Can’t Sleep? Insomnia Cures That Work

Curing insomnia is simple with the right techniques

Ever lie in bed telling yourself to sleep, yet your body is tossing and turning with the energy you wish you had when the morning hours comes? If so, you are not alone. Millions others suffer with insomnia.

There are natural cures to insomnia. Most people need simple lifestyle changes – not addictive medications. For people who have difficulty going to sleep at night, several remedies may be tried.

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Sample bedtime snacks that promote sleep:

If you are hungry, then you have to eat, but what you eat before bed can affect the quality of sleep you get.

• Instead of a large evening meal, try eating a light non-fat snack before going to bed to help fall asleep.
• Some people find that a small glass of warm milk and half a turkey or peanut butter sandwich helps sleep arrive quicker.
• A light snack before of whole-grain, no or low-sugar cereal with low-fat milk or low-fat yogurt can help promote sleep.
• When you combine tryptophan-containing foods with carbohydrates, such as a cup of hot chamomile tea and half a banana, it promotes relaxation within your body and allows you to sleep quicker and better.

Habits that can hinder with sleep:

• Alcohol. Alcohol reduces your sleep quality, waking you up in the night. To avoid this effect, stay away from alcohol in the hours before bed.
• Caffeine. Caffeine can cause sleep problems up to twelve hours after drinking it! Stop consuming caffeinated drinks like coffee, tea, sodas, as well as chocolate, after 5 P.M.
• Smoking.  Nicotine is a stimulant, which disrupts sleep.
• Too much liquid. Drinking lots of fluid may result in frequent bathroom trips throughout the night therefore interrupting your sleep.
• Too much food. Especially fatty food. These take a lot of work for your stomach to digest and can keep you up. Acidic or spicy foods in the evening can cause stomach trouble and heartburn. Some people have experienced nightmares after consuming heavy meals before bedtime; it is not researched enough however.

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Tips to prepare your body for sleep:

• Low impact physical exercise early in the evening, such a leisurely walk, helps clears the mind of the day’s worries and activities.
• A warm or cool bath promotes sleep for some.
• Repetitious thinking such as counting sheep or reciting positive affirmations works for a some people to cure insomnia.
• Reading, praying and meditating can relax the mind allowing sleep to come.

Stop midnight awakenings:

For people who awaken during the night and cannot return to sleep, several natural remedies may be tried.

• Avoid drinking fluids after the evening meal to reduce the need to go to the bathroom during the night or in the early morning hours.
• People who take diuretics should take them in the morning instead of the evening to prevent bathroom trips at night.

Don’t touch that SNOOZE button:

People suffering from early morning insomnia should attempt to go to bed earlier so that their rest is completed by their morning waking time. Rather than remaining in bed and perpetuating the focus on not sleeping. It is best to get up and do productive activity.

Give yourself 3 hours:

Yes, 3 hours before going to bed. Do not consume anymore calories. As I mentioned before, your body starts to slow down as the day goes on and gets ready for sleep. You do not want to consume a lot of calories RIGHT before you go to bed, because you will end of potentially storing those calories as FAT!!!

Your body sometimes give you a false sense of being hungry as you bedtime nears. You get those 9pm cravings… And a lot of people end up hitting the refrigerator and over consuming right before bed time, which is not good for managing your weight and body fat percentage.

If you just can’t resist the munchies, eat a few good high fat nuts like unsalted almonds with the skin-on (good for fiber) or a couple spoonfuls of no sugar added all natural peanut butter. Eating a good quality fat food will satisfy your craving and will keep you from bingeing on something with lots of bad carbohydrates or simple sugars, like ice cream, cake or cookies.

Don’t Stay Up Late:

The opposite would seem to make sense: If you stay up late, you burn more calories. Burn more calories, burn more fat. Right? Unfortunately, staying up late can set off a multi-pronged attack on your body composition. 

First, sleep is vital for recovery. If you don’t get enough sleep, your body won’t build as much muscle mass – no matter how much time you spend in the gym in the morning. Less muscle mass = less fat burning power.

Next, if you are sleep-deprived, then you have increased levels of the stress hormone “cortisol.” Insomnia has long been associated with poor health, including weight gain and even obesity. The connection between stress/cortisol and obesity is well established, but it gets worse. A recent study (Epel, Yale) shows that cortisol related fat storage tends to be around the vital organs – the worst possible place to store fat in your body. If that’s not enough, lack of sleep is linked with glucose intolerance (diabetes), lower growth hormone levels, a weakened immune system, low energy, and more …

This is NOT to be taken lightly! Get a full night’s sleep (7 to 8 hours), but make sure your place of natural rest is peaceful and pitch dark. Your natural sleep hormone, melatonin, is suppressed when there is too much light.