Ep: 70 Do you Struggle with Insomnia?

Transcript Ep: 70

Intro

Do you struggle with insomnia? Well, insomnia can create a lot of health issues, and Sharyn wants to offer possible remedies and solutions. You might want to try learning about the three different types of insomnia and listen to various potential natural remedies that may be right for you. So let’s get started.

What is the main cause of insomnia?

Hey, everybody, and welcome back. I want to talk a little bit about insomnia today because it seems to be a problem that many people are struggling with, and there are a lot of different ideas on what insomnia is. So it is identified as a sleep disorder. It’s widespread, and it can make it hard to either fall asleep, make it hard to stay asleep or cause you to wake up too early and not get back to sleep. So those are all kinds of insomnia and what insomnia looks like. So you may still feel tired when you wake up. It’s not always obvious what causes insomnia. But there is a common association, it’s believed, with stress and anxiety. It could be a poor sleeping environment. Maybe you’re in a room with too much noise around you. Perhaps you’re in an uncomfortable bed. That alone can cause insomnia. Or you’re in a bedroom that’s got too much light. I know that for me, we have automatic lighting outside of our house. And if the wind is blowing or if there’s action or movement alongside the side where our bedroom is, the outside window will come on, and our light will come on. And when the external light comes on and then goes off, it lights up the bedroom window and then goes off. And it’s like having a neon light flashing in your window. So, because some trees are there and branches move, it causes blinking. Something like that could cause insomnia because you’re awake and can’t get back to sleep. So something too light, a room is too noisy, too hot, or too cold. Cool is better than desirable if you want to try and have a good night’s sleep. And sometimes, lifestyle factors play a role, such as jet lag. If you’ve been travelling and you haven’t had a chance to get your sea legs back again, your land legs back, I guess, then sometimes jet lag can cause you to have trouble getting back to sleep, and it’d be temporary. Shift work is evil, uh, for a lot of people that struggle with insomnia. If you ask them, they’ll tell you they do shift work because they’re changing their sleep schedule and not going on their natural body rhythm. And it can mess with their sleep schedule and ability to sleep soundly. Um, of course, drinking alcohol or caffeine before going to bed. Now, I want to say something here.

The photo of a woman trying to fall asleep.

How to cure insomnia due to caffeine?

Drinking caffeine or alcohol before going to bed doesn’t always cause insomnia. Some people handle it beautifully. They always have a coffee before they go to bed. My husband is one. He goes to sleep, drops off like nothing, and has coffee every night before bed. So not everybody struggles with that. So insomnia, the way it’s classified or identified, is durational. So, in other words, what they consider transient insomnia is insomnia that lasts less than a month. So it could be stress induced to a scenario that’s going on right now. Once it’s resolved, then you no longer have any problems. Maybe it’s the bed you’re sleeping in that you get a new mattress. Now you don’t have any problem. Or perhaps you’ve changed your environmental influences, so now you don’t have any problem. So, that’s called transient insomnia. Short-term insomnia is between one and six months, and you struggle with insomnia. And a lot of this will be for many people, waking up in the middle of the night and unable to get back to sleep. I’ve struggled with that. And sometimes, it will last one to six months for me. And it’s usually when I’m resolving issues, trying to work with problems, and working out a challenge I’ve got something going on. And it seems like that hour that I wake up in the middle of the night is if I would dedicate some time to the issue I’m trying to deal with, then if I come up with a partial solution or even, uh, an idea that will lead to a solution, I can get back to sleep. But if I ignore it, I will have trouble getting back to sleep really hard. And then chronic insomnia would last more than six months. So that’s somebody that just is not sleeping well at all. And that can be highly challenging. All kinds of remedies for insomnia can become severe. It can lead to various health disorders. Insomnia can lead to weight gain or weight loss. It can also be partially to blame for diabetes. People that don’t sleep well. There are many different ways, uh, sleep AIDS that have been recommended or recommended. One of the things that I recommend now, I know that I’ve already talked about the Solfeggio frequencies. And if you look back, it’s in the episodes of the don’t know if it’s 64, 65 somewhere in there, but look back and listen to that podcast on the Solfeggio sound frequencies that will help you fall asleep. And in many cases, if you are an insomniac will help you stay asleep. It can help you, especially if it hasn’t become chronic. If it’s transient or short-term, it’ll make a difference. So that’s something you can try right there, doing appreciations before you fall asleep at night when you go to bed, appreciate your day, put yourself into a positive, high vibrational mindset where you’re offering up an appreciation for everything that happened during the day: even

the good, the bad and the ugly. Even the stuff that you didn’t enjoy, but it maybe taught you something, you learned something, or you were able to achieve something through that experience and then do the same thing in the morning when you wake up. Doing an appreciation again in the morning can help. And that will help you move your energy from a place of stress, anxiety, worry, fear, anger, and resentment.

