Every year 40 million Americans endure continuous long-term sleeping problems and 20 million more have sporadic sleep difficulties, according to the National Institutes of Health. Your search for better sleep solutions is shared by many exhausted fellow citizens. The good news is that sleep researchers have studied sleeping problems for decades and have devised numerous sleep solutions.
Sleep History
Sleep problems have obsessed human beings throughout recorded history. The Romans created a god of sleep, Somnus. Roman physicians' remedies for sleep problems included opium and the herb valerian. A famous example of insomnia occurred when young Emperor Caligula shifted from being a reasonable sovereign into a murderous madman when he developed a mental illness whose initial symptom was a permanent, tormenting insomnia, allowing him no more than three hours of sleep each night.
Sleep Research
Modern sleep research began in the late nineteenth century--an English doctor, Richard Caton, found in 1875 that animals' brain waves were different when awake from when they were awake. Sleep researchers discovered causes and treatments for insomnia and other sleep problems over the next century, as described by Professor William Dement of Stanford University in his online web chronology, "A Brief History of Sleep Research."
Fix Sleep Environment
The National Women's Health Information Center, in a downloadable pdf booklet, "Insomnia," advises changing your sleep environment and starting a sleep routine. Your bed should be used only for sex and sleep. The room temperature at bedtime should be cool, preferably around 65 degrees. If your household is noisy, wear earplugs. Darken the bedroom by closing curtains or by wearing a sleep mask. Shut off your television and computer before bedtime, because your sleeping brain will listen to their sounds and attempt to wake you up.
Create Sleep Routine
Try to go to bed at the same time every night and get up at the same time every day. Avoid caffeine, alcohol, eating a large meal or getting strenuous exercise within three hours before bedtime. Drink a glass of milk before bedtime. Milk contains tryptophan, a chemical that induces sleep. Listen to a sleep or meditation CD after you get into bed.
Medical Examination
If your sleep problems do not respond to fixing your sleep environment and creating a sleep routine, your next step is a thorough medical examination to ascertain if you have a more serious underlying disorder, such as sleep apnea, in which the body experiences abnormal pauses in breathing during sleep. Your doctor may refer you to to a sleep study center, where you can be evaluated by sleep researchers.
Treatments
The treatments that your doctor recommends will depend on the type of sleep problem that you are experiencing. If you are having trouble sleeping because you are under severe stress, your physician may advise you to seek counseling. If you are struggling with a physical condition, such as sleep apnea, you may be given throat exercises or a mask that pumps more air into your breathing passages while you sleep.
