One of the most perplexing causes of insomnia is hyperarousal. Although the name might seem a little foreign to some people, it is simply a prolonged version of the stress response or the fight-or-flight response. Self-protection is the intended reason for the stress response.

When faced with danger, hyperarousal causes you to have heightened sensory response. Your heart and respiration rate goes up. You have a greater awareness of what’s around you. Your blood levels of stress hormones increase dramatically. You are ready for some real action.

This is all great if you are really facing danger and you need to make a life-or-death decision between fight or flight. It is certainly not something that you want, though, when it leads to chronic insomnia.

Hyperarousal is one of the leading causes of insomnia because its sole purpose is to protect ourselves when we’re facing danger. And one of the best ways to do this is by keeping us awake and alert. This is pretty logical — you aren’t very good at defending yourself and your loved ones when you’re sound asleep!

As long as we are awake, we can see our surroundings and be aware of potential dangers. Once we fall asleep, though, those dangers can more easily sneak up on us and harm us. As part of our stress response, we can go for days without sleep or on little sleep as a defense mechanism.

The All-Too Familiar Downside of Hyperarousal and The Stress Response

After a few nights without sleep, whether there’s a real danger or not, we start to feel the effects of chronic insomnia. It’s the “tired yet wired” situation.

You feel really tired. You want to go to sleep. Unfortunately, you body does not want you to go to sleep. Your mind is racing, and your heart is probably beating like crazy. Despite feelings of exhaustion, you are unable to get to sleep.

Your hyperarousal, although a good thing when it is needed, is causing you sheer misery when you can’t sleep… even though you want to more than anything.

As you face your insomnia, you might want to fight it and fight yourself!

You’re angry. You just want to be able to sleep. You’re exhausted. You don’t want to face this stress response when sleep is the only thing that you want. Hyperarousal is second to only sleep anxiety as one of the paradoxical causes of insomnia — meaning that the more you want it, the further away you get from having it.

And because of that paradox, there is really no one magic solution to cure it. It’s really a process your mind has to go through.

Your first step in dealing with your chronic insomnia should be realizing the cause. If it is caused by the stress response, then accept this as the cause. If you have felt these “wired” feelings — the pounding heart and racing mind — you know that that at least one of the causes of it is hyperarousal.

Now comes what might seem like a strange step. Instead of seeing this as a negative thing, your enemy that you have to fight off, you need to view the cause in a positive light as a good thing — an instinctual response with good intentions, but just misguided in the present circumstances!

As much as you want to fight it and hate your hyperarousal state, you can only start to cure your insomnia by viewing it as a positive thing. Only at that point can you again begin to welcome real sleep back into your life. Why? Because a mind and body that is fighting with itself cannot relax and let go. Acceptance is the door you must open to get back on the path to a quiet mind and a peaceful body.

Sleep is a vital part of our life which is very important for our health and well being. Yet there are millions of people worldwide who do not get sufficient sleep. According to latest reports about a quarter of the adult population in America is deprived of sufficient sleep. Here in this article we are going to discuss the consequences of lack of sleep and how natural herbs can help overcome this problem medically called insomnia.

Effects of Lack of Sleep
Sleeping for less hours than what your body requires can create serious health problems which include memory loss, low energy levels, decreased mental abilities, bad mood, dark circles, and increased risk of early death due to heart attack.

Modern Medicine Hazards
These are only some of the ill effects of insomnia, in order to overcome this problem people resort to prescription drugs, unfortunately most of these prescription drugs result in unwanted and dangerous side effects.

Herbal Alternative to Modern Medicine
Certain herbs can have a soothing effect on the mind and the body which results in relaxation and proper sleep. Let us discuss about some of these herbs.

Passion Flower
Botanically called Passiflora incarnate has been traditionally used in alternative form of treatment for insomnia. It is believed that this herb increases the levels of a chemical called gamma-aminobutyric in the brain resulting in relaxation and sleep.

Valeriana officinalis
Valerian is used worldwide as a herbal sedative. It is a magical herb for insomnia patients it puts the patient to sleep but does not cause any side effects like morning hangover, headache or any other problems.

Withania Somnifera
This herb counteracts high blood pressure and tension thereby helping in a calm state of mind. It helps the body recover from stress while it is in relaxed state.

So these were some of the most popular herbs used in treating insomnia or sleep deprivation. It is always better to resort to natural herbs in treating insomnia because allopathic drugs used for insomnia mostly result in the patient becoming addicted to them causing great health hazards.

If you are suffering from insomnia and desperately looking for sleep deprivation cures, then this article could help you. Sleeplessness can cause a lot of other problems like lack of alertness, memory problems, improper digestion, lack of growth, performance issues in work, stress, tension etc. So the impact of this problem is physical, emotional and psychological. In many cases this problem has led to fatal accidents.

The big question is what are the most effective sleep deprivation cures? Actually there are many ways to cure insomnia, but the best solutions revolve around inducing sleep naturally. Any artificial method to induce sleep will have very short-term benefits.

For example if you take sleeping pills, this may work for a few weeks. But once your body gets used to the pill, slowly the effectiveness of the pill will reduce. And the worst part is that you will have side effects and withdrawal symptoms with these pills. These are just ok for use occasionally.

In comparison the natural methods actually help in rekindling the inbuilt body capability to fall asleep. You see the natural ability to sleep gets impacted because of factors like poor lifestyle, change of work timings and sleeping pattern, environmental conditions etc. The key to curing insomnia is correcting these problem areas.

So the best sleep deprivation cures would involve return to simple way of life, eat home food, reduce stress, sleep in conditions that are helpful for sleeping etc. Along with this you can actually use some scientific methods that help in inducing sleep. Music is one such method that can help you immensely. And there are some latest techniques based on a technology called brain wave that has worked well for insomnia problems.