Who hasn't been kept awake at night? And what student here isn't experiencing the king of all insomnia?
As you can tell from my late night posts, I certainly am. That's my inspiration for this post.
According to research and the people in the know, all of us should be getting 8 hours of sleep a night; going to bed and arising at the same time; eating early and not later at night; limiting caffeign (and alcohal); and just eating nutriciously and exersizing regularly. Take it from me! That sounds much more easily said than done.
So as I mentioned before, I use to work at a health food store. I know there are 'Natural herbs' you can take for somina that have not been tested in labs but people claim they help. Some people consider herbs just as dangerous as a manmade drug and point to things like poppy and tobacco as proof that just because it's not made in a lab didn't mean it wasn't bad for you.
So here are my suggestions of sleepaids to ask your doctor about if you're not sleeping well.
1. The benzodiazapines are the typcically prescribed sleeping pills and their effects can last from 3 to 25 hours. These longer acting drugs can build up in your system, causing increased sedation, confusion or other problems. They can be dangerous to use in the long run.
2. The more recently prescribed sleep aids such as Ambien and Sonata are similar to the benzodiazepines, but leave the system in 1 to 5 hours. (Or so they claim.) But I know people who have done wacky things while on Ambien--such as sleep walking, sleep driving, etc. They can be every bit as dangerous as the benzodiazapines.
3 Tricyclic antidepressant drugs help and are seen as more helpful in the longrun because often the sideeffect of lack of sleep is depression.
4. Antihistamines can induce sleep but usually are only effective for a few days.
Here are the natural herbs:
1. Melatonin
2. Chamomile
3. Lavender
4. Valerian Root(a customer once told me an anecdote about Valerian, that it had been trusted for so long, that the pharmaceutical company that made Valium named it after this root, in order to make customers feel more comfortable taking their pill, dont know if its true or not, but he swore by it!)
5 Kava-lemon balm- and passion flower (mix)
6 California Poppy, hops, and honey (mix)
7 Vitamins
Just keep in mind that self-medicating is never a good idea. So before you do any of these talk to your doctor.
But you can do other things to relax before bed time that doesn't require a doctor's visit first.
1 Create a soothing mood in your house hold. Turn on soft music. Read a slow boring book (as opposed to the latest hottest thriller.)
2 Take a warm bath.
3 Get a warm cup of hot milk or chamomille tea.
4 Treat yourself like a queen or king if you can and have someone give you a gentle massage.(thats what roommates are for!)
That's all the advice I have at this moment. Hope it helps you!
