It also improves our general mood, making us calmer and more balanced, so we are less likely to lie awake at night fretting over details or wound up from the caffeine in the emergency chocolate bar that we consumed before going to bed. When looking for ingredients to create meals, keep in mind the following:

• Water aids digestion, so try to drink at least 2 liters (3% pints) a day.
• Fresh fruit is the best slow-release energy source. Juicing fruit removes all the pulp and fiber, which stops you just getting a sugar hit from the fructose.
• Eating protein-rich foods, such as lean meats, cheese, eggs, natural yogurt and fish, for lunch will keep your levels balanced as you enter the natural dip in your circadian rhythm. Eating refined carbohydrates, like white bread, will cause your sugar level to soar then crash, and only exaggerate this natural dip.
• Pulses, beans, lentils, nuts and seeds are all great for slow-release energy – try them with wholegrain bread.
• Chromium-rich foods, such as shellfish, cheese, baked beans and wholegrain bread, help your body overcome extreme low blood sugar.
• A ravenous hunger the morning after a night of drinking is because the alcohol affects your blood sugar levels, making you reach for quick fixes the next day. Drinking on an empty stomach makes it worse.

The Glycaemic lndex

The body needs glucose for energy. It is obtained from starches and sugars in the food we eat and either used or stored as fat. Everything we eat is processed this way, but it is the speed at which this happens that makes the difference to our weight and general health – this is what gives food its Gl rating. The faster food is broken down, the higher its index rating (a high rating is about 70 or above). Low-Gl foods keep us fuller for longer, have more fibre, and are usually full of minerals and vitamins.

To keep your energy levels stable, avoid stimulating food and drinks, such as coffee and chocolate. Although they may seem to improve your mental focus, they can cause mood swings.

The lower the glycaemic index (Gl) rating of food, the better it is for maintaining a balanced sugar level. Eating foods with a low Gl rating, such as pulses, lentils and beans, is a great help when you are giving up stimulants such as caffeine and nicotine because they help prevent the swings in mood and hunger. The more processed food is, like white bread, white sugar and junk food, the higher it tends to be on the index.

Choosing energy-balancing foods and drinks during the day can help you feel healthily tired and unwound by bedtime. A large breakfast of complex carbohydrates, such as porridge, fruit, nuts, seeds and lean protein will keep you balanced.

Tryptophan, the insomniac’s Friend

The good news is that for all the foods and drinks that over stimulate us and keep us awake at night, nature has provided sleep-inducing alternatives. Some calm us down while others actively deliver sedative effects. This is mainly down to a chemical called tryptophan.

Learning to choose low-glycaemic index foods, such as sushi and sashimi, is simple. As a rule, avoid highly processed foods that are far removed from their original, natural state.

Tryptophan is an amino acid and an essential chemical for life as it helps us to build protein. We consume about one to three grams of tryptophan a day, but we can boost our intake by seeking out foods that have a higher concentration. It has the effect of speeding up the onset of sleep, decreasing the number of spontaneous wakings during the night and increasing the overall length of sleep during the night. Elderly people, who suffer from increased sensitivity to noise, find it especially helpful, as do those on antidepressants because it can raise the level of serotonin, which is low in brains of depressed people. Eating a main meal around four hours before bedtime with a low-to-medium Gl rating, including complex carbohydrates or some of the vegetables listed will help start the relaxing process.

If needed, a tryptophan-rich snack before bedtime, such as the snacks listed, should greatly improve your chances of getting a good night’s rest. Remember, however, that the same rules apply as before; make sure you give any snacks enough time to digest (an hour or so) before you go to bed.

Foods Rich in Tryptophan

• Bananas
• Turkey
• Milk and other dairy products
• Almonds
• Cabbage
• Kidney or lima beans
• Oats
• Poppy seed
• Pumpkin seed
• Spinach
• Wheat
• Evening primrose seed (contains the most tryptophan of any food source)
• poultry
• Eggs
• Red meats
• Soybean
• Tofu
• Basil
• Dill

Sedative Snacks That Aid Relaxation Before Sleep

Combine ‘sleepy food’ with other foods, such as avocados, mandarins and lettuce that contain bromine to help ease that short-fused feeling, for a light, easy-to-make and easy-to-digest snack. Lettuce has a longstanding reputation for promoting healthy sleep. This is due to an opium-related substance, combined with traces of the anticramping agent hyoscyarnin that is present in lettuce. Lettuce should be an integral part of your evening diet if you are suffering from sleep disorders. Juiced, and mixed with a little lemon juice for flavor, it makes an effective sleep-inducing drink and is highly preferable to the synthetic chemical agents in sleeping pills. You can also try carbohydrates, including pasta, brown rice and oatmeal, which produce serotonin.

Eating tryptophan-rich foods can help induce a restful and rewarding sleep in a completely natural way. Avoid stimulants and rich dishes before bedtime. Herbal drinks can settle the stomach, soothe the mind and relax the body. Try blending them for the perfect mix of taste and sensation for your individual needs.

Try one of these delicious snacks an hour before bedtime to help you to relax and unwind:

• Wholegrain toast with a little almond butter
• A small portion of a healthy, fat-containing food, such as olive oil on your salad or an avocado
• A small pot of natural yogurt with a little honey
• Fresh, dried or cooked fruit for dessert
• A small cup of warm milk, with nutmeg for flavour and digestion
• A small banana
• A handful of unsalted nuts or seeds.

Soothing Drinks

The traditional drink of a glass of warm milk before bedtime does indeed consist of calming properties – the tryptophan, calcium and magnesium all help the mind and body to relax. Try adding a sprinkling of cinnamon, which is excellent for digestion and can ease a sore throat or night-time cough. Difficulties in breathing can sometimes be aggravated by dairy products, so consider other relaxing drink options. Herbal tea blends can be wonderful at sending you off to sleep; experiment with different blends to find your favourite.

Passion Flower

The passionflower vine is a sedative and digestive aid. The herb is considered to be a mildly effective treatment for anxiety and insomnia, and is often combined with other herbal preparations, such as valerian and hops. It isn’t as potent as some of the other natural sedatives, but it is ideal for those who also get a nervous stomach, especially in the tea form, taken three times daily.

Camomile

The familiar camomiila plant is used in varying degrees to help calm and relax. As well as being drunk, it can also be used to create a soothing, sleep-inducing bath before bedtime: simply put a teabag or two into the bath, or float some of the dried flowerheads in the water. Camomile is quite easy to grow if you fancy a constant supply – just dry it out and use. Add a little honey if you need a sweet kick, but not too much!

Lemon Balm

Also known as Melissa officinalis, this strong lemon-smelling member of the mint family can be made into tea. Also try using it to season soups and salads, or as a cooling iced tea on hot, restless summer nights.

Verbena

Also known as lemon verbena, this is similar in flavour to lemon balm, but with a stronger taste, and has similar effects.

Lime Flower

Also known as linden, lime flower has soporific effects. lnfuse a handful of dried flowers in 1 litre (2%pints) of boiling water, and drink two large cups before going to bed.

Mandarin Juice

A great alternative to tea in the hot summer months is the natural sedative mandarin, which is packed full of calming bromine.

Sugar

In all its forms, sugar can play havoc with our sleep patterns. This is mainly because our blood sugar levels can ‘crash’ after a big dose of the stuff, leaving us even more tired, and hunting around for another snack to give us a quick energy fix, often washed down with our old friend caffeine. This cycle can leave us too fatigued to make a substantial dinner for ourselves, even if we feel ravenously hungry, and this is where convenience food comes in with even more hidden sugars and chemical sweeteners. And so the cycle continues.