Why can’t I stop thinking when I sleep?

Do you know how your brain can take off on you when you go to bed and lay your head on the pillow? It’ll take you from that to a place of appreciation, positivity, joy, positive expectation, and compassion. And it’ll help you with sleep. Some other sleep AIDS that are recommended, things like melatonin, um, these are more practical, not as spiritual, they are more useful if you want to put it that way. Melatonin is a sleep-regulating hormone that produced is produced in the pineal gland in our brains. So you could take melatonin, that might help you. Lavender. If you use essential oils like lavender, chamomile, German chamomile, passion flower, and valerian. If you use that near your bed or have a diffuser or perhaps something on your pillow like lavender, it’ll help you sleep.

How can I cure insomnia?

CBD has been proven to help people who struggle with sleep. And CBD, as you know, is cannabis. It’s the THC that has been primarily removed, and you can get this in gummy form or various chocolates or various stuff like that. If you have this stuff in your house, they’ll be cautious. It stays away from the kids because it’s not candy. It does have CBD, but CBD is proven to help people who struggle with anxiety and stress, help them relax and be able to get a good night’s sleep. So that’s something you might want to look into. And tart cherry juice is also recommended for some people trying to get a good night’s sleep. It is going back to melatonin. Melatonin plays a significant role in organizing our circadian rhythms. And that’s what I was talking about earlier when I was talking about these shift workers. Their circadian rhythms are off. And using melatonin to help them sleep would probably help reestablish that rhythm. The 24 hours sleep awake cycle governs when we wake up, feel alert, feel tired, and when we sleep now, you got to remember, too; the moon plays a role in this. When the moon is up and it’s dark out, we naturally want to rest. And when the moon is down and the sun is up, we tend to want to be busy. So again, when you’re working shift work, this can be challenging. What can suppress melatonin production is nighttime exposure to light, but also aging and some diseases. So, since low melatonin can cause sleep disturbances, many people take supplemental melatonin in pill form.

What to do if you are struggling to sleep?

And it’s one of the fourth most popular natural supplements for people to take when they’re struggling with a sleep disorder. You can use melatonin: every adult, any adult. There’s no harm with melatonin. Lavender. Lavender, using lavender oil has been shown to improve sleep quality among postpartum women and increase the effectiveness of good sleep hygiene. Lavender oil also seems to be soothing and reduces anxiety and restlessness. Studies have been done on lavender’s efficacy as a sleep aid and have found that when people use the dried herb as a tea or in their pillow, it works just as well. Now, essential oils should not be ingested except under supervision or when you really know what you’re doing. Even lavender oil contains some compounds that are not good for you. So it should be diffused, maybe in the air or diluted in a neutral cream or oil for use on the skin. That would help, too—racing thoughts. Lavender can help calm racing thoughts. Valerian is a plant, and the smell of the valerian plant has been compared to gym socks. It’s been used for sleep problems since the second century. And though further research needs to be done, it appears to help people fall asleep faster, sleep better, and wake up less often. And in some studies, patients taking valerian were 80% more likely to report sleep improvements than those taking a placebo. So these are actual studies that were done scientifically. Because experts have not located a single active compound, they speculate that valerian’s effect may be due to several compounds working together or the amino acids GABA and glycine. Now, the roots in the stems of the valerian plant are made in two teas and tinctures and capsules and extracts. So there’s a lot of different tablets, there’s a lot of different ways to take it. Usually recommended for people with insomnia are general problems with sleep quality. Like, you know that you get late sleep when it doesn’t matter what’s going on; something will wake you up, and it could be just a whisper. It’s more effective after taking it for a few weeks. So it’s something that doesn’t work right away. You want to take it and determine its effectiveness by giving it time. Safe for adults, side effects are rare and very mild. It could include a bit of a headache or maybe some stomach upset. The German chamomile has been used to treat sleep since ancient Egypt. Some of these are really old; the most common preparation is capsules, tinctures and tea. Chamomile is generally considered safe, whether taken orally or used as tea. It does have interaction with some drugs so, including blood thinners. And there’s a little information on safety for pregnant or breastfeeding women. So you want to be maybe careful if you’re in that situation. Side effects are usually limited to mild nausea or dizziness, but allergic reactions are if you’re allergic to things like daisies or ragweed. And that’s just some. Now, there’s also cannabis. Let’s go into that. Let’s go to CBD oil. CBD is a chemical known as a cannabinoid present in the cannabis plant.

Do you go to the doctor for insomnia?

