Insomnia is a sleep disorder in which a person finds it difficult to fall asleep, stay asleep, or both.
How is Insomnia Diagnosed?
In order to arrive at a diagnosis, the doctor will ask questions about:
- Medical conditions
- Social environment
- Psychological or emotional condition
- Sleep history
Symptoms
People who experience insomnia usually report at least one of these symptoms:
- Waking too early in the morning
- Unrefreshing sleep
- Trouble falling or staying asleep
These symptoms of insomnia can lead to other symptoms, including:
- Fatigue
- Mood changes
- Irritability
Types of Insomnia
- Primary insomnia: This means the sleep problems aren’t linked to any other health condition or problem.
- Secondary insomnia: This means a person has trouble sleeping because of a health condition (like asthma, depression, arthritis, cancer, or heartburn), pain, medication, or substance use (like alcohol).
Causes
Causes of primary insomnia include:
- Stress, related to big life events, like a job loss or change, the death of a loved one, or divorce.
- Things around, like noise, light, or temperature
- Changes to the sleep schedule like jet lag, a new shift at work, or bad habits picked up when a person had other sleep problems
Causes of secondary insomnia include:
- Mental Health issues like depression and anxiety.
- Medications for cold, allergies, depression, high blood pressure and asthma.
- Pain or discomfort at night.
- Caffeine, tobacco, or alcohol use.
Risk Factors
- Long-term illness
- Mental Health issues
Treatment
Naturopathy Treatment
- Mud pack
- Enema
- Steam bath
- Whole body wet sheet pack
- Full body massage
- Feet, palm and head massage
- Dry friction bath
- Wet friction bath
- Spine bath.
Yoga
- Sukshma vyayam
- Asanas
- Thunderpose
- Cat pose
- Half camel pose
- Rabbit pose
- Frog pose
- Setubandha asana
- Suptaudrakarshanasan
- Crocodile pose
- Bhujangasana
- Tiryak bhujangasana
- Suryanamaskar
- Shithalikaran
- Pranayam
- Anulom vilom
- Kapalbhati
- Bhramari
- Mudras
- Gyana mudra
- Prana mudra
- Apan mudra
- Vayu mudra.
Key Notes
- Patient should always take care of its own capacity. Capacity of movement, holding the posture and capacity of repetition.
- If patient is unable to seat calmly they are suggested to start with standing poses asanas, suryanamaskar followed by shithalikaran and lastly pranayam Mudra.
- If patient is unable to work hard or suffering from other diseases or feels always exhausted they should start from mudra , pranayam, laying down asanas and then sukshma vyayam.
Diet
- 6am – Kadha (saunf, Ajwain, methi dana, jeera, ilaichi).
- Breakfast – Daliya , sabji , small cutting salad, one sweet fruit or 4 pieces of dates.
- 12 pm – One glass butter milk (no sugar no salt but could be added some jaggery according to taste)
- Lunch (2pm-3pm) – Brown rice, roti, kadhi, sabji, patli daal, one bowl of minutely chopped salad.
- 4pm – sweet lime juice.
- 7pm to 9pm – Fox nuts ( full makha), one sweet pulpy fruit , a cup of warm milk.
Psychological Treatment
- The patient should be kept in a healthy environment and with people they are comfortable with.
- The main aim of attendant should be to convince the patient for the treatment. Positive results are seen in a very few days.
- Never blame the patient for the situation they are in.
- Talk to the patients on the topic they want to talk about and in between the talking tell the patients some right things in a very few words.
- Always tell the patient that he/she is correct and someone is there who needs them.
- Always make the patient feel good about themselves by telling good things about them and their surroundings.
- Never force the patient for anything like getting up early do exercises , yoga or meditation.
Do’s and Don’ts
Say YES to:
- Wake up before sunrise.
- Take proper rest.
- Pray and have positive and generous thoughts.
- Take pure natural satwik food.
- Milk, butter milk, sprouts, fox nuts dates, raisins, fig, honey, jaggery, and sweet pulpy fruits.
- Fruit juice and vegetable’s soup.
Say NO to:
- Laziness, stress, selfishness.
- Maida, pickles, papad, Mathias, bhujiya, nimki, biscuits.
- All kind of packed food and juice.
- Tea, coffee, white sugar and red chilly.
- Avoid to eat without hunger and over eating.
- Avoid all sour food including lemon and tamarind.
Key Points
- The person suffering from any kind of mental aliment should avoid wearing dark colour clothes.
- They should avoid sleeping on dark coloured bedsheets
- They should also avoid keeping sharp edged furniture and household things.
- Before sleeping they should not watch or play violent movies or games.
- They should have a poster or a wall decoration of big yellow flower in their bedroom, which they should see before going to bed and after getting up in the morning.
All the information available on this website is for education and awareness purposes only. Follow these practices only under the guidance of a trained Yoga and Naturopathy practitioner. Punam Agarwal and her Yoga and Naturopathy initiatives are not liable for any injuries caused during the process.