Life After Sugar

Cutting down on sugar means committing to eating foods in their natural state. This means avoiding processed foods and weaning our sweet tooth on to more natural sugars, such as honey (in moderation). Balancing out the peaks and troughs of blood sugar can aid in weight loss, as we are not overeating and always hurtling from one unhealthy food fix to another, and balance our energy and concentration levels. This will mean you arrive at bedtime ready for a good night sleep. The key to healthy snacking is to be prepared; a bag of roasted pumpkin seeds in your bag, a fruit bowl on your desk, will make them an easier option than finding a vending machine full of energy-sapping sugary and salty snacks. Aim to graze through the day rather than find yourself suddenly starving and willing to eat whatever you can find (its always easier to find junk food). Little and often is best, and will stop you suddenly obsessing about what to have mid-morning.

In reality, most people are unwilling to live an entirely abstemious life. Try wrestling a cup of cappuccino from the hands of a caffeine addict just before they leave for work and you will begin to appreciate how many of us rely on such props to help us make it through the day. With that in mind, it is worth admitting your weaknesses and planning out your daily diet sensibly to avoid the food and drinks that keep you awake and to begin to appreciate more soporific foods later in the day.

What we put into our body during the day can greatly affect our ability to fall asleep at night, and also the quality of rest that follows.

SLEEP AND WEIGHT

For those trying to lose weight, good sleep could be essential. A recent study by Columbia University in New York indicates that there is a link between sleep and the US’s obesity epidemic. The research suggests that the more you sleep, the less likely you are to become obese. People who get less than the recommended amount of sleep each night are up to 73 per cent more likely to be obese although, obviously, obesity is also usually the result of several other lifestyle factors. It has also been proved that there is a connection between middle-aged spread in men and the quality of sleep they have. Men, during sleep, produce the growth hormone. This hormone maintains and renews muscle tone, but it decreases naturally with age, as does the amount of sleep men need. The problem is, if they don’t fulfill their sleep needs, they won’t be getting as much of the growth hormone as they could – thus speeding the arrival of a stomach paunch.

THE BAD STUFF

Caffeine, in beverages such as tea, coffee and fizzy drinks, will keep you awake well into the night if you let it, so you need to enjoy your last cup at least five hours before bedtime. The same goes for heavy, rich foods. Although scientists say that there are no direct chemical reasons why such foods should keep you awake, your digestive system still needs to break down the food. As this is one of the functions that the body shuts down during sleep, it can keep you up, or affect your sleep quality, until it has finished its work. So a rich meal with alcohol at 10 pm is not the best idea; neither are stimulating meals that contain spicy foods, onions or peppers, which can give you indigestion and delay the onset of sleep.

As a general rule, you should try to avoid the following foods late at night:

Fatty foods may cause heartburn, which leads to difficulty in falling asleep and discomfort throughout the night.

Foods containing tyramine (bacon, cheese, ham, aubergines (eggplant), pepperoni, raspberries, avocado, soy sauce, red wine) might keep you awake at night. Tyramine causes the release of norepinephrine, a brain stimulant.

Caffeine

This is the most widely used drug in the world, and probably the most socially acceptable, but its effect should not be underestimated. Reactions to caffeine differ depending on a person’s sensitivity, but is safe to say that the older you are, the greater its effect. Caffeine stays in the body long after we feel the initial boost in energy and improved concentration that it gives. Treat it with caution. About 99 per cent of the caffeine contained in a drink will enter your bloodstream. On the positive side, it can generate sensations of increased alertness and enhance performance in mental and physical tasks. On the negative side, it can create or exacerbate sensations of anxiety, depression, restlessness, headaches, flushes, tremors, heartburn and aggravate high blood pressure. It also has a profound effect on our ability to sleep, which is often the reason it is so popular in the first place.

Caffeine enters the blood stream quickly (in about five minutes) and its effects are felt for between 15 and 45 minutes. It then takes between three and seven hours for half of it to be filtered out of your blood stream. For most people, the remaining half is filtered out overnight, which is why addicts are often reaching for the coffee filters before they have even changed out of their pajamas. As well as your waking time, caffeine also effects your sleeping time. It suppresses feelings of sleepiness and pushes back the time you hit the pillow, in which case that last coffee or tea of your working day keeps you perky for much longer than you would often hope for. Remember that, as well as coffee and tea, caffeine is also found in cola drinks, chocolate, cocoa, energy drinks, and even some cold remedies and headache and painkillers. Make sure, if you do want to give up, that you don’t just end up reaching for it in other forms.

Life After Caffeine

If you believe that some of the symptoms caused by caffeine are affecting your quality of life, the good news is that caffeine leaves your system quickly. Detoxing from it might give you a nasty headache for a few days, with some irritability and nausea, but you should be able to cope. Increase your daily intake of water and fresh juices to help flush caffeine out, and deal with the temptation by making herbal tea instead; this means you won’t have to miss out on the sensation of a comforting warm drink as you work or relax. lf you would like to keep coffee as part of your daily life, give yourself a cut-off time of, say, noon to allow the caffeine adequate time to leave your system.

Substitute water for the coffee, tea and carbonated cola drinks in your diet – a sprig of mint or a little lemon or lime juice will make it less bland.

Nicotine

This is the largest preventable cause of death in our society, yet it still plays a huge part in many people’s lives. It is a major cause of cancer in the lungs and heart, heart disease and high blood pressure – the risks are manifold. Smokers might cite suppressed appetite (they tend to be an average of 5-10|b (2.2-4.5 kg) lighter than nonsmokers) and increased memory ability as bonuses, but the undisputed deterioration of their overall health is a high price to pay. Smokers might also note that the good sleep quality they lack thanks to the nicotine in their body could help them to maintain a good weight and memory recall without the health hazard. Unfortunately, the highly addictive nature of nicotine stops many people from acknowledging the risks. Like most drugs, the pleasant, calming sensation created after the initial intake can turn into a jittery, angst-ridden feeling if you don’t keep the levels in your body up.

Smokers are statistically more likely to drink more caffeine, which only compounds the side effect of destroying sleep quality. Smoking also affects blood sugar levels, which makes you irritable and prone to sugar cravings. As a stimulant, nicotine acts on the central nervous system and delays sleep as well as increasing the frequency of night-time wakings, which results in a light and less refreshing sleep. Anyone who lives with a heavy smoker and suffers from poor sleep may also be experiencing the effects of passive smoking on their systems. Although alcohol can often help you to fall asleep, it also makes you wake more frequently during the night.

Life After Nicotine

Giving up is hard, but the health benefits will more than outweigh the effort you put in. When inhaled, nicotine quickly stimulates the heart, brain, gastro-intestinal tract and adrenal glands, giving the buzz or peak in alertness that comes with a drag on a cigarette. As it is a brain stimulant, it can stop the onset of sleep, but also increase the number of night-time wakings and shorten the duration of sleep; and remember, if it is affecting your sleep, it will affect that of your partner and children, too, as they passively inhale your smoke. Initially, those giving up smoking will experience disturbed sleep from the nicotine withdrawal, but patches and supplements can help ease this transition. Once you are past this point, you will be rewarded with a much deeper and nourishing sleep, as will anyone else In your home.

Alcohol

A great deal of self-deception is at work when people use the term ‘nightcap’ to describe alcohol. Although, as a sedative, it helps you to fall to sleep by making you feel drowsy, it then proceeds to ruin the rest of your night.

