I’m sure you would agree that whenever you can take the natural root for something, you should go for it. The more you can keep things natural in your life, the better your overall health and wellness will be for it.
Insomnia is a condition that affects 60 million people[1] and probably yourself hence why you’re here checking this article out. You’re probably also interested in natural remedies for insomnia and we’re here to help you out!
Table of Contents
What Exactly Insomnia Is
Insomnia essentially is the inability to fall, and stay, asleep. But it goes a bit deeper than that. Researchers are starting to recognize insomnia as as a problem of your brain unable to stop being awake.[2]
There are also a bunch of factors that may be involved in your inability to sleep including:
- Psychiatric and medical conditions
- Specific substances
- Biological factors
- Food (alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, heavy meals late at night etc)
- Depression and anxiety
Why Is Sleep so Important?
Sleep is when it all goes down. This is when your body repairs and rejuvenates itself. It’s also the time where your mind basically files everything that’s been happening in the day creating your memories.
Even though you’re asleep, your body springs into action when a ton of different processes that are critical to keeping you alive and healthy. But there’s a big problem when you don’t get enough sleep.
When you deprive yourself of sleep, you can elevate your stress hormones, primarily cortisol. Stress hormones are really important, they are involved in your fight of flight system. For our ancestors, that was needed for out running a saber tooth tiger. For us today, it helps us jump out of the way of a speeding car or plowing through the crowds at a Black Friday sale…
The Problem With Cortisol
So a little stress hormone is actually needed but when something like cortisol is constantly elevated over the long term, this is when you’re looking at trouble. Cortisol is raised by lack of sleep because your body thinks it must be facing some sort of trauma, or else why wouldn’t you be sleeping?
Your body doesn’t know if you’re facing famine, environmental disaster or you’re just up all night watching a House Hunters marathon. All it knows is there must be some significant issue keeping you from sleeping and in turn it releases all this cortisol. Over time, this elevated stress hormone which is higher in insomniacs level, can lead to a lot of nasty problems such as:[3]
- Headaches and dizziness
- Anxiety
- Panic disorders
- Heart disease
- Hypertension
- Diabetes
- IBS
- Weight gain & obesity
- Immune system dysfunction
13 Natural Remedies for Insomnia
Trust me, this is just scratching the surface. But hopefully you can see why you don’t want to deprive yourself of sleep. So now you’re understanding this, how do you deal with that dreaded insomnia? Let’s look at a few way:
1. Start Going to Bed Earlier
Seems pretty straight forward and simple, but you really need to make it a point to get going to bed at least an hour before you normally do.
You might feel that you may as well stay up late due to your insomnia but you have to give your body a fighting chance and that means starting to turn in earlier.
2. Create a Wind down Routine and Stick with It
Sleep experts say this is the most important thing for helping your body get to sleep. Your body craves routine and structure and the main thing with a routine at night is your body recognizes that sleep is about to happen.
So it may be a warm bath, then reading or writing in a journal and listening to some relaxing music. The main thing is with whatever routine you have stick with it and begin it at the same time each night.
3. Cut out the Electronics Later in the Evening
This may be at the root of a lot of people’s sleep problems including yours. Your electronics: phone, tablet and T.V etc give off a blue light that is really disruptive in the brain. Blue light throws off your circadian rhythm and prevents your brain from releasing melatonin which is really important with sleep.
When you use electronics and bright lights late at night, it’s like standing outside at noon on a bright sunny day according to your brain. Start to eliminate or reduce screen use 1 to 2 hours before you’re wanting to go to bed.
4. Exercise
This is one of the best insomnia cures and it’s free, the best price anything can be!
People who exercise regularly report better sleep. It also doesn’t have to be that much even just 30 minutes 3 to 4 times a week can help to combat insomnia and improve sleep.
Exercising earlier in the morning also seems to help. When you exercise early, it helps to naturally engage your circadian rhythm and that in turn means your body will more naturally wind down later in the day helping you sleep.
