A Few Ideas for Better Sleep and Help with Sleep Disorders

Posted by News Desk on July 3rd

Thousands of people suffer from varying degrees of sleep disorders – from severe insomnia, sleep apnea, and restless leg syndrome that require fairly serious medical remedies, to some very general sleep difficulties that can be treated by over-the-counter medication or a CD of relaxation music.

For my entire adult life, I have had some pretty serious sleep issues. I still don’t know if I have some sort of medical disorder, or (the more likely scenario) I just have serious trouble shutting my mind down at night. I often find myself thinking/worrying about the day to come, or the day that is ending – what I could have done different, what I need to remember to do, etc.

I really do think this is my problem, because I generally sleep well on the weekends, but during the weeknights, I find myself easily distracted by my thoughts. I have, however found a couple of things that help.

While relaxation music doesn’t really do much for me, I have found that white noise (a gentle whooshing noise) helps me clear my mind and also helps drain out the ambient noises from around the house and the neighborhood. Additionally, while I have never been on any prescription-strength sleep aids, I have tried several over-the-counter remedies.

My favorite over-the-counter sleep aid is low-dose melatonin. Melatonin is a natural chemical produced by the brain that helps regulate your circadian rhythm (your daily sleep cycle). Because its natural, it is safe to take for occasionally trouble sleeping, and numerous studies have shown that it actually helps prevent migraines and cluster headaches, and is an effective treatment for bipolar disorder. Extensive clinical trials offer that it has no significant side effects with short-term use and is completely safe as an over-the-counter supplement.

I’m sure that melatonin doesn’t work for everyone, but in my opinion it is a cheap and dependency-free solution for my sleep disorder issues.