Drinking is a hugely popular aid to relaxation, especially for those working long and strenuous hours. Those who drink on an empty stomach will feel the sensation quicker, as drinking with or after food can delay its effects for up to an hour and a half. How tired you are when you start drinking is also important. After five nights of partial sleep deprivation, three drinks will have the same effect on your body as six would have on a regular night.

lf you find the sedative effect more pronounced after drinking during the day, this is because it exaggerates the natural ebb and flow of your circadian rhythm. The energy lull you feel in the afternoon becomes more pronounced, whereas you are naturally more alert in the evening, so its drowsy effects are less dramatic.

We all know the general results of drinking, but its impact on sleep is often ignored. Even a small amount of alcohol can change the type of sleep quality we have. REM sleep and the length of sleep we have are reduced, with more wakings and shallow sleep, which results in an unrefreshing sleep. It also has a detrimental effect on sleep conditions, such as apnea and snoring, making both more pronounced. Alcohol is also a diuretic, which means it encourages you to urinate, which is never welcome when you are trying to sleep.

Life after Alcohol

The benefits of regularly drinking a small amount of alcohol, such as a glass of red wine with a meal, are well recognized – the wine contains antioxidant properties and plays a role in helping to reduce the risk of heart disease. lf drinking plays a larger part in your life, however, you must allow your liver at least four days off a week in order for it to recover and clear out the toxins. Nights off will also allow you to attain deeper, and more refreshing sleep, giving you the chance to clear the sleep deficit it inflicts.

You will also see the benefit to your skin as eye- bags and skin problems caused by drinking will clear. And don’t forget the essential glass of water between drinks; avoiding dehydration will stop you waking at 4 am, desperate for a glass of water, and then finding yourself unable to get back to sleep.

Improved skin tone, less visible bags beneath the eyes, increased energy levels and unbroken sleep are just some of the benefits that a break from alcohol can provide.

The highs and lows that go with sugar addiction or dependence can make you feel hyper and then exhausted, all within a matter of hours.

If you are looking for an osteopath or chiropractor, try asking your family doctor. You could also try this route for counseling and psychotherapy – and possibly even Alexander technique. If you want to find a reflexologist or a crystal therapist, however, you would probably be well advised to ask elsewhere. A personal recommendation is often the best way of finding a reliable practitioner. Local health-food shops are often a goldmine of information about complementary practitioners in the area, as are pharmacies.

Many have notice boards advertising various therapies but ask the staff as well, since many of the better known practitioners do not need to advertise. It is also worth looking at notice boards in supermarkets, libraries and leisure or sports centers. You can also try the local telephone directory under the therapy of your choice. Many practitioners now advertise their services in this way and you may find there is a natural health centre offering therapies in your area.

Another approach is to contact a self-help group. These groups, run by and for those suffering from a particular condition, vary hugely in size and sophistication, from local groups with a handful of members to national organizations with expertly staffed advice lines. Many publish regular newsletters with the latest information about therapies and keep lists of recommended practitioners. They are often listed in the telephone directory but, if not, your local library is an excellent place to start looking for a suitable therapist.

On a national scale, you can often obtain a list of practitioners in any particular therapy from its umbrella organization. As complementary medicine be medicine becomes more established, there is an increasing number of professional and umbrella organizations that represent practitioners of different therapies.

Some of these are professional bodies in the true sense in that they lay down the qualifications needed by members and take an active role in training and ongoing education. Others are simply associations which any practitioner in that field is entitled to join and are really little more than a list of members’ names and addresses. It is worth checking when you contact a particular organization which of these two categories it falls into. If it is the former, then you can be fatly confident that its members will all be properly qualified.

Once you have found a suitable practitioner your first visit will give you a pretty good idea about whether he or she is reliable and whether you wish to carry on with the therapy. Trust your instincts here. The practitioner should give you a feeling of confidence. It is important to remember that the success of many complementary therapies depends, to a large extent, on a nurturing relationship between healer and the person being healed. You are in charge and if you do not feel at ease with the practitioner or think that you may not get along with him or her, do not worry about saying so and leaving.

For manipulative therapies, the practitioner’s touch should be firm and professional, yet sensitive and gentle at all times. No practitioner should ever touch you in an intimate area without first asking permission and explaining exactly why it is necessary. If you are uneasy about this, ask to have a friend present during the session. No bona fide practitioner will object – if they do, find another therapist.

No genuine practitioner will ask for payment in advance unless in exceptional circumstances, perhaps for special tests or medicines. If this is the case ask the practitioner to explain exactly what the money is for and if you are not happy with the explanation, refuse to pay and find another therapist.

Practitioner Checklist

• Ensure that your therapist has taken an accredited course of training.
• Ask to be put in touch with satisfied clients.
• Check with your doctor before starting any unorthodox therapy.
• Check your therapist’s qualifications, training and experience with their governing body, if there is one.
• Check whether your therapist is happy to work with your doctor, and whether treatment is covered under health insurance schemes.
• Insist on knowing in advance how many sessions of treatment you are likely to need, and how much this is likely to cost.
• Ask precisely how the treatment offered is likely to benefit you.
• Always beware of any hard-sell methods or attempts to make you buy expensive extras, such as supplements, books and videos.
• Never book sessions with any practitioner who claims to be able to cure your condition for ever.

In most countries, state-registered, or licensed, physiotherapists are trained to degree level and work in hospitals, community clinics, industry, sports organizations and clubs and in private practice. Family doctors can refer people directly to a physiotherapist, but most are sent for this form of therapy by their hospital consultant. As the demand for complementary medicine grows, some physiotherapists are broadening their skills and learning therapies such as acupuncture and aromatherapy.

Regardless of whether or not a physiotherapist offers such therapies, there is a fundamental similarity between physiotherapy and complementary medicine – the patient takes an active role in the healing process.

Seeing a physiotherapist

Physiotherapists are experts in their own field and although your doctor will have sent your medical notes, the results of any tests that have been performed and a diagnosis, he or she will leave the physiotherapist to decide what sort of treatment is the best for your condition.

At your first visit, the physiotherapist will spend a considerable amount of time compiling a detailed history of your symptoms and general health and will give you a thorough physical examination. Treatment is tailored to your individual condition and you will probably be taught specific exercises that you must undertake at home on a daily basis in between sessions. The physiotherapist will probably also give you detailed advice on posture, movement, lifting and carrying, as well as general lifestyle and exercise.

Physiotherapists use a variety of techniques depending on where they trained and their own personal preferences, but all fall into the following broad categories.

Massage

Various forms of massage are used, both as therapy in their own right and as a warm-up procedure to relax mind and body and relieve pain before treatment such as mobilization. Various massage techniques may be used.

Mobilization

Mobilization techniques are used to gradually increase the movement in stiff and painful joints in the spine and elsewhere. Gentle rhythmic movement is used to stretch the ligaments and move a joint or groups of joints near to the limits of their normal range. During mobilization you have a great deal of control and if the movement becomes painful, you can usually stop it by simply tensing your muscles.

Mobilization techniques are graded depending on how much force is exerted by the physiotherapist. The most forceful involves a deliberate thrust to push the joint or joints beyond the point at which movement stops in normal day-to-day activities. However, even in this technique the joint is never moved further than it can naturally go.

Movement

Various exercises that you perform with the help of the physiotherapist and which are designed to strengthen muscles around joints are described as movement techniques. In some exercises, known as assisted movement, you work the muscles with the help of the physiotherapist and in others, known as resisted movement, the therapist pushes against you as you exercise.