5. Get Sunlight Earlier in the Day
This has the same effect as early morning exercise. The sun forces you to wake up and makes your body realize what time of day it is. It pumps out wake up hormones and allows your body clock to be engaged properly leading to better melatonin release later at night when you need it.
Basically daylight tells your body when to feel awake and when to feel tired.
6. Keep Your Room as Dark as Possible
These last few tips are all interconnected. Remember when I mentioned about your house springing to life with all the electronic light late at night? You want to combat this by keeping things as dark as possible.
Ideally, you’ve cut out light from screens an hour or so before bed; and now you want your bedroom as dark as possible. Since most people don’t go to bed when it gets dark out, keeping your room dark tells your body the day is done. Darkness also helps to secrete melatonin which it can’t do if there’s always blaring light coming through your eyes.
6. Watch out for the Caffeine
You’re aware of the effects of caffeine I’m sure, but you might not know it can last in the body a lot longer than you realize. The noticeable effects of caffeine kick in within 10 to 20 minutes and can last 2 to 3 hours.
Caffeine has what’s called a ‘half-life’ which can extend its effects on your blood stream. There can still be an impact 6 or more hours later. So if you’re having a coffee at 4-5 pm, this may be why you can’t fall asleep at 11 pm that night.
You might have to play around with when you cut off caffeine, but ideally you wouldn’t have any past 2-3 pm.
7. Drink herbal tea
Chamomile Tea
While we’re talking about beverages, here are a few that can help combat insomnia. Chamomile tea has been used for relaxation for quite a long time now. It can help calm the nerves, combat anxiety and also works like a mild sedative.
Valerian Root
Similar to the chamomile, valerian has been used for a long time. It’s seen to help people fall asleep faster and stay asleep. It might be something to discuss with your doctor as it may not be best to use in the long term even though it’s natural.
St. Johns Wort
You’ve probably seen this too as it’s in most health food shops and even grocery stores. St. Johns wort, even though it sounds like a great name for a band, is a flowering plant that can help with depression, anxiety, and insomnia — three things that tend to be connected a lot of the time.
You can find capsule forms but also fresh to make tea out of.
Passion Flower
Another natural sedative that’s technically a tropical flower. You can steep a teaspoon of it in boiling water for ten minutes to help with sleep.
California Poppy
This one you might not have heard of but it’s not the name of an exotic dancer.
The bright orange leaves from California poppy can be steeped in hot water for about ten minutes and will help to combat anxiety along with making you feel relaxed.
8. Try a Warm Shower
Again, it’s about giving your body the signals that it’s time to sleep. A warm shower naturally helps to slow down and relax your nervous system and encourages you to feel sleepy.
You know how a warm shower in the morning can make you feel drowsy when you need to be waking up? You might want to forgo it then and start showering before bed.
9. Keep Your Room Cool
Your body temperature drops when you sleep and keeping a cool environment can encourage your body to get to sleep, and stay asleep, quicker.
You want your room between 60 to 72 degrees so you may have to play around with thermostat (that I’m still not allowed to touch) or keeping your windows open.
Basically, your sheets should feel cool to the touch when you lie down.
The Bottom Line
If you’re suffering from insomnia, realize that you are definitely not alone. It’s frustrating but can be managed. There are a lot of great natural remedies for insomnia to help get your body to sleep and stay asleep.
More Resources to Help You Sleep Better
- Want to Feel More Energized Throughout the Day? Start With This
- The Ultimate Night Routine Guide: Sleep Better and Wake Up Productive
- Why You Keep Waking Up in the Middle of the Night (And How to Fix It)
- The Importance of Sleep Cycles on Productivity (+ Tips to Improve Yours)
- The Ultimate Guide to Help You Sleep Through the Night Tonight
- 5 Ways To Kick Away Negative Thoughts Before Sleeping
Featured photo credit: Victor Hughes via unsplash.com
Reference
| [1] | ^ | National Public Radio: Can’t Sleep? Neither Can 60 Million Other Americans |
| [2] | ^ | National Sleep Foundation: What Causes Insomnia? |
| [3] | ^ | Sleep Med Clin.: Chronic Insomnia and Stress System |
