woman having trouble sleeping

It’s easy to write off the value of sleep. Is it more important than that deadline at work? Can it wait another hour while you finish that load of laundry? Will you make up for a late night out with friends by sleeping in the next morning? On any given day, it’s tough to get the recommended 8 hours of sleep because all of the other things we have going on seem so much more pressing. So, when you suffer from insomnia, it’s like adding fuel to the fire.

The Benefits Of Sleep

The first stage of sleep is restorative for the body. It usually takes about four hours for your body to restore itself. The next four hours are focused on giving your brain time to rest and restore. Now, in order to achieve your deepest and most restful sleep, your brain needs to be operating efficiently.

An efficient brain that allows you to get plenty of high-quality sleep can support a healthy physical, mental, and emotional state. Additionally, plenty of high-quality sleep helps you perform better by mitigating cognitive deficits that can occur due to exhaustion.

If you struggle with fatigue, lack of sleep, or insomnia, we don’t have to tell you that lifestyle pressures at work and at home can exacerbate these problems. Treating your insomnia or sleep problems at the source is essential to your overall health and well-being.

man taking a nap

What Happens When You Don’t Get Enough Sleep?

Not getting enough sleep, even by just an hour or two per night, can wreak havoc on your body and your mind. Tiredness, severe fatigue, irritability, and difficulty concentrating are all symptoms you might experience when you are lacking high-quality sleep and restorative time. Additionally, lack of sleep and insomnia can be a risk factor in a number of other health conditions, including obesity, cardiovascular disease, and depression.

Treating insomnia can be challenging for two key reasons. Identifying the symptoms of insomnia or lack of sleep is tough for some people. Many think that some degree of fatigue is normal on an everyday basis. Additionally, the longer your symptoms go untreated the more imbalanced your brain pathways become.

Regulate Sleep Disorders And Treat Insomnia Without Medication

The Centers for Disease Control consider lack of sleep to be a public health problem. Treatment options are consistently expanding and breaking out of the traditional mold of prescription medication.

Neurofeedback training, in conjunction with treatments like biofeedback using thought technology, allow you to pinpoint the behaviors and symptoms that may be causing your sleep disorder or insomnia. Once you’ve become aware of the triggers that lead to lack of sleep, you can begin making modifications to the behavior and re-train your brain so that you can get more, higher-quality sleep (and reap the benefits of it) when you hit the hay at night.

toddler after good night sleep

How You Can Start Sleeping Better Today

While we’d like to think neurofeedback is about as close to magic as an insomnia treatment can get, we understand that it is a learning process, much like anything else. In addition to neurofeedback training, we recommend:

  • Creating a sleep routine, including a relaxing ritual before bed and trying to stick to a consistent schedule
  • Limiting caffeine, alcohol, and sugar a few hours before turning in
  • Avoiding blue light from electronics an hour before bed
  • Not doing anything besides sleeping when you do decide to go to bed - don’t read, watch tv, or browse your phone. Do those things outside the bedroom.

Your behavior outside the bedroom can have a major impact on the quality of sleep you get inside of it. If you struggle to sleep or you suffer from insomnia, you want to treat your symptoms as soon as possible and you can do so without medication.

Learn more about treating insomnia without medication by contacting our sleep experts at Braincode Centers today.