Some simple exercises you can do at home are given at any physiotherapist.

Traction

Traction can be as low-tech or high-tech as you like. At the do-it-yourself level, many people have found at least temporary relief from their back pain by hanging by their arms from the top of a door. At the other end of the scale there are various sorts of specialized equipment that you can use to apply traction while you lie horizontally or that allow you to hang upside down by your feet. Other equipment can apply traction specifically to the neck. The more advanced techniques should only be done under the supervision of your physiotherapist.

Ultrasound

This is widely used by physiotherapists to treat injuries to muscles, tendons and ligaments. Ultrasound can relieve pain by reducing muscular spasm and areas of swelling. It uses ultra-high frequency sound waves, inaudible to the human ear, which penetrate the skin harmlessly. The sound waves are emitted by a device that looks like a microphone and is passed slowly over your back. The procedure is completely painless.

Electrical therapy

Electrical devices can relieve back pain, but the benefits appear to be generally short-lived. The principle behind this therapy is that applying tiny amounts of electric current to areas around the pain site stimulates nerve endings in the skin and signals from these override the pain messages being sent to the brain.

Exercising in water can have excellent results for back-pain sufferers. Warm water eases pain and takes the weight off aching joints, making it easier to exercise.

Whether it’s for pleasure or business, air travel is now common for many of us. While it may be a quick and convenient mode of travel, it also has its drawbacks. Jet lag, that awful ‘travel hangover’ that comes from skipping time zones, can wreak havoc with our body clocks and sleep patterns. Our bodies are designed to adjust to seasonal time changes, but not at the speed required when we travel across the world by airplane. The feelings of disorientation, nausea, headaches and insomnia are all a result of the disparity between the external indicators in our new destination conflicting with our body’s expectation of where we are in our circadian rhythm cycle.

The reason we suffer more when travelling on an eastward flight is because the human biological clock lengthens its cycle, so that we can cope better with a longer day. When we travel east our day shortens and we lose time, making our sleep time less. Your body will still want to rest and you end up struggling not to sleep in the afternoon, when you should be at a meeting or, more importantly, out in the sun enjoying yourself. It has been estimated that the body adapts one hour a day when flying eastward, and one and a half on westward journeys. This is because our natural biological clock has a tendency to lengthen the day, so finds it easier to adjust to a longer day, which is what happens when we fly west (we ‘gain’ extra time). Travelling east, we ‘lose’ time, making our bedtime come too early (hence all that lying about feeling frustrated in our hotel room). So if you travel four hours east, it will take six days for you to feel fully recovered; travel six hours west and it only will take four.

Tips for Enjoying a Restful Flight

What with jet lag, the noise, sleeping in the company of sometimes hundreds of strangers, children crying, cramped conditions, poor air quality, re-heated food and the general chaos and stress of the airport, there is very little to make you have a restful and refreshing journey.

Try some of the techniques listed below for making your recovery time shorter.

• As soon as you got on the flight, make sure you change your watch to the new time and act accordingly – if its 3 am at your destination, try to sleep.
• Don’t wake up for the airline meals. Take your own snacks to eat at the right time, rather than just eating at a time that is convenient for the airline – more often than not, you won’t be missing much!
• Eat well the day before the flight. Eat lots of fresh fruit, vegetables and lean protein so that your body is running at an optimum level to handle the stress.
• lf you are travelling a long way, make changes in the week before you fly. Get up an hour later/earlier to adjust to the new time.
• Keep drinking water to help your body deal with the changes. Needless to say, dehydrating substances such as tea, coffee and alcohol won’t help.
• Get out and about in daylight when you arrive. Lurking in the hotel room will only prolong the jet lag.
• Earplugs, eye masks and the reading light can help you make your own sun and moon. Use them to control your sense of the time of day.
• Do exercises, such as flexing and pointing your toes, stretching your arms above your head and walking around the plane, to help relieve muscle cramp and avoid Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT).
• Natural sleep preparations can help if you need to sleep on the plane but also use carbohydrates to help you reach a soporific state.
• Vitamin B complex can help your body to cope with the strain of flying. Take it when you don’t want to sleep, as it can be stimulating to the brain.
• When you arrive, use a Power nap (no more than 90 minutes) to refresh your brain, and then get on with the day, no matter how much your body pleads for bed.

The Adrenaline Rush

Every time we find ourselves faced with a new challenge, our body activates the ‘fight or flight response’. The intensity of this reaction can depend on the type of situation we are in. The part of the autonomic nervous system that kicks into action is called the ‘sympathetic’ branch. It increases our rate of breathing, heartbeat, perspiration and production of the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline and sends blood to muscles while shutting down our digestive system. We find ourselves with a sharpened mental awareness and a surge of physical energy and tension – this is what helps us to act quickly or meet that deadline. Once things have calmed down again, the ‘parasympathetic’ branch comes into play. This slows down all the mechanisms that speeded up and gets our digestion running again. Unfortunately, some people can start to rely on this ‘rush’ in order to get things done. This can have disastrous effects on long-term health and cause fatigue and exhaustion. Balancing the two systems is thus essential to our emotional and physical wellbeing. Repeatedly pushing ourselves past our limits will lead to burnout, a condition that will take far more than a few nights of extra rest to sort out.

Acknowledging our dependence upon these highs and the importance of taking control of our own state of mind is the first step to restoring a balance. Next, we need to make time to wind down through relaxation, visualization, meditation and breathing techniques, all of which can help us to drift off into a more refreshing sleep. We often assume that all our worries are valid rather than acknowledging that sometimes we may simply fall into negative patterns of thinking. Relaxing effectively is a learnt pattern of behavior; in just the same way as negative thinking is, so why not choose the more pleasurable option?

Preparing for the effects of jet lag and taking immediate steps upon arrival can greatly reduce stress on the body and help you adjust quickly to the new time zone.

Mastering relaxation techniques can have powerful physical and emotional impacts. lf you find your concentration wandering to your ‘to do’ lists, start your recovery programme with an aromatherapy massage and let someone else take over the technical side. Soon you will see the relaxing effects that such a practice can exert.

New Kid on the Block

A baby in the house is a joyous thing, but it can also have a profound impact on the sleep quality of everyone else. Understanding the sleep process and patterns of your growing child can help in this situation, but ultimately the best thing to remember is that each phase is just that, a phase. As difficult as it is to do, and sometimes it will not be practical or possible, try to sleep when your baby sleeps in the first few months. This will help refresh you and prevent exhaustion.

All parents can testify to the chaos a new family member can inflict on your sleep patterns. Knowing what to expect, however, can help you to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

1-2 months

Newborns can sleep between 10% and 18 hours a day and, as any new parent will tell you, at irregular hours. Exposing them to light and noise during the day can encourage them to sleep more at night. The National Sleep Foundation of America suggests putting the baby in the cot (crib) when he/she is drowsy, not asleep, with their face and head clear of blankets and other soft items.

3-11 months

When infants are put to bed drowsy but not completely asleep, they are more likely to become ‘self-soothers’, which enables them to fall asleep independently at bedtime and send themselves back to sleep if they wake during the night. After six months, infants may experience separation anxiety, but by this time many will sleep through the night, for about 9-1 2 hours with naps during the day.

1-3 years

The standard sleep time at this age is 12-14 hours, with one long nap during the day of between one and three hours. Nightmares, the ability to get out of bed and separation anxiety can all make sleep difficult. A security blanket or stuffed toy should help, as will firm enforcement of the sleep ritual.

