Like tiredness, insomnia is on the rise. An increasing number of people are getting less than six hours of sleep per night.

In America, approximately 30% of adults suffer from symptoms related to insomnia and roughly 10% of adults have insomnia that causes them distress during the day.

Whether you are suffering from short term or chronic insomnia, there are some common things that you can do to improve your quality and quantity of sleep.

• Do I Have Insomnia
• Degrading Quality of Life
• Small Steps
• Review
• Conclusion

Do I Have Insomnia

Part of taking the appropriate action to combat insomnia is to be able to identify if you suffer from it.

Some of the symptoms of insomnia include:

• Difficulty getting to sleep
• Waking up frequently when you do get to sleep
• It is rare that you get deep quality sleep and wake up still feeling tired
• Waking up early and not being able to get back to sleep

Degrading Quality of Life

Although people suffering from insomnia can function as “normal” throughout the day even though they feel tired, they may suffer from the following symptoms:

• Irritability
• Daytime sleepiness
• Lack of concentration
• Reduced energy
• Headaches
• Fatigue

Some people, whilst trying to stay awake resort to consuming caffeine to stay alert and awake, not realizing that it may be compounding their lack of being able to sleep.

Small Steps

Just as there is rarely any-one cause of insomnia, there is no one cure-all to fix it. However, using a more holistic approach can yield great benefits for the sufferer.

These tips are just some of the strategies that you can use to help you overcome insomnia:

• Avoid stimulants.
  Caffeine’s key effect is to keep us awake. Depending on our weight, age, gender and fitness it can stay in our bodies from between 3 to 8 hours. Avoid caffeine as much as possible.
  
• Set a daily sleep routine. 
  Go to bed and wake up at the same times daily to train yourself that these are times for sleeping.
  
• Avoid sleeping during the day.
  Easier said than done when you haven’t had a good nights sleep, especially if you are trying to avoid caffeine. V-CAF is an Apple Watch app that alerts you subtly when you are most likely to fall asleep, helping you avoid needing to drink caffeine.
  
• Exercise
  Regular exercise will help you to have deeper sleep. Just don’t exercise close to the times that you set for going to bed (don’t exercise less than four hours before you go to bed).

Review

First changing your mindset and then changing your lifestyle can help you overcome insomnia in many cases.

Use the tips in this article together with any advice from your medical advisor to help structure a plan that will help you succeed.

Once again:

• Avoid stimulants such as caffeine.
• Set a daily sleeping routine.
• Don’t nod off during the day; use a tool like V-CAF 
• Do regular exercise

Conclusion

Hopefully you have a better understanding of how you can start to deal with insomnia.

Stay strong and stay focused.