The plant has over 100 cannabinoids, and CBD is much different than the psychoactive delta nine, tetrahydrocannabinol, and THC cannabis. So it’s indicated that CBD can help people sleep better. It reduces anxiety symptoms on the broad spectrum of mental health conditions. And it seems that the body has its cannabinoid system that affects how we sleep, making CBD more likely to have benefits. So it would work with your body. And that is powerful right there if you’re using something versus medications or chemicals. There’s been some evidence that CBD can aid some sleep disorders and reduce excessive daytime sleepiness, but it hasn’t been tested widely or largely. Gummies, oils, tinctures. Again, that’s something that the regulatory, uh, now they’re being more regulated. Now it’s unknown whether it’s safe again for pregnant or breastfeeding people. So you might want to watch, and it might interact with medications. So, you want to maybe check with your doctor or somebody with some knowledge of the cannabinoid.

Do melatonin levels affect sleep?

In the CBD field, juice from the tart cherry is known as the sour cherry. It appears to raise melatonin levels. So we also have a natural melatonin system in our bodies which

increases the availability of tryptophan, which comes in turn-key, right? But it’s an amino m acid that may play a role in helping people fall asleep. You notice that after a turkey dinner, everybody just passes out on the couch or in their chair, or everybody’s like; the tryptophan in the turkey will tend to do that. And that’s the same in sour cherries. Tart cherry juice may improve sleep quality and make it easier to fall asleep. But some studies indicate the effect on insomnia is not as good as other things you could try. And something else that you can try that would work for some people, especially the chronic, is cognitive therapy. Cognitive behavioural therapy. Because sometimes therapists can get to the mental, uh, behavioural therapist can get to the root of the problem and help you identify exactly why you’re having such a problem with sleep. And then, generally, that will resolve the insomnia issue. Magnesium is also something that you can use when it’s used alone or with melatonin and zinc. Supplemental magnesium can be adequate.

Can you take magnesium every night for sleep?

It may also reduce excessive daytime sleepiness in adults. A high level of magnesium is available in many foods like pumpkin seeds. And it’s easy to supplement by eating more magnesium-rich foods. So if you can find foods rich in magnesium, it will help you if you’re struggling with a sleep issue. Magnesium is usually safe at ordinary dietary levels since the kidneys filter it out. High dosages can cause side effects like diarrhea, nausea, and cramping. Magnesium also interacts with some medications and supplements so massive doses can lead to abnormalities. You want to be careful with it. Make sure you’re using it under some form of supervision. Those are just some of the ideas, some things that you can use to help you. Natural sleep aids are safe. When you get into the chemical ones, you can start developing a dependency, like chemical sleep-based things. Some natural sleep aids can be used for kids, and some can’t. Sleep hygiene should be encouraged before sleep aids are considered. Okay? So don’t give your kids sleep aids until they have indicated that they have long-term issues. So talk with your pediatrician first. Ensure the dosage is meant for children and not adults, that whatever it is you’re giving them, pay attention to the label and list of ingredients and look for high-quality products that are tested so that you can be sure they’re good for you. Adults should always talk to their doctor about any sleep insomnia issue anyway because maybe it’s not nearly as bad as you think it might be.

How do I know if I’m having insomnia?

Maybe you’re more worried about it than you need to be. Pregnant or breastfeeding people are the ones that need to be careful with whatever they’re taking to help induce sleep. So talking to a doctor is not a bad idea. Or talking to a healthcare, a naturopathic doctor, somebody who can identify, uh, what sleep aids would work with whatever it is you’re taking currently, or what would be best for the type of insomnia that you’re experiencing. Okay, thank you very much, everybody. I love that you tuned in. I love that you’ve popped on and let me get a card, and I will give you a card for the day. Okay? I picked a card for you, and the card I have chosenis from the Daily Affirmation card, Cheryl Richardson’s Daily Affirmation Card deck. And the one I ended up with is Prosperity. And here’s the quote for you today the more I take care of myself, the more prosperous I am. That means getting a good night’s sleep. Don’t let insomnia rule you. Take control, take charge, and get past it. And we’re looking forward to a fantastic 2023. Thanks for tuning in. I’ll see you again.

Outro

Thank you for listening to another episode of Medium Well with Psychic Sharyn Rose. If you love this podcast, we have one little favour to ask you. Please follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts. If you love learning from Sharyn, well, she has a few ongoing courses. Why don’t you register for Kitchen Witchen? It’s on now. All you have to do for more information is going to kitchenwitchen.ca if you’d like to book an appointment with Sharyn for reading, or if you’d like to know more about Sharyn, her psychic services, coaching sessions and more workshops, go to SharynRose.com. That’s Sharyn with a “Y.” We’ll talk to you next time.