Tips to help you get to sleep

Tired of feeling exhausted? Here are some basic tips to help you get to sleep.

Tips to help you get to sleep

After a night of tossing and turning, you awake feeling like a few of the Seven Dwarves: sleepy…and irritable. As we age and our sleep patterns change, restless nights and drowsy mornings may occur more frequently. In women, it typically begins during menopause, when heat flashes and other symptoms rouse them up.

In general, the number of hours slept tends to decrease with age. There are also alterations in the body’s circadian rhythm regulation. This internal schedule allows the body to react to variations in light and darkness. Age-related changes can make it more difficult to fall slumber and remain unconscious throughout the night.

When insomnia persists on a daily basis, it can become a significant issue. Lack of sleep can have severe consequences for our health, including an increased risk of obesity, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes.

In search of a more restful slumber, you may have turned to sleep medications if you’ve had difficulty falling asleep or remaining asleep. However, these medications may cause undesirable side effects, such as changes in appetite, vertigo, drowsiness, abdominal distress, dry mouth, migraines, and bizarre hallucinations. Several hypnotic sleep aids, including zolpidem (Ambien) and temazepam (Restoril), may increase the risk of death, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal. However, the study could not corroborate how much of the increased risk was attributable to these medications.