Sleep, Insomnia and Migraine
Researchers have found evidence of a relationship between sleeping poorly and its relationship with migraine and other syndromes of pain. Insomnia or also known as psychophysiological insomnia is a type of sleeping poorly. Apart from insomnia, there are varieties of sleep disorders such as sleep apnea, snoring, and sleeping excessively during day time.
Insomnia is defined as having trouble falling to sleep or problems maintaining sleep such as difficulty in remaining asleep, or waking up early in the morning or waking up feeling tired. Any one of the types of insomnia mentioned above seem to be the common symptom shared within individuals who experience chronic migraine.
In some medical cases, insomnia seems to arise from other issues that cause chronic pain that make it difficult to sleep reasonably comfortably or which distorts the general patterns of sleeping. There are more studies going on to find the relationship between insomnia and migraine to learn about it.
Hereditary
There are ongoing studies on genome-wide research of insomnia disorder and it is hereditary. Insomnia is connected to specific genetic variations on two chromosomes (chromosomes 7 and 9) that may activate the emergence of sleep problems. Chromosome 7 also demonstrated a genetic link between development of the brain and electrical impulses signaling for sleeping.
Pets
Yes, some pets also have sleeping disorders such as insomnia. As humans have problems falling and staying asleep, the same goes to animals in many ways similar to children. Usually Insomnia does not happen in dogs and usually it highlights some other health problem.
Canine or dog insomnia is normally identified as to encompass symptoms of anxiety, stress, pent up energy or chronic physical health condition such as arthritis or an injury that causes pain, itchiness due to fleas or kidney or diabetes that cause frequent urination. At times canine insomnia also might be due to poor exercise routine among older dogs.
Sleeping Pills
Doctors always prescribe sleeping pills for insomnia and according to the statistics of National Sleep foundation 25 percent of Americans in a year take sleeping pills to help them sleep. According to sleep experts, sleeping pills are a short term remedy that contains sedative effects that make a person drowsy and after a time, the sleeping pill will not be able to cure insomnia. Usually in a normal scenario sleeping pills help in putting people to sleep about 8 to 20 minutes faster only. So, sleep experts have been recommending cognitive therapy lessons to get a full, better, restful night’s sleep.
Women and Insomnia
Insomnia happens to women more than men and the National Sleep Foundation states that women are two times more susceptible to insomnia. Apart from that women also may undergo insomnia differently compared to men. Women have unique hormones and its fluctuations and imbalances cause insomnia.
Fatal Familial Insomnia
Fatal familial insomnia does not have any known cure and it is a rare genetic disease. A protein that builds up due to the abnormality of the genome will prevent an individual from falling asleep and it will progressively get worse that leads to hallucinations, delirium and dementia.
As it deprives sleep and pushes the person to a confusional state where the individual’s function gets affected, and experiences memory loss, and gets into a stupor and the motor functions start to deteriorate and eventually dies. After the start of the symptoms, the individual average survival time is about 18 months.
Alcohol Abuse
Alcohol abuse complicates sleeping patterns and the quality of sleep especially when turning to alcohol to get some rest or sleep. It will only worsen insomnia and cause other complications long term. It is a fact that alcohol abuse at any level and insomnia co-exist and it can cause sleep disturbance and trigger sleep disorders.
A study in the American Journal of Psychiatry states that individuals with insomnia are twice as likely to report drinking alcohol to sleep and if it is not treated properly, there will be other problems. The medical issues normally associated with alcohol abuse are anxiety, depression, liver disease, lung disease etc.
Car Accidents
The National Health Sleep Awareness Project study has been confirming that insomnia is associated with road accidents, workplace accidents and other injuries. The findings show that insomnia individuals are at risk of more than two times more likely to die from a motor vehicle injury. Factors such as age and sleep quality contribute to the risk and increase the likelihood of injury and death.
People with insomnia also are more than 1.5 times at risk and are more likely to die from any other fatal injury or unintentional fatal injuries such as falls, workplace accidents and other types of accidents.
Chronic Smoking
The findings of several researches on insomnia highlight the incidence of heavy chronic smokers of having greater symptoms of insomnia such as lack of sleep, longer sleep latency period, higher rapid eye movement, sleep density, sleep apnea, and other obstructive sleep disorders.
Healthcare providers are urged to focus on efforts to prevent smoking and intensifying younger smokers' treatments as well as promoting cessation of smoking among older adults to decrease the chances of experiencing insomnia.
Yoga
Practicing yoga systematically can aid in managing insomnia symptoms and it helps in reducing the stress and anxiety and has the ability to address the issue of insomnia in a holistic way. In a way, the practitioner will benefit from falling asleep faster, sleeping longer and being able to sleep immediately after waking up at night. Some research has validated the use of yoga and other mind-body therapies in overcoming insomnia and promoting better sleep.
Home Remedy
The following are simple home remedies for those who are suffering from migraine and insomnia. The cure for both is by making use of a culinary item in the kitchen which has been used as one of the traditional medicine remedies from ancient times. The nutmeg seed originates from Indonesia. It is the seed from the fruit of an evergreen tree called Myristica fragrans.
Crush the nutmeg seed to a powder and drink it with warm water and also make a paste using water and massage on the forehead for migraine relief and to promote quality of sleep. It is a great and splendid wellness incentive for those who want to try it.