be able to cure insomnia.

What is insomnia?

According to Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, insomnia is defined as having a hard time to go to sleep, waking up too early, or feeling unrested after nights of sleep. In short, insomnia is a sleep disorder that you have trouble falling or staying asleep.

Generally speaking, if you have been having trouble sleeping for a while, it’s likely that you have insomnia, but now you may be wondering what are the causes of insomnia?

What causes insomnia among adult women and men?

Between men and women, the causes of insomnia are different: women are more likely to have insomnia in a sense of hormone issues and mood disorders, whereas most men are experiencing insomnia because of the environment.

Common Insomnia Causes in Women

Hormones

Period. Due to the strong connection between hormones and insomnia, at different times of the month, women may sleep worse than other times because of period. Because their progesterone levels drop and premenstrual syndrome (PMS) symptoms hit by then.
Pregnancy. Based on WebMD, by the late stage of pregnancy, women’s estrogen and progesterone levels calm down that make you have physical discomfort, which leads to you staying up and not sleep well at night, obvious insomnia symptoms.

Mood disorders

Anxiety, depression and other mood disorders are more likely to happen among women, which causes them to be more vulnerable to sleep problems, like insomnia. The chemicals that are supposed to regulate women’s sleep in brain can be highly impacted by mood disorders.

Work and home responsibilities

Compared to men, women nowadays still tend to share the double responsibilities from work and home. For instance, they are more likely to be the primary caregivers for children than men, and during the same time, however, women may also work outside of the home while caregiving. All these responsibilities might cause more stress for women which ultimately leads to insomnia.

Common Insomnia Causes in Men

Stress from Environment

Stereotypically, men should be mentally strong but according to Young Men’s Health, factors below could make men stressed and cause insomnia:

Moving to a new home, school, or job
Getting into arguments with family members or friends
Having big tests or projects coming up
Anything else in your life that makes you worry a lot

Poor Sleep Habit

A lot of men don’t see the importance of sleep health and even think their work, career, and other things are more important than healthy sleep schedule. Therefore, irregular sleep schedule, long naps during the day, an uncomfortable sleep environment, and too much screen time just before bed can interfere with men’s healthy sleep hours.

Poor Sleep Hygiene

Caffeine and alcohol intake. Caffeine can disrupt your sleep, especially if taken within several hours before going to sleep. Alcohol, on the other hand, may make men fall asleep fast, but it can cause men to wake up too early and not be able to fall back asleep.
Eating dinner too late. Eating too late may cause men to feel physically uncomfortable while lying down. It can also lead to an upset stomach and restless sleep.

The Cure to Insomnia: 3 Main Ways to Improve Your Sleep Health

Insomnia has been studied by scientists for a while now so there are sleep experts backed solutions for you to try out:

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBTI)

To cure mood disorders or stress that cause insomnia, this therapy normally requires an initial evaluation, followed by weekly sessions to identify unhealthy/unhelpful thoughts that affect your sleep habits and schedule. The therapist will work with you to get rid of the negative thoughts and replace them with positive ones.

Relaxation: It includes breathing exercises, muscle relaxation, and meditation. They might help you control different bodily functions and be effective for reducing insomnia symptoms and improving sleep.

One 2020 study confirmed again that the use of CBTI program improved sleep and reduced the use of sleep medications.

Healthy Sleep Hygiene

Reduce caffeine intake. Too much caffeine intake could damage your sleep at night, so try to reduce your caffeine intake later in the day or evening when it gets closer to bedtime.
Don’t drink too much alcohol. As we mentioned before, alcohol consumption could cause insomnia. UC Davis Health says: “alcohol can’t necessarily help you stay asleep or sleep well.”
Don’t eat dinner too late. Try to have dinner 4 hours before sleep time to give your body some time to digest the food since it wants to shut down all the metabolic work.

Healthy Sleep Habits

Don’t nap too much during the day. Sleep Society warns if you want to take a nap during the day, don’t exceed 45 minutes or it can lead to deep sleep and interfere with your normal body clock to fall asleep at night.

Avoid screens before sleep. UC Davis Health indicates that the blue light from cellphones, tablets and computers signals our bodies to stay awake and not release melatonin.

Keep a Sleep Diary

Like you write a diary, write down your sleep routine for one to two weeks (bedtime, wake time, naps, caffeine use, etc.) or with the help of a sleep tracker. The information can help you or your health provider understand patterns or behaviors of your insomnia.

Go2sleep could be a choice as your sleep tracker. It can track sleep data all night, provide comprehensive sleep report with accurate data. Besides, it is small and light. More importantly, it offers you the best value and Sleep Foundation named it the best value sleep tracker of 2022.

Conclusion

Insomnia can be annoying sometimes since less sleep will cause stress and later affect our performance at school, at work, mental health or even lives in general. Therefore, this article talked about the causes, and more importantly, 4 main ways to improve your sleep health.

Along with the rest of the solutions, keep a sleep diary with the help of a valued sleep tracker might be a good add-on to them. You can simply write down your heart rate, blood oxygen level, AHI and more, that the sleep tracker offers. Go2Sleep can provide you with all those features at an affordable price. Maybe that could be the best cure for insomnia?

At the end, we hope you can find the cure to insomnia and overcome it!