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Diseases of the Nervous System:- Insomnia

Disease Organs

INSOMNIA

Sleep is a periodic resting condition of the body, especially the nervous system and there is a natural rotation of sleeping and waking every twenty-four hours. But medical science has not been able to explain-much less to understand-the mechanics of this phenomenon. But it is a natural thing for a person to sleep and nobody can do without it for long. Some people, however, are able to do with much less sleep than others because their sleep is deeper and more refreshing, making do with four to five hours as compared to the normal period of seven to eight hours.

Sleep gives relief from tension, rest to the brain and the body and a person wakes up fresh and rejuvenated after sleep. But in some people the feeling of freshness is missing: they feel tired when they wake up. Some cannot sleep and others start snoring the moment their head touches the pillow.

Insomnia or sleeplessness is a condition that often causes annoyance, and by depriving the person of natural rest produces interference with the full activity during the day time. When it becomes a habit, it may form a serious menace to health.

Insomnia may be due to a variety of causes, and they may act so effectively as to keep the person awake altogether or they may serve, when present in a less degree to produce one of the forms of dreaming and unreflecting slumber. Insomnia generally strikes persons of a nervous temperament, those who are given to intellectual overwork. Manual overwork may also produce the condition by throwing the nervous system out of gear. Bodily fatigue, however, generally acts as a sleep inducing agent. In temporary cases of sleeplessness the cause is usually to be sought in some external source of irritation. Too much cold, or heat and humidity, or the presence of mosquitoes may interfere with sleep in some cases. A slight, nagging pain, or dyspepsia in which pain may not be present in any appreciable degree may also interfere with; the moment the external cause that interferes with sleep is removed, it is cured but it is the chronic insomnia which is not easy to cure.

In cases of habitual sleeplessness, a voluntary limitation of the hours of sleep, combined with over study, worry or grief, is often instrumental in forming a habit which is exceedingly difficult to break. The brain remains active despite the efforts of the person to compose him for sleep. A similar state of matters is often the effect of poisonous materials circulating in the blood, as in fevers, gout, intemperance and overindulgence in tobacco. Another cause of insomnia is neurasthenia. Persons suffering from it usually fall asleep the moment they get into bed but after an hour or two they wake up and cannot sleep for the rest of  the night.

In short, worry, thoughts of sex, over-indulgence in smoking or drinking. Late dinners, preoccupation with business or work even after working hours, airless bedrooms, playing of games like chess or cards before retiring to bed are some of the main causes of insomnia. Excessive noise in the surroundings is also bad for sleep. A person not having a clear conscience may also turn into an insomniac.

Sleep is an art and its cardinal rules are:

(1). A clean, airy bedroom and clean bed. The clothes in which you sleep must also be loose and should not constrict any part of the body.

(2). Compose yourself for sleep. Get rid of all the worries about what you have done during the day or propose to do the next day.

(3). Stop thinking about anything but sleep half an hour before your get into bed.

(4). Dinner time should be fixed and so should be the time when you get into bed.

(5). Do not use heavily spiced food, meat or liquor. Excessive smoking also leads to insomnia.

Drugs to induce sleep should be avoided since they are habit forming. There are a large number of cases, particularly in the west, who are addicted to sleeping pills and whose need for greater and greater number of the pills goes on increasing. Drug induced sleep is never as restful as the one that comes naturally. Drugs are likely to create more complications than they can remove.

Chronic cases of insomnia can be dealt with only by resort to a natural diet of fresh fruit and vegetables, a daily regimen of exercise and freedom from worry or tensions that beset modern life. Light exercise of the neck and back muscles shortly before going to sleep can help. A four-inch broad water-soaked bandage tied to the neck can also help induce sleep.

Taking a bath before sleep and rubbing your body dry with your palms can also help induce sleep. A cup of hot water or hot water or hot milk can also help immediately before retiring to bed.

Those who cannot sleep because of mental excitement should soak their feet in warm water. The temperature of the water should not be more than 3 to 4 degreases higher than body temperature. A damp towel soaked in cold water may be wrapped round the head. For more serious cases of sleeplessness, soaking the whole body in a tubful of warm water of body temperature is the remedy. If you can sleep lying in the bath-tub for half an hour, it would give you the freshness that two hours sleep in the bed cannot give.

In most cases, however, insomnia is due to lack of physical exercise. Physical exercise is the specific remedy for such cases. Some people might benefit if they took a small card-board to bed with a pencil. Let them put dots on it when the light is out. This would help them to fall asleep.

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