Lack of sleep, problems with sleep or the inability to sleep night can be caused by stress, travel, diet, health conditions or medications. While it is normal to occasionally have issues sleeping it is not normal to have regular problems with sleep. Some of our sleep disturbances can be easily rectified while other can be more serious and we can require assistance to get a healthy night’s sleep.
Sleep deprivation can noticeably affect people’s performance and have a detrimental effect on the body. Sleep deprivation can lead to depression, anxiety and can increase the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity and, or diabetes. If sleep problems are a regular occurrence and interfere with your daily life you may have a sleep disorder such as insomnia. Insomnia is when a person has one or all of the following: trouble falling asleep; regularly wake up during the night and have trouble going back to sleep.
Sleep helps to restore the body; it is crucial to our physical and intellectual well-being and provides the necessary energy for the day.
While sleep requirements vary from person to person most healthy adults need between 7 to 9 hours sleep a night. The number of hours varies depending on the stage in your life.
The brain cycles through three to five phases during sleep: typically stages 1,2,3,4 and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. During REM sleep your eyes move quickly in different directions. During stages 1,2,3 and 4 this doesn’t happen and is known as non-REM sleep. Dreams typically happen during REM sleep. REM sleep happens 90 minutes after you fall asleep, with the first period of REM typically lasting 10 minutes. Each of your later REM stages gets longer, and the final one may last up to an hour.
There are several ways to treat sleep issues, this can be done either with prescribed or over the counter medicine or with self-management solutions.
Medication:
Prescribed or over the counter sleeping pills are an option for people with sleep issues however there are side effects such as dizziness, headaches, gastrointestinal problems, sleep-related behaviours, daytime memory and performance problems. Sleeping pills are not suitable certain people and can be addictive. Before taking medication, it is best to first try a natural self-management solution.
Self-Management Solution:
There are several self-management solutions to help enhance and lengthen sleep duration. It can be done naturally by going to sleep at the same time, avoiding sleeping in’s, smart napping, reducing blue light exposure and monitoring caffeine intake however for people with regular sleep issues they need additional support such as essential oils and acupuncture.
SBS is a self-management solution that was specifically developed to help enhance and lengthen sleep duration. The SBS patch gives patients control to manage their self-care by applying patches to the acupressure point for sleep. The non-transdermal patches are simply placed on the skin to stimulate acupressure points. The patches contain light-reflecting technology and light-emitting materials to restore energy emitted by the body.
