Why can't I sleep?
Anyone who has ever surfed the forums at different health web sites will have undoubtedly seen this post at least once. It is a very common, simple question but which could receive a hundred possible answers. The best way to deal with the question of why aren't you sleeping is by question more questions. The first question is relatively simple: Is the source of the problem internal or external. By that I want to say that you can't sleep because of you or you can't sleep because of your environment. If the problem is your environment if you in luck, as this is the easiest problem to solve in most cases. An external problem is usually the result of loud and constant noise; snoring husbands, loud neighbors and kids getting up in the middle of the night wanting to go to the toilet but too afraid to go by themselves. Earplugs are normally the answer here, or an elbow in your husband's ribs. With children it can be more difficult to solve, but patience and education is probably to best way to go.
Now internal sleeping problems are a whole different kettle of fish and the amount of possible causes is tremendous. I will try to tackle the main causes here starting with the most common.
Stress
By far the biggest taker of sleep. It can be for any reason whatsoever, even good reasons. The secret is to try to identify the stress in your life. This may seem easy but for many the real culprits for their stress are unknown to them. The best and easiest way of identifying the reasons of stress is to keep a diary. By writing down everything we do day in day out, we are forcing our brain to organize our life, something which it is supposed to do while we sleep. The one thing more important than keeping a diary is to read the diary. Often. Once we start doing that we tend to begin to see patterns forming in our lives that we hadn't previously even thought of. Think of your diary as your own person psychiatrist.
Illness
Obviously when we are ill it is much harder for us to sleep. The most important thing to do in this event is see the doctor. Even if the illness isn't that serious, you are not wasting his or her time and it is your right to be seen.
Sleep related illnesses
Now we're getting to the serious sleep disorders, and there are quite a few. Sleep apnea is quite common and can happen to anyone, although overweight men over forty definitely have more chances of developing it. Sleep apnea is basically when we stop breathing during the night and the brain turns on an alarm. This alarm starts ringing and wakes us up. Snoring is a well known symptom of sleep apnea so if your husband or wife complains you should go and get checked out. Other less common ailments are narcolepsy, where the patient can not control when he or she falls asleep, restless leg syndrome, and nocturnal asthma.
Most researchers agree that the best way to handle sleeplessness is by changing life style. Prioritizing our life and organizing things efficiently can have startling effects, as can giving up coffee, alcohol and cigarettes. What we should never do, though, is think we can solve the problem of insomnia by popping a sleeping pill. Maybe this is a short term solution, but if you can't resolve the underlying problem you are going to get the same things reoccurring again and again.