3-5 years

Children will sleep between 1’1 and 13 hours a night by this age, although falling asleep and waking is common. Sleepwalking and sleep terrors may peak at this time. Maintaining a sleep schedule that ends in a cool, dark room should help.

5-12 years

Daytime naps should end about this time. Children aged five to 12 need l0-l t hours of sleep, but there are now increasing demands on their waking time from school and social schedules. Watching TV close to bedtime has been associated with bedtime resistance, difficulty falling asleep and sleeping fewer hours. Make sure they don’t have a TV in their bedroom, so that you can monitor how much they watch.

SERIOUS SLEEP PROBLEMS

Sometimes lifestyle stresses and worries are only a part of the issue when someone can’t sleep’. A significant number of sleep difficulties are caused by specific sleep disorders; according to the British Association of Counseling and Psychotherapy it is estimated that 25 per cent of the UK population suffer from some form of sleep disorder and it is believed that many more of these conditions remain untreated and undiagnosed.

TO SLEEP, PERCHANCE TO DREAM

In our time-pressured culture, sleep is often seen as a nuisance that gets in the way of more enjoyable or essential past times. This may be work, but it is also often drinking, dancing and generally having fun. A good, rewarding sleep, however, can bring a great deal of pleasure in its own right.

Daytime fatigue due to sleepless nights need not be endured. Seeking out help will identify if you have a specific sleep disorder that can be treated.

Sleep can impact positively on your personal relationships, making you relaxed and happy and helping you deal with stress by making you more emotionally prepared to cope with the strains of everyday living. This will help you to enjoy more of the life around you by keeping you sharp, alert and engaged. Your levels of creativity and mental agility are also fine-tuned by sleep, as is your immune system, which is boosted by sleep, keeps infection at bay and improves your resistance to disease. Don’t forget that lovely warm feeling you get from waking from a restful night’s slumber to a bright summer’s morning, full of energy and ready to make the most of what the day has to offer.

The way we sleep changes constantly, with the amount we need gradually decreasing throughout our lives. For women, sleep patterns change throughout the month, the best sleep occurring immediately after menstruating and the worst in the run up to it. Pregnant women also experience a change in sleep patterns. They have more REM sleep and may find it hard to get comfortable or need to urinate in the night. Even women taking the oral contraceptive pill will have more shallow sleep than a woman using another form of contraceptive. Commuting, long hours and demanding schedules can make us feel that we have no choice but to cut back on unproductive sleeping hours.

Work-Life Balance

In the current work culture, where we are expected to show our commitment through long hours and demanding schedules, it is easy to feel that we have no choice but to fall into line at the expense of our personal lives. But next time you decide to work into the small hours, consider the fact that you are less able to think laterally and creatively when you are tired. So those extra hours trying to come up with an idea, when your body is sagging and your mind wandering, would really be better spent sleeping. Some scientists even believe that sleeping helps to filter out all the useless information of the day and helps us to process the more important stuff; a theory that might be supported by anyone waking up with the solution to a nagging problem they couldn’t resolve the day before. The lack of interest and motivation that results from sleep deprivation has led to some US companies encouraging executives to take naps during the day to refresh themselves, and make them more focused. This policy is certain to see results, as a nap can instantly sharpen your powers of concentration.

Shift Work

Working shift hours is the result of our demand for a 24-hour society. Those caring for an elderly or sick friend or relative may experience similar sleep patterns to those doing shift work. The very existence of the ‘darkness’ hormone melatonin, which is produced at night to tell us to go to bed, is a clear sign that we are not nocturnal creatures. People who work shifts for a number of years are more likely to suffer from depression, heart disease and certain cancers, such as breast cancer in women. According to family physician and author Dr Paul Caldwell, switching from one shift to another is the most disruptive form of shift work; sticking to the same shift is much easier to cope with. The usual problems that flow from sleep deprivation, such as impaired personal relationships, becoming increasingly accident-prone and suffering from a suppressed immune system, all apply here; even though you are virtuously working away, the body makes no distinction. There are, however, some ways to make shift work more bearable.

Shift workers, or those catching a flight that will take them into a radically different time zone, can seriously benefit from a pre-emptive nap, which will help them cope with the changes and make them more alert and effective. Even if you still feel just as tired, research has shown that performance and adaptability is improved by a nap. For additional tips, please see our website for additional information on jet lag.

Tips for Surviving Shift Work

When you are working, make sure the light is bright, and when you are meant to be sleeping, make sure the room is dark

Do not wait until the night you start your shift to change your sleeping patterns. Try to go to beda little later each night in order to anticipate the change it will make to your wake-sleep patterns.

Try to get power naps, especially if your job involves making important decisions. Even a 15-minute nap can sharpen your decision-making process.

Make nutrition central to your wellbeing. Shift workers often resort to convenience food and alcohol to help them to wind down. Your body will cope better if you have nourishing meals.

Make sure your partner or friends understand the toll on your system and emotions. It will help keep your relationship on track.

Stress

Everyone has some stress in their life. At best, it can motivate us to achieve our goals and respond to constantly changing demands; in its worst form it can give us horrible symptoms such as anxiety, depression, guilt, isolation, back pain, insomnia and headaches. Learning to manage our reaction to stress is essential to achieving a good nights sleep. In terms of feeling good, American women identify getting a good night’s sleep as their top priority for personal wellness. The US Better Sleep Council discovered that 27 per cent believe that sleep is more important to wellness than eating a balanced diet (24 per cent) and exercising for 30 minutes a day (19 per cent). However, while 45 per cent of women say they feel most energized after a good night’s sleep, only 16 per cent say that they are likely to sleep more to improve their overall wellness. Most people still leave sleep at the bottom of their priority list.

The main problem with stress is that it demands quick solutions. We tend to use quick fixes, such as caffeine, chocolate and processed snacks and meals, to make us feel instantly better so that we can get on top of the demands made of us. Finding time to buy nourishing fresh food or to do calming exercises can often seem totally implausible, but finding time to do them is vital i{ we are to arrive at a place where we can enjoy challenges and adapt to them, rather than feel desperate.

The Day To Day Effects of stress

The effects of poorly managed stress on the mind and body are wide ranging. The general, most noticeable symptoms are listed below.

The Symptoms of Stress

• Muscular tension, especially in the jaw, neck and shoulders
• Insomnia
• Poor concentration
• Infections, such as colds
• Lack of appetite
• Loss of sex drive
• Panic attacks
• Depression
• Low self-confidence
• Inability to make decisions
• Mood swings
• Inability to change thought patterns
• Digestion problems, such as constipation, diarrhea
• Anxiety
• Headaches, dizziness or light-headedness
• Hyperventilation
• Palpitations
• Heartburn
• Tingling sensations on the skin
• Exacerbation of skin complaints, such as psoriasis, eczema and acne.

Learning to set boundaries when faced with a seemingly endless amount of work will greatly relieve the effects that stress has on sleep quality.

Clocked Off Time

When our body clock works well, we feel sleepy when it is dark and ready to take on the day when there is daylight. However, this isn’t always the case, and there are certain types of insomnia that are related directly to our circadian rhythm. Those who find themselves fighting to keep their eyes awake as soon as dinner is over may be suffering from advanced sleep phase syndrome (ASPS). This is not merely a ‘larks’ tendency to go to bed early so they can enjoy their preferred 6 am start; it often has sufferers fighting a ridiculously early bedtime, as they know that they will find themselves wide awake, having had their full quota of eight hours, at2 am.

