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Causes and Conseques of Lack of Sleep: insomnia Book Abstract
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Published: February 23, 2007
The point of sleeping is to rest and repair the body. The amount of sleep a person needs depends on the age, infants generally require about sixteen hours a day, babies from six months to three years need between ten and fourteen hours per day, children need between ten and twelve hours of sleep, teenagers about nine hours of sleep per night, for most adults, seven to eight hours a night appears to be the best amount of sleep. Sleep is necessary for the nervous system to work properly. Getting a good night’s sleep is not only directly related to how we feel next day, but also to our health. If a person experiences sleeping difficulties it can cause him feel sleepness, fatigue, feeling depressed or irritable during the day. He finds difficult to think clearly or stay focused. Insomnia or lack of sleep is the most common sleep problem nowadays, it’s a feeling of not being able to get enough sleep. Nevertheless insomnia is not defined by the number of hours you sleep or by how quickly you fall asleep, but the quality of sleep achived and how you feel after sleeping.Most people will suffer from insomnia at some point of their lifes, it can last a day, or two even months or years. They can become irritable and anxious, and they can get emotional and highly stressed too, affecting their mood. Worst of it is that some of them don’t even want to talk about their problem. And in some extreme cases they can hallucinate. So, what causes lack of sleep? Well there are a lot of facts like eating habits, there are some foods that contain caffeine, a powerful stimulant , that delays sleep, such as coffee, tea, chocolate, cocoa, cola, etc. Alcohol, although drinking it in moderation can help get sleep, it can also interrupt normal sleep patterns. Eating a large meal late at night can cause indigestion and keep people awake. But not having enough food can also prevent sleep. Some people say that hot drinks help them get sleep like milk, they drink it before they go to bed. But excessive liquids can increase the need to go to the bathroom at night. There are other particular foods that can have the same effect, foods like rice, pasta or potato.The sleep environment can affect as well. Too much noise can cause frequent nighttime awakenings, for example if someone snores loudly next to your bed it can wake you up several times during the night. Too much light in the bedroom can keep your body from deep sleep. The temperature of the bedroom is important too, you will be restless if it is too cold or too hot in it. Nevertheless there are some other medical causes of insomnia such as sleep apnoea. Sleep apnoea happens when a sleeping person stops breathing for a short time. A person with sleep apnoea will wake from sleep may times during night. As you may know insomnia has a lot of negatives effects not only on health but also on the quality of life of a person. Lack of sleep makes people less able to deal with preassures of life, it can cost memory lost too. People lacking sleep often struggle in changing situations, they find it more difficult to make good decisions. Lack of sleep is also involved in many car accidents, being overtired can produce similar effects to having alcohol in the body, in other words if a person doesn’t sleep long enough, he will have the same symptoms as a drunk person. For example, an overtired driver while driving finds it difficult to know how close or far he is from a car, and if this driver fall asleep while driving it’s like noone was driving the car, ending so in terrible car accidents.But, what can be done to stop insomnia? Well before trying any medicine or drugs that can have secondary effects, there are some good methods that may help such as avoiding taking naps as much as possible during the day, but, if you do nap, preferably do it for no longer than ten or fifteen minutes and try not to make up for lost sleep. Some people use the weekend to recover for lost sleep during the week, this is a big mistake. If you can’t sleep in the middle of the night it’s not a good idea to get up, exposing yourself to bright light can worsen your insomnia. Working out or exercising regularly helps, but exercise too close to bedtime can keep you awake so it’s better do it four or six hours before bedtime. Taking a hot bath for thirty minutes it will warm you, relax you and make you feel sleepy. Reduce the amount of nicotine (cigarettes, cigars, pipes, chewing tobacco, etc.), caffeine (coffee, strong teas or caffeinated soft drinks) and alcohol for a few hours before bedtime. If you can't sleep, get up and read until you feel sleepy. Don't watch television or lie in bed thinking about how much sleep you are missing. If somehow these methods don’t work, the best thing to do is to see a sleep specialist or a doctor. Insomnia is a serious problem but fortunetely it can be solved if it is treated in time.
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