Sleep heals the body by bringing rest, recharge, rejuvenation and repair with it! Don’t ignore your insomnia!

Sleep is one of the three basic pillars of life. The quality of an individual’s life, health and functioning of the body depends on how restful one’s sleep is! It is as important for our body as food and nourishment is. Loss of sleep may effect the cardiovascular, endocrine, immune and nervous systems. To make it easy, our sleep is the recharging of our batteries. Also, it allows repair and reset of our body systems. Imagine not recharging your devices enough!!

The feeling of happiness or misery, strength and weakness of the body and the functioning of the brain and the longevity of life are all influenced by sleep. Despite studies and evidences about the direct relationship of sleep with many health problems and the overall health of an individual, a lot of people are ignorant about their sleep habits.

What causes the loss of restful sleep?

Psychological factors such as anxiety, fear, stress, worry, anger and grief can lead to poor sleep and insomnia.

Sleep can also be disturbed because of other health issues like digestion related issues, pain, frequent urination, as well as problems like hyperthyroidism, rheumatoid arthritis, restless legs, premenstrual syndrome and menopause. These disorders often lead to insomnia. Some other factors are malnutrition, weakness and fatigue and degenerative diseases.

Sleep problems are seen as result of a bad lifestyle. For example, partying until late, working for late hours at night, late dinners, travels, loud music and more lead to poor sleep.

Ayurvedic treatment for Insomnia:

A proper diagnosis of the cause of the sleep disorder is extremely important in cases of insomnia. Depending on the cause, diagnosis, history of the patient and other factors (age, sex, environmental factors, etc), insomnia can be treated with a treatment plan developed by the Ayurvedic doctor. This plan includes medicinal plants(phytotherapy), panchakarma therapies, diet and lifestyle modifications. A proper counselling of the patient is very important as well. Different therapies like shirodhara, shiro pichu, shhiroabyanga, abyanga and padabyanga are planned based on the diagnosis, to balance the dosha and cure the disease.

Some basics for a good night of sleep:

• Create a good night routine: Go to bed at a regular time, not too late!
• Watch your screen time! Watching disturbing things such as news or movies before going to sleep is not a good idea.
• Avoid eating and drinking stimulants before going to sleep. For example, caffeine, nicotine and alcohol tend to disrupt sleep.
• Avoid eating late dinner.
• Managing anxiety and worries before going to bed is very important!