Their sleep is often refreshing, but simply out of step with the rest of their lives (and those around them). Resetting the circadian rhythm may be necessary using light therapy and ‘chronotherapy’, which moves the bedtime back gradually until they return to their normal pattern. This can also be helpful when tackling jet lag (by gradually adapting your bedtime to the new destination before you begin your journey).

The opposite syndrome is delayed sleep phase syndrome (DSPS). This is defined as the inability to fall asleep within two hours of our desired sleep time. It can often be exacerbated by the anxiety caused by knowing that one has to rise early for work. Both can be accompanied by depression as a result of the frustration and isolation they can cause. Light therapy and chronotherapy are again used to try to reset the body clock, and melatonin is also a good tool for encouraging the onset of sleep.

Another common form of insomnia is parasomnias, which are disorders that disrupt sleep. The sufferer may fall asleep easily, only to wake fitfully as the night goes on. Partial awakening at night is part of the general sleep experience, but these disorders leave the sleeper feeling disturbed and worn out. They can include teeth grinding (bruxism), night terrors (wakening from a nightmare state screaming), bedwetting, sleep talking and somnambulism (movement while asleep, which also includes sleepwalking). Some are fairly harmless, and most of us experience them at some point, but all these conditions, if causing serious disruption, can be eased by a medical professional. For some it is as simple as a mouth guard from the dentist to prevent jaw pain from teeth grinding, or positive visualization techniques performed while awake to ‘re-plot’ bad dreams; so suffering in silence is not necessary.

Snoring

The most common intrinsic (extrinsic to your partner) complaint, but by no means the less disruptive, is snoring. Anyone who lives with a snorer can tell you how draining and frustrating this can be. Some people snore so loudly that they even wake themselves up. Snoring affects around 3.5 million people in Britain, according to the British Snoring and Sleep Apnea Association, and it is mostly men who snore. Men have thinner air pipes than women, but both lose muscle tone as they age, which makes us more susceptible to snoring as we get older. The good news is that 99 per cent of snoring cases can be treated.

A dysfunction in the natural body clock can mean sufferers get out of step with the rest of the world, forcing them to retire to bed very early or very late.

Snoring occurs when the soft palate tissue at the back of the throat relaxes too much and obstructs the entrance to the throat. As air tries to pass through, the soft palate vibrates and produces the snoring sound. Alcohol can aggravate the symptoms as it is a muscle relaxant (sleeping pills can have the same effect). Another factor that can make snoring worse is excess body weight. People with a collar size of more than 42 cm (16% inches) are more likely to snore because of the extra weight on their throat muscles. Snoring can also be caused by nasal congestion; avoiding dehydrating drinks like coffee, tea and alcohol, using a humidifier or putting eucalyptus oil on your pillow can help clear the passageways.

For most snorers, sleeping on the back exacerbates the problem, as the tongue falls backwards into the throat, which can narrow the airway and partly block airflow. Try sleeping on your side. If this does not work, pillows designed to help prevent snoring, losing weight to reduce pressure on airways, and even a mandibular device, which you wear like a mouth guard at night to bring the lower jaw forward and open up the airway at the back, can all help.

Sleep Apnea

Apnea is caused by the same muscles that cause snoring, but it is more dangerous because it alters normal breathing patterns. While asleep, sufferers may stop breathing for between 10 and 25 seconds at a time. This depletes the bloodstream and deprives the brain of vital oxygen supplies, which makes it suddenly, send out an emergency signal, telling the person to wake up and take in a big gulp of air. In a single night sufferers may experience up to 350 apnea events and usually find themselves waking up sweaty, with a dry mouth and a headache. Sleep apnea can be a potentially life threatening condition, associated with strokes, heart attacks and high blood pressure, and therefore requires medical attention.

Insomnia can be infectious; sharing a bed with someone who suffers from snoring or sleep apnea can ruin the sleep quality of both partners.

A sleep test called polysomnography is usually carried out to diagnose sleep apnea. Mild cases can be effectively treated through lifestyle changes – losing weight, cutting down on alcohol or sleeping on your side, for example. More severe cases, which have been cited in some heart and respiratory failure fatalities, demand medical intervention, such as observation in a sleep clinic, or the prescription of a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device, which supports your breathing at night.

Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS)

This condition is mainly associated with old age but it can strike at any time. RLS causes a tingling, itching or burning sensation and unexplained aches and pains in the lower limbs. The problem ranges from being simply uncomfortable to painful. Sleep is disturbed because people often have a strong urge to move the legs to relieve the discomfort by stretching, rubbing the legs or getting up and pacing around. It may be inherited, but hormonal changes during pregnancy may also worsen these symptoms. Caffeine and alcohol aggravate the sensations, so should be avoided. Massaging the legs, using a hot or cold pack, leg stretches, magnesium and iron supplements, and a warm bath can all help ease the symptoms.

A similar disorder that impairs sleep, periodic limb movement in sleep (PLMS ) is characterized by involuntary leg twitching or jerking movements during sleep that typically occur every 10 to 60 seconds, sometimes throughout the night.

Many people suffer from a lack of daylight in the winter months, which increases their tendency to sleep for longer hours and to feel depressed.

Narcolepsy

Most people think that a narcoleptic suffers from a condition that makes them fall asleep at random intervals, but narcolepsy can describe cataplectic attacks where people have physical symptoms of sudden sleep, such as collapsing, but are actually wide awake. An attack is often brought on by intense emotions, such as anger or sexual arousal. One person in a thousand suffers from narcolepsy and there are various causes – it can be a result of a head injury, a virus or an autoimmune disease. It can be accompanied by headaches, lethargy and poor concentration and, although hard to diagnose, it requires medical attention to find techniques that will help the sufferer and their loved ones to cope better.

A similar condition is known as hypersomnia, which is long-term excessive daytime tiredness with no clear cause. It is like narcolepsy but sufferers go into long phases of deep sleep, which can last up to two hours at a time. Occasional patches of hypersomnia can happen several times a day with periods without problems in between. Excessive tiredness can also happen after periods of intense stress on the body or emotions; this is known as post-traumatic tiredness.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)

As the winter nights begin to draw in, many people find themselves sleeping longer, eating more and generally feeling low and lacking in motivation. Many of us may recognize these symptoms, as it is a common complaint, although the extent of the problem can vary between every sufferer. Treatment is usually in the form of light therapy, exposing the patient to a light source of about 2,500 lux (lux is the measurement of light – average room lighting is about 250-500 lux). The light mimics the effect of the sun, which is thought to control the production of melatonin – one theory is that darkness means more production of melatonin, which makes us lethargic and depressed. The best way to control this ourselves is to make the most of any available light by taking a daily walk outside. Also make sure that your curtains and blinds are wide open when the sun is out. Use brighter, daylight bulbs in your home to kickstart your daily cycle and get a ‘sunlight’ alarm clock to help your body prepare for the day. Also consider changing your annual holiday; two weeks in the sun in winter could perk you up dramatically.

Anxiety

Ranging from a nervous feeling when awaiting news to a full-blown, physical panic attack, anxiety can be terribly debilitating. It may have a reasonable cause, such as financial or personal uncertainties, but the symptoms may persist long after the initial trigger has been resolved – and this is known as ‘free-floating anxiety’. It may even be that an unpleasant sleep association has developed, making the process of trying to get some much-needed – and healing – rest traumatic, and resulting in sleepless nights, which makes things seem even more unbearable and the chances of recovering without help less likely.

