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Insomnia - Searching for Sleep and an Insomnia Cure
Although there are many different sleep problems, insomnia is by
far the most common. Insomnia is characterised by problems in falling
asleep, waking during the night or early in the morning. Most of
us will at some time during our lives suffer from insomnia to some
degree. Most insomnia will cure itself, however sometimes it can
persist for long periods, or become so bad that the person can feel
like they're not sleeping at all.
Later we'll look at one possible insomnia cure, but first it's important
to understand about sleep itself.
Different types of sleep
Sleep is not one uniform phenomenon.
It comes in different 'flavours', if you like. Firstly, we have
slow wave sleep (SWS) which is divided into stages 1, 2, 3 and 4;
stage 4 sleep being known as deep sleep. The best-known aspect of
sleep is of course dreaming which occurs mostly in Rapid Eye Movement
sleep, or REM. This state is unlike other sleep stages as the brain
is very active, so much so that it has been called 'paradoxical
sleep'.
The need for sleep
Although we are not yet sure of all the benefits sleep brings, several
points are clear.
1) REM sleep is essential for emotional health. Dreaming has the
function of ridding the emotional centres of the brain of unfulfilled
emotional arousal from the previous day, thus leaving us more able
to cope well with the next day's emotionally arousing incidents(1).
When we don't get enough REM sleep, we can often feel a bit 'hyperactive'.
REM is suppressed by alcohol - you may have noticed the effect of
being a bit 'wound up' the day after a heavy night's drinking. This
is due, in part at least, to the fact that you have not dreamed
enough. You can imagine what happens if we constantly under-dream.
Click here for more information on dreaming.
Anti-depressants also suppress REM sleep.
2) Slow wave sleep is essential for rejuvenation of physical processes.
The exact ways in which this happens are as yet unclear, but we
do know that the immune system benefits from a good night's sleep.
A reduction in sleep of 2 hours per night has been shown to reduce
the number of natural killer cells (disease fighters) by as much
as 20%.
3) Extreme sleep deprivation can cause highly unpleasant and bizarre
effects such as loss of balance, memory and even hallucinations.
So we can see that a good night's sleep is not a luxury; it is an
absolute necessity.
Next, Sleeping Disorders
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