Stresses in your Life are Interfering with your Sleep

Insomnia, or difficulty in sleeping, is common in many people under many different circumstances. I fact more than 10% of people may have sleeping problems. If you are facing a temporary but important deadline at work or under a lot of pressure, you may worry and therefore lose sleep. However, once you have met the deadline or the pressure is relieved, you should be able to sleep normally. Our bodies prefer regular daytime activity, so shift workers have trouble adjusting their patterns of sleep.

If you cant fall asleep

Try to determine the cause of your insomnia. If you are worried about things in daily life, try to deal with these issues before you go to bed. Sometimes making a list of the things you have to do the next day is a help.

Cut down on caffeine, especially in the evening.

Try drinking warm milk, which contains a natural chemical that encourages sleep.

A warm bath before retiring may help.

Although heavy exercise causes adrenaline to flow and might make sleeping difficult, try some light exercise before taking a bath.

Reading something you enjoy may help you fall asleep, or watching television-but avoid stimulating programmes

Contrary to popular belief, alcohol is not conducive to sound asleep and may even cause disturbed sleep.

Insomnia may have physical cause; for example you may suffer from sleep apnoea, a condition in which breathing ceases for as long as ten seconds followed by a loud snore. It may be due to a disturbance in the respiratory centre in the brain, or to obstruction of the breathing passages. Change of position may help in relieving the obstruction, but if sleep is very disturbed medical help may be needed.

People with sleep apnoea should not take sedatives. Other physical or mental disorders may cause sleep problems, and taking sedatives may mask the problem. Consequently, they should not be taken for long periods. Moreover, it is possible to become tolerant of a sedative after two or three weeks, and you may then need to take more to produce the same effect. Eventually the medication may cease to be effective and serious dependency can become a problem.

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What is stress?

Stress (roughly the opposite of relaxation) is a medical term for a wide range of strong external stimuli, both physiological and psychological, which can cause a physiological response called the general adaptation syndrome, first described in 1936 by Hans Selye in the journal Nature.
An emotionally disruptive or upsetting condition occurring in response to adverse external influences and capable of affecting physical health which can be characterized by increased heart rate, a rise in blood pressure, muscular tension, irritability and depression. Stress does not cause migraine but can be a migraine "trigger".
A condition in which the organism is subjected to unfavourable or unfamiliar environmental conditions, resulting in some alteration in normal physical functioning. Short-term stress can often be overcome. Long-term stress can reduce resistance to disease and parasites, inhibit self-healing processes, and reduce life-span.