The Hamilton Anxiety Scale

If you have anxiety disorder, your doctor may use a special list of questions or statements to measure your symptoms. A popular one is the Hamilton Anxiety Scale. This scale lists 14 types of symptoms you and your doctor rate each symptom on a scale from zero (meaning you don’t have that symptom) to four (meaning you have it very badly). The total score can range from zero to 56. A total score of 18 or more means you should seek treatment for an anxiety disorder.

• Anxiety, including worry insecurity, irritability, fear, dread and panic.
• Tension, including nervousness, muscle tension and trembling.
• Fears, such as fear of enclosed spaces or fear of open spaces, and avoidance of these situations.
• Lack of sleep or poor sleep.
• Poor concentration or difficulty making decisions.
• Depression, including sadness, gloom and hopelessness.
• Muscle pain or weakness.
• Trouble hearing, poor vision or unusual sensations on your skin (such as prickling).
• Symptoms affecting your heart, such as palpitations (you feel your heart beating faster than normal) or feeling faint.
• Trouble breathing.
• Constipation, diarrhea, nausea or other problems with your digestive system.
• Needing to urinate too often; abnormal periods.
• Nervous symptoms, such as sweating, dizziness or a dry mouth.
• Feeling anxious, nervous or agitated while talking to your doctor.

As with depression, which is closely related and often accompanies anxiety, talking to a counselor, practitioner or even a friend will help relieve the symptoms and speed the recovery process.

Depression

Sleep disorders and depression are frequent bedfellows. It can take many forms, such as being unable to fall asleep, waking frequently in the night or incredibly early or sleeping a disproportionate amount of time. Other symptoms may include a sense of hopelessness, weight loss, withdrawal from social interaction, fatigue, feelings of guilt, low libido, negative thought patterns, indecision and lack of focus. Some sufferers also have suicidal thoughts. It can vary in its intensity and duration and affects twice as many men as women.

Depression is treatable, so if the insomnia is a direct result of the illness, it can also disappear as soon as the treatment becomes effective. One of the main problems with depression is persuading sufferers that their feelings of shame regarding their situation are part of the condition and that, with treatment, they can begin to enjoy life again.

You may find yourself much more irritable and snappy with anyone who has the misfortune to cross your path. Added to this, you may also feel a sensation of light-headedness and your coordination is impaired – this is when you stub your toe or spill your coffee! Although a poor night’s sleep makes everyone feel similarly dreadful, the actual reasons for sleep problems can be numerous and varied.

Other changes in mood, such as sadness and lack of emotional resilience, become apparent. You may become emotionally detached and, slowly, all your communication, social and memory skills start to deteriorate. Overtired people lose their ability to make clear decisions and, as a result, often exhibit poor judgement by making snap decisions. Some of the biggest manmade disasters of the last century were believed to be a result of human fatigue – the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident; the capsizing of the passenger car ferry Herald of Free Enterprise in the Belgian port of Zeebrugge; and the 1997 Korean Air flight 801, which crashed killing 228 people. Paranoia, aggression and apathy may also make an appearance, which can obviously have serious effects on personal relationships.

Excessive sleep deprivation has quite radical effects on the body. Experiments have shown that animals will eventually die if they are kept constantly awake, so it can be assumed that it would have a similar effect on humans. From sleep deprivation experiments conducted on human beings, we know that the body will begin to exhibit the following range of symptoms, to some degree, after only a few days without sleep:

• Dry, itchy eyes
• lncreased appetite
• Bad skin
• lmpaired vision
• Chapped lips
• lncreased pain sensitivity
• Drop in body temperature
• Disturbed breathing patterns.

You can liken the effects of being tired to being drunk. Going without sleep for only 21 hours is the equivalent to having 0.8 per cent alcohol in your system, which is over the legal limit to drive in many countries. As well as the physical similarities to being drunk, such as swaying and bumping into things, when you are tired you may also lose your social inhibitions, act overconfident or behave badly without any embarrassment, and be unable to communicate properly, including losing interest in sentences halfway through. Strangely, you may also experience an increase in libido, although no one knows quite why.

Our 24-hour culture offers us endless temptations to cut back on our sleeping hours, and few good reasons to have an early night.

TYPES AND CAUSES OF INSOMNIA

Although most people associate the term insomnia with endless nights lying awake staring into the gloom, waiting to drop off, it is actually a catch-all term used to describe a wide variety of symptoms with varying degrees of severity and covering problems such as staying asleep or waking up too early in the morning. Each of these disorders requires a different type of treatment, and determining whether or not you are suffering from primary or secondary insomnia is the first step to receiving the appropriate one.

Alcohol is one of several stimulants that gives us an initial energy boost, but that ultimately affects our ability to get a good-quality night’s sleep.

Primary insomnia is classified as disturbance to sleep patterns lasting at least a month and has no obvious physical or medical cause. Secondary insomnia is a side effect of a separate complaint, such as asthma (which can worsen at night, causing sleeplessness) or depression.

Causes for the insomnia are classified as intrinsic (a condition within the body, such as sleep apnoea, narcolepsy or Restless Leg Syndrome) or extrinsic (such as alcohol-disturbed sleep, a noisy sleeping environment or an emotional complaint, such as stress or grief). And the length is also key in deciding how serious your problem is: transient insomnia is a disturbance in sleeping patterns that lasts for a few nights, brought on by factors such as jet lag, excitement, stress, illness or a change in sleep schedule.  Intermittent insomnia persists for about two to three weeks, and can be caused by a job change, serious illness or financial problems. Chronic insomnia lasts longer than a few weeks and seems to show no signs of abating naturally; perhaps the cause is unclear.

When trying to treat insomnia, you need first to understand which of these categories your symptoms fall into; this will then help you to find the key to restoring restful sleep. A good way to work out the cause of your poor sleep is to keep a sleep diary, to help pinpoint any recurring themes. lf you can track a pattern, such as deadlines and late dinners directly affecting your ability to drop off, you can start by eliminating them, or managing them differently; in some cases, simply moving the TV out of the bedroom can have startlingly effective results.

However, self-help measures may not bring you any real relief. It may be that you are suffering from a condition called psychophysiological insomnia, which describes ‘learnt’ insomnia. A period of sleeplessness may have been triggered by grief or stress, and can persist long after the negative event has been dealt with. Or the sleeper can have become anxious about sleeping well, making it a source of stress and stimulus in itself.

Idiopathic insomnia describes a life-long sleeplessness that is usually attributed to an abnormality in the neurological or neurochemical control of the sleep-wake cycle, and usually makes itself known from childhood. There is also sleep state misperception, where a patient imagines they have slept much less than they actually have, but this can still leave them feeling dreadful and distressed.

Even if you need to approach a healthcare practitioner to address the problem, the diary will be invaluable in finding a treatment to fulfill your specific needs. It will also help ease the feelings of helplessness and frustration that so often accompany insomnia.

SALICYLATES

Although aspirin is now manufactured, it was originally extracted from willow trees. Many other plants, including those that we eat as food, contain very similar substances, known as Sali-cylates. In susceptible people, these substances can cause urticaria, rhinitis and nasal polyps, and asthma.

To test your reaction to salicylates, exclude foods high in salicylates (see box) for two weeks, and avoid aspirin and related nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medicines (check with your doctor if these are prescribed). After the two weeks, eat generous portions of foods high in salicylates, and monitor your symptoms. These may take a few days to develop, as the effect is cumulative. lf symptoms recur or worsen, you will probably be able to control them by limiting your intake of the listed foods. If not, consult a dietitian.

