Insomnia Relief – First Find the Cause

If you can’t sleep, there’s a long list of things you can try to help you finally get some shut-eye. But you could very well be wasting your time trying tip after trick after remedy if you don’t first figure out why you can’t sleep. It is not always an easy thing to do, and often there’s more than one problem to tackle. But knowing why you can’t sleep can help you skip to the end and find the right relief for insomnia early on. Sometimes you might need a doctor to help you determine the cause, in the case of a physical problem. But often you can figure most of it out on your own.

First, look at your circumstances and where you sleep. Do you go from the living room to the bedroom after having watched the news, which is full of unpleasant things? Do you frequently talk about anxiety-inducing things like the bills or a child’s poor grades before you go to bed? Do you tend to argue before bedtime or deal with stressful problems? These are some of the biggest environmental factors that can cause you to stay awake. Has there recently been some upheaval in your life or a very stressful situation?

We can’t control those stressful situations, but if something has recently happened then you might just need to try to relax and wait it out. If you’re dealing with little stressors every night in the last few hours before bed, however, you need to schedule these types of conversations for another time and get them as far away as bedtime as possible.

A second possibility is a physical cause. Sleep apnea and other sleep disorders can wreak havoc on sleep patterns. Some chronic conditions and diseases can also cause problems, not just because they might make you uncomfortable but because they affect melatonin levels in the brain, which affects sleep. Hormonal changes with pregnancy, menstruation and menopause are common sleep-disturbers, as is anything that causes physical pain.

The third category of insomnia causes is the psychological issues that keep us awake. Depression is a big problem for people, whether it’s mild or serious. Feeling depressed can cause sleeplessness or oversleeping, depending on the person and the particular depression. Stress and anxiety can also keep us from sleeping, whether we’re running through problems in our minds or we’re trying to sleep and just can’t figure out why it’s not happening.