If you’ve ever had a long restless night where you couldn’t fall asleep or you repeatedly woke throughout the night, you’ve suffered from insomnia. This is a common occurrence that faces everyone at some point in their life. Usually insomnia is temporary and can be explained by things such as too much caffeine before bed, stress throughout the day, worry about the day ahead or certain medications.

Occasionally insomnia is to be expected from time to time but if you have chronic insomnia affecting you night after night, there could be a more serious cause of your problem. Sleep is very important to the body. It’s the time that we relax and recuperate from the day. Our bodies need sleep to heal and to fight off disease. Lack of sleep or too little sleep for long periods of time can start to cause serious problems.

This is why it is important to understand what insomnia is and how you can get treatment for it. Here are some signs of insomnia:

• being unable to fall asleep
• being unable to stay asleep
• tossing and turning, waking frequently throughout the night
• waking too early and being unable to fall back to sleep

As we mentioned, there are different things that may cause insomnia such as certain medications, stimulant or depressant use, stress, worry, anxiety, pain, poor sleeping habits, doing other things in bed such as reading or watching TV, and more.

If you are showing any of the signs of insomnia, it’s important that you try to pinpoint the cause so you can treat it. You should also see your doctor for help and to rule out any underlying medical conditions that could be causing the insomnia.

One of the cornerstones of good health is that of adequate and restful sleep. Many people are fortunate, not to have problems sleeping but for others who regularly toss and turn at night, insomnia is a huge recurring problem. It need not be so.

There are many things that you can do to aid sleep, here are just a few:

Ensure the basics are covered, is the bed comfortable, make sure you are not too hot or cold and especially make sure your feet are warm. Feet usually get cold first and can then wake you up.

Embrace the dark, with thick blinds or curtains or even cheaper an eye mask. Sudden changes of light can wake a light sleeper, so if your bedroom windows are near a road and prone to traffic get your eye mask ready and ear plugs if noise is a problem.

Make sure you have a regular bedroom routine, which promotes relaxation, so out goes the strenuous exercise and cups of coffee just before bed. If you must have a hot drink, think hot milk or herbal tea, caffeine is a well known stimulant as the body takes a while to process it, near bedtime is not advised.

A bath and relaxing music can get you in the mood for a deep refreshing sleep. The body likes routine, so regular bedtimes can help promote sleep if you can arrange your schedule.

Finally, worry is one of the major reasons for disturbed sleep; coping with stress can leave the body tense and your brain fretting over your problems while you are desperate for sleep.

To help with this, talk over your problems with someone else, if you don’t wish to with a friend or family member; try a helpline which is anonymous. Sometimes talking about your fears out loud can help you sort through things and get it in perspective. A quick solution is to write down your problem/worry and burn the paper, symbolizing a quick solution, it also is a great visual aid to go to sleep on.