Vision Eyecare Lasik Health and Medical News/Updates

Most of us go through spells where we find it difficult to get a good quality sleep, and it is hard to operate normally, and the temptation can be strong to take something just to get a little sleep. Unfortunately, drug store sleep aids or prescription sleeping tablets, may cause more problems than they help. They can cause addiction if you take too many, while some of the after effects are not pleasant, for example grogginess the morning after, which when you are already suffering from lack of sleep really doesn’t help.

Nowadays, though, there are other sleep options which are not addictive and can help you get quality sleep, while they do not have the nasty side effects that drugs can have. Obviously, before you try anything, you should make sure that you are not hampering your sleep by exercising right before bed time or by taking in too much caffeine, without knowing it. Caffeine is in many products, things like soda and chocolate, as well as the well known sources of tea and coffee. Caffeine is also in some over the counter medications like cough syrup.

Try to avoid sugary products in the later parts of the day. Sugar is responsible for an immediate burst of energy, followed by a rapid drop in your blood sugar level, which could wake you if you had managed to get to sleep, and it could also leave you feeling hungry.

The herb Valerian has been around for years, and has been used regularly in Germany and Italy to promote healthy sleep. Although its properties are not fully understood, it is not considered addictive, nor does it leave you feeling groggy the following day, although some do say it makes them a little dizzy, or have headaches, even some indigestion or heart palpitations. It is not something that should be used before or after surgery because of the risk of complications. Valerian should be taken about an hour before going to bed, and may have to be taken for two weeks before it becomes effective.

The natural hormone Melatonin is found in the body, and it is generally used to help those people whose sleep cycle has been severely disrupted for some reason. Melatonin is taken about 30 minutes before going to bed. Now since the long term effects of melatonin are not presently known, it is good advice to ask your doctor about taking it, and to find out the positives and negatives of such a move.

Other techniques to promote sleep are reflexology and relaxation, and for many the gentle exercise of yoga along with meditations has helped. So you can see there are natural sleep aids that you can use as sleep remedies for those times when you need something to help you, other than addictive sleeping pills.