Insomnia : Common Causes and Natural Herbal Cures  by  Janice Kumar

This condition may be described as an Inability to fall asleep and / or inability to stay asleep for a sufficient period of sleep. Lack of restful sleep may also be categorized as insomnia.

Insomnia may be Transient ( lasting for short periods of time) or Acute/Chronic where this condition persists over a much longer period of time. This kind of a sleep disorder can be harmful for the human body leading to hyperactivity in the brain, headaches, pain in muscles, fainting spells, irritability, short temper, depression and all this may further exacerbate the problem. It is a vicious cycle of cause and effect.

Some of the major causes of insomnia may be dietary and environmental imbalances, emotional and physical stress, depression, anxiety and worry about the future. Some possible cures will therefore include treatment of the above possible causes.

In order to treat insomnia, it is important to understand the primary cause of the problem. A visit to a doctor and a few proper question will normally elicit the correct cause. At times, detailed  investigation may be necessary.

Some possible solutions would include meditation to reduce stress  and life style modification to eliminate the causes of stress and environmental imbalances.

Since ancient times, people have experimented with various natural remedies to help in inducing deep restful sleep. Some common herbal and natural remedies would include the following. A patient may need to experiment with a few of the remedies, before finding the correct remedy which will suit his/her temperament and symptoms.

Try ingesting two teaspoons (10ml) of Onion juice (mixed with a few grains of salt) after a light dinner. Check this out for three nights before discarding same. If it helps, continue for a week to ten days. It may be important to change the type of dinner you are taking everyday to find a possible cause in the food being ingested. 

Another home remedy will include ingesting a warm glass of milk in the evening for a week/ten days in which is added a teaspoon of honey.

Try getting a massage on the feet and soles of the feet with mustard oil before going to sleep. This helps in relaxing the body and induces sleep by activating certain nerve endings. A foot massage with mustard oil is an ancient Indian ayurvedic treatment for this problem.

At times, problems of indigestion and lack of proper bowel movement may be cause of insomnia. Try  boiling ten grams of Fennel seeds in 200 ml of water. Stain , add a pinch of asafetida and drink it. Take this concoction twice a day. Once early morning and once at dinner time for a week,  to find better digestion and hopefully better sleep.

Another home remedy to help in sleeping better, would be to soak both feet in warm water for up to  twenty minutes. This helps in relieving physical stress and helps in sleeping better.

In case, the problem is traced to bad eating habits or stomach related problems, try fasting for a day, then break you fast in the evening with pumpkin, fruit and or pumpkin juice. This will help remove toxins from the body and help stimulate sleep.

Homeopathy can be quite helpful in relieving insomnia symptoms. To get the correct remedy, a patient may require detailed consultation with a trained homeopath. However the following Homeopathy remedies for specific symptoms as described below, may be useful.

• Insomnia caused due to stomach disorders may be treated with one dose of Nux Vomica 200CH ( two drops of the remedy in a spoonful of water) taken nightly for four to six nights.

• Insomnia caused due to anxiety related problems where the patent may get up suddenly in the night may be treated with Cadmium 30CH. Take this remedy thrice a day for seven days to find appreciable relief.

• Pulsatilla 200CH taken nightly , for  week is also found to be useful for chronic insomnia cases.

• For complicated cases, it is suggested that the patient visits a trained homeopath doctor to get the right remedy matching the symptoms. There are a few remedy finders on the web also that help in matching symptoms to the remedy and may be useful in such cases.

I hope you find the above information useful. To cure this problem, it is important to find the cause and then eliminate same using traditional remedies. Modern medicine will normally rely on sleeping tablets and other drugs which have long term ill effects on the human body. Hence, try and find a traditional or natural cure to this problem. This will be beneficial in the long run.

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