switching off your TV or electronic device before going to bed. ![]() maintaining a consistent sleep and wake schedule.To improve your sleep quality, first try improving your sleep hygiene by: Your routine before lights out can either promote healthy sleep or contribute to a long night of restlessness followed by a difficult morning. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine says your behavior, especially before bedtime, can have a major impact on your sleep. ![]() Good sleep hygiene can be as important as physical hygiene-don’t underestimate it. Long-term use of such medications can result in a growing dependency, daytime drowsiness, nausea, fatigue, confusion, and memory problems.īecause of these known side effects, many people prefer non-pharmacological treatments, including meditation, hypnotherapy, and sleep hygiene programs. However, sleep medications, known as sedative-hypnotic drugs or sleeping pills, are not without risk. If you turn to a healthcare practitioner for advice, it’s possible a doctor will treat your sleep disorder with a pharmacological intervention. People who experience sleep disturbances usually begin by self-treating with over-the-counter medications and natural supplements, such as melatonin, valerian, and tryptophan. Are drugs my best option for better sleep? Sometimes it’s just life aggravating your sleep, rather than a diagnosed health condition, such as if you’re experiencing stress, have a poor work-life balance, are a shift worker, or going through difficult relationship problems. Whereas if you know your sleep disturbance is a symptom of a larger health issue, it’s referred to as secondary insomnia. If you don’t have a known health concern impacting your sleep, you may be experiencing what’s known as primary insomnia. Various physical and mental health issues can contribute to disordered sleep, such as different pain syndromes or neurological conditions. On the other hand, chronic insomnia means that your sleep is disrupted for at least three nights per week, for three months. Acute insomnia, or short-term insomnia, might last for only a few nights. There could be many reasons why you aren’t getting consistent, quality sleep, and the consequences of reduced sleep can vary.Ĭommon sleep disorder experiences include:Įxperts define insomnia as difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep. Around 70% of high school students shared they’re not getting enough shuteye either.īut with practice, applying self-hypnosis techniques can help you change your disturbed sleep patterns for good. If you’re over 60, seven to nine hours is recommended. Up to 30% of adults have reported they receive less than seven hours of sleep a night, which is the gold standard for adults under 60. And it’s an affliction experienced by many. Sleep disturbances can feel unbearable at times, leading to endless tossing and turning. When this successfully results in less disrupted sleep then we can reasonably expect an accompanying decrease in the frequency and severity of "spells" (sleep walking episodes) which arise from partial arousals in deep sleep.Being able to relax and drift off to sleep is a skill we can teach ourselves through self-hypnosis. The theory behind this approach makes good sense in that hypnosis involves relaxation and suggestions for future comfort and relaxation. Further research is clearly warranted and clinical use is reasonable. ![]() Improvement was defined as being "spell free or much improved." This was an uncontrolled study design with small numbers so the results are suggestive although not definitive. ![]() In a recent five year follow up study published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, Hauri, Silber and Boeve reported that sleep walkers treated with hypnotherapy had a 50% improvement after 18 months and 67% after 5 years. In fact, hypnosis has shown encouraging results for a range of parasomnias such as nightmares and sleep walking. These techniques have been used in small-scale studies with remarkably positive effects. In small-scale studies conducted by researchers such as Peter Hauri, Ph.D., of the Mayo Clinic, results have shown that properly screened sleep walking patients can experience significant improvement with the use of clinical hypnosis. But hypnosis? As a treatment for sleep walking? Yes.
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