Foods that are low in salicylates can be eaten freely at any time. These include:

• All kinds of meat and fish
• Milk, cheese and eggs
• Wheat, rye, barley and rice
• Fruit : banana, peeled pear, lemon, pomegranate, papaya, passion fruit, mango
• Vegetable : cabbage, Brussels sprouts, bean sprouts, celery, leeks, lettuce, peas, peeled potatoes
• Alcoholic drinks : gin and vodka
• Carob, cocoa, cashew nuts

HIGH-SALICYLATE FOODS

Herbs and spices: dill, tarragon, rosemary, sage, thyme, oregano, mixed herbs, aniseed, cayenne, celery powder, cinnamon, curry Powder, Chinese five spices, mace, mustard, turmeric, allspice, bayleaf, chili, cloves, ginger, mint, nutmeg, black pepper, Pickles.

Fruit and nuts: raisins, prunes, sharp apples, berries, citrus fruits, currants and other dried fruits, figs, guavas, grapes, kiwis, Pineapples, almonds, pistachios, macadamias, Pine nuts

Vegetables: broccoli, endive, gherkins, mushrooms, bell Peppers, radishes, watercress.

Other: honey, licorice, Peppermint, chewing gum, tea, rum, Port, Benedictine, Tia Maria, Drambuie

Salicylates are also present in: toothpaste, antiseptic lozenges and mouthwashes, painkillers, cold cures, and cosmetics. Your Pharmacist will be able to guide you. If you are sensitive to aspirin, you should inform your dentist as well as your doctor, as dentists sometimes use aspirin wicks.

HISTAMINE AND RELATED SUBSTANCES

In one type of allergic reaction, histamine is released from the mast cells in the body. Similar symptoms can be produced when you eat foods that either contain histamine (fermented cheeses, sausages, canned fish, sauerkraut, and spinach) or cause it to be released in the body (egg white, shellfish, tomato, chocolate, pork, pineapple, strawberry, papaya, and alcohol). This is often known as a “false food allergy.” Susceptibility to false food allergy appears to be increased in people who are deficient in magnesium.

Avoiding these foods may control your symptoms, which may include:

• A flare-up of eczema, or urticaria
• Hot flashes
• Angioedema
• Thirst, nausea, and diarrhea
• Migraine

Other foods contain similar substances, chemically known as amines. These can cause migraine headaches because they cause blood vessels to dilate. The foods concerned include chocolate, cheese, fermented foods such as alcohol, yeast extract, pickled herrings, bananas, fava beans, liver, and some sausages.

LECTINS

Lectins are substances present in a number of foods, especially dried beans. They can cause abdominal pain, diarrhea, and vomiting, but this is a toxic reaction, not an allergy. Fortunately, lectins are destroyed when the beans are soaked for several hours and then boiled vigorously in an open pan for 10 minutes before being cooked slowly until soft.

CAFFEINE

Caffeine should be regarded as a drug which can cause a number of symptoms that can be confused with allergic reactions including:

• lnsomnia, anxiety, tremor, irritability, palpitations, sweats, restless legs
• Lethargy, drowsiness, depression
• Abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting
• A runny nose

Caffeine can be addictive, and sudden withdrawal causes symptoms such as craving, headaches, nausea, and drowsiness. It is best to allow yourself a couple of weeks to withdraw from caffeine gradually. For a list of foods that contain caffeine.

Antibiotics are one of the most widely used and prescribed medications in Western medicine. There are antibiotics that are bactericidal which works in eliminating bacteria. Other variants of antibiotics work to stop the multiplication of bacteria or are termed as bacteriostatic. Each different kind of antibiotic impacts various bacteria in several ways. For instance, an antibiotic may conquer the capacity of bacteria to transform glucose to energy, or its capacity to build the cell wall. When this occurs, the bacterium expires instead of multiplying.

There are antibiotics that can be employed to address an expanded range of conditions which are referred as the broad spectrum antibiotics. Others are just efficient in fight some kinds of bacteria and are termed as narrow spectrum antibiotics.

Drawbacks of Antibiotics

Antibiotics can indeed save human life and are efficient in the treatment of illnesses that roots from bacterial infections. But like most drugs, they possess the possibility to bring undesirable drawbacks or side effects. Most of these side effects are mild, though they can lead to complications and bring a miserable way of living.

Generally speaking, antibiotics rarely bring hazardous side effects. The most typical side effects brought by antibiotics are nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Digestive and vaginal tract infections as well as fungal infection can likewise take place with frequent use of antibiotics since they destroy the protective bacteria in the human body, which is responsible for the treatment of infection.

There are individuals who are allergic to antibiotics specifically penicillin; adverse reactions of allergies cause itching, swelling and skin irritation and in extreme cases breathing problems. These reactions require immediate treatment.

Kinds of Antibiotics

Different kinds of antibiotics are very common. The kind of antibiotics a patient takes relies on the kind of infection they possess and what type of antibiotics is popular to be efficient.

The primary categories of antibiotics include: Aminoglycosides, Fluoroquinolones, Cephalosporins, Tetracyclines, Penicillins and Macrolides.

• Tetracyclines belong to the class of antibiotics employed to cure an array of infections. They were discovered some time in 1940 and were very popular when they were discovered for the first time. This antibiotic is utilized to address mild acne, urinary tract infection (UTI), sexually transmitted disease (STD), typhus and many other diseases. Some of the common drugs under this type of antibiotic are: doxycycline, tetracycline and minocycline.
• Penicillins were the primary antibiotic discovered by renowned scientist Alexander Fleming. They were employed to cure both viral and bacterial infections. They are at time mixed with other components as betalactamase inhibitors that defend the antibiotic from bacterial enzymes which may destroy penicillin before it works. Popular forms of penicillins include: amoxicillin, bacampicillin, ampicillin and oxacillin.
• Macrolides are somewhat related with erythromycin that works in the same manner. They belong to the category of polyketide and possess minimal adverse reactions. This antibiotic is employed for patients with respiratory tract infections, genital infections and other infections brought by a certain bacteria. Unlike cephalosporins and penicillins, antibiotics of this type bring little allergic reactions. Some of its prescribed forms are azithromycin, erythromycin, clarithromycin and roxithromycin.
• Fluoroquinolones are popular general spectrum antibiotics, which are very efficient against several bacteria. It is used to cure UTI, respiratory infections and skin infections. The common adverse reactions of this antibiotic affects the digestive system as it bring nausea, mild stomach pain, diarrhea and vomiting. Common types of fluoroquinolones prescribe are: ofloxacin, ciprofloxacin, trovafloxacin, moxifloxacin, levofloxacin, etc.
• Cephalosporins are categorized into several generations through their antimicrobial attributes. Each generation possess greater content of negative antimicrobial attributes compared to the consequent generation. The later the generation is the more effective the antibiotic will be.
• Aminoglycosides are antibiotics that are employed to cure gram-negative elements. They are paired with cephalosporins or penicillins. They too perform well however there can be tendencies that bacteria will resist them. They are often injected and takes the following prescribed forms: gentamicin, amikacin, kanamycin, neomycin, tobramycin and streptomycin.

Resistance to Antibiotic

Antiobiotics are very essential in the field of medical science; however bacteria are still capable of becoming resistant to them. Examples of these antibiotic-resistant are those bacteria and germs that are not treated through the frequent use of antibiotics. When there is too much exposure of the same antibiotic against bacteria, the element can alter and will no longer have an effect when the drug is used. The only cure to address such resistance in antibiotic is of course to change the antibiotic type or use a more powerful drug to kill the bacteria. Then again there still infections that appear to be incurable even with experimental medicine or modern science.