Dr. Ganesh Kini

1. Maintain a healthy lifestyle such as eating well, drinking water regularly, avoiding stress and maintaining a healthy weight. Frequently, individuals develop sleep disorders due to stress or obesity.

2. Establish a regular schedule for sleep. Wake up and go to bed at the same time everyday, including weekends. Establishing a regular sleep schedule will train your body to sleep soundly on a consistent basis.

3. Avoid taking naps throughout the day. If you take a nap during the day, then you will be less tired at night, be more restless and may not sleep as deeply.

4. Abstain from smoking, drinking alcohol or ingesting caffeine because they can keep you up at night. Even though alcohol makes you sleepy, it obstructs the quality of your sleep.

5. Exercise regularly so that your body will be tired, but do not exercise for 3 to 4 hours before you go to sleep, because it may energize you.

6. Refrain from eating heavy meals for dinner, which can make you feel uncomfortable and will prevent you from sleeping well.

7. Create a bedroom that is quiet, dark and a comfortable temperature, which will promote sleep and avoid disturbances.

8. Sleep on your side with your head slightly elevated to prevent the symptoms of sleep apnea.

9. Construct a bedtime routine such as reading, meditating or bathing. Having a routine will train your body to recognize that you are preparing for sleep, which will help you to fall asleep easier.

10. Use your bedroom for sleep only. Do not work or do any other tasks in your bedroom if possible. If your bedroom is used only for sleep, then you will associate the room with sleep, which will aid in falling asleep faster and sleeping deeply.

11. Get out of bed and engage in a non-stimulating activity, such as reading until you feel sleepy again. Sometimes lying in bed when you are not able to sleep makes it more difficult to feel sleepy.

Any patient who is having seizures or epilepsy should take medicines regularly. A patient who has seizures and on medicine should be seizure-free for a minimum of two years before tapering of dosage. Most of the patients who become seizure free for few months or a year tries to decrease their dose on their own and sometimes stop it, that increases their chance of recurrence of seizures. It's very harmful because it affects their natural history of the disease and the seizures which could be controlled on single drug become drug resistant seizures. When a patient is considered for tapering of dosage. His drug is tapered slowly over few months.

She is looking at the clock repeatedly, feeling more and more frustrated as the time passes as how it is getting late and her effort to sleep is going in vain.

Effort? can anyone put an effort for something which is a self programmed function of the body -mind complex?

Does one put an effort to breathe, make the heart beat or digest food?

Try doing this at home. Try putting a conscious effort to digest your food, be aware of it entering the food pipe and the stomach and then liver metabolizing it. You will end up with indigestion!

Effort is interfering instead with something which is automatic!

So your struggle to sleep is the biggest reason why you are unable to sleep!

Do not try to sleep

One should have courage to wait for the body to tune itself back during a temporary phase of insomnia due to some stressful/emotionally challenging situation.

One's continued stressful approach in life or excessive seeking for stimulation all the time may have finally resulted in the overworked nervous system being so stressed that it now has difficulty in tuning itself off.

There are people who have not slept at all in their entire lives, but there daily activities are not hampered at all, so

Get rid of these conditioning that shortage of sleep will have an ill effect on the body, though difficult, if you let go of this you will be happily surprised to know that this conditioning or belief was creating most of the bodily symptoms!

Chronic insomnia which has developed after a traumatic emotional experience may need a help from a professional like counselor or a hypnotherapist.

Sedatives decrease the brain activity by depressing the c. N. S, making one lethargic /drowsy with reduced mental efficiency and host of other side effects.

The induced sleep is more of non rem type (rem is supposed to be a deeper and moe refreshing phase)
Drug resistance develops soon and the dose gradually increases and so does the dependance and its withdrawal symptoms. And finally one must realize that they are not the cure
So it is better to take them as as a one-off thing, at times of acute distress or urgent need to sleep.

Some other tips which are of secondary help.

1. Do not keep a clock/watch with you in your bed room.
2. Avoid heavy dinner or supper, keep your digestion in check.
3. Do not immediately go to sleep after dinner.
4. Avoid caffeine based drinks esp coffee or if you must have it, take it before evening.
5. Try putting off gadgets like mobiles, t. V, games, magazines etc.

Lastly in a nutshell, do not get overworked if there is reduced or delayed sleep, that will act as a stressor which will prevents sleep, have the courage so as to not to sleep at all. Do not anticipate tomorrows after-effects. Surrender to the intelligence of your body, it will take care of it.