Persistent trouble in falling or staying asleep is denoted as the Insomnia disease in medical science. This can include several conditions that cause you to suffer from constant restless nights such as difficulty in falling asleep, awakening in the midnight, very early morning awakening or non-restful sleep. However, you can cope with this condition with a newly introduced revolutionary invention i.e. cooling caps to cure insomnia completely.
There are many underlying health conditions which can cause to develop insomnia issue rather than primary insomnia condition itself which denotes difficulty in falling asleep or staying asleep at least for one month persistently in the lack of coexisting conditions.
As per the report of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, more than 10 percent of American adults are dealing with chronic insomnia symptoms that last more than a month.
Other than that there is a huge group of insomnia patients who have developed this condition as comorbid disorder means the sleeping issue occurs due to existence of some other physical or mental illnesses or caused as a side effect of the consumption of certain medications.
One quick fix that people often opt. considering as an easy solution to deal with this health issue is, sleeping pills to ease the symptoms of insomnia disease but that is no way a permanent solution because the prolonged use of these pills reduces its effectiveness over a period of time.
Moreover consistent usage of these medications are associated with many side effects risk such as lightheartedness, difficulty in keeping body balance, drowsiness in day time, constipation, diarrhea, changes in appetite, dry mouth and tingling or burning in arms, hands, feet and legs, which will be again another trauma to deal with.
Another coping solution to insomnia is treatment through cognitive behavioral therapy. This therapy helps to prevent and remove useless thoughts and bad habits that trigger to insomnia concern for an extended period of time making it more chronic.
However, in spite of the effectiveness of this therapy, it contains some drawbacks. For example, these therapies are quite effective in their particular way but it needs long time patience and consistency towards adhering it strictly to get a noticeable result.
Whereas in the cases of primary insomnia the conditions of its patients get worst with the passes of time which calls for immediate relief. Under such conditions, cooling caps which works on the principle of providing a cooling effect to the frontal part of the brain which is usually used for reasoning or other active brain participation works, to reduce or slow down its efficiency during nights so that with cool mind one can sleep peacefully.
In the 25th Annual meeting of the Associated Sleep Societies LLC in the year 2011, it was first declared that a new treatment method is on its way to cope with all insomnia symptoms to bring a drastic reduction in the issues of insomnia disease with the invention of the cooling cap.
In the cases of insomnia, your brain gets more active than normal during resting hours in the night, leading to higher brain activity even in the sleeping time when usually it should reduce its activeness to get cool to easily fall asleep. As a result of greater than normal brain activity, your brain gets too hot to fall or stay asleep normally.
However by wearing cooling caps one can maintain their brain temperature to the normal level with the help of its cooling effects on brain muscles and tissues which helps to make it calm and soothing so that it can fall and stay asleep soundly like a non-insomniac person who can easily sleep as soon as they enter in to their bed.
This cooling off the effect of the cooling cap is very much similar to the melatonin medicine which is a very commonly recommended medication for people who faces difficulty in falling asleep persistently. Also, it reduces your body temperature so that midnight awakening or very early morning awakening problem will not occur.
To prove the effectiveness of cooling caps on insomniacs one research conducted on a group of 12 insomniacs patients and 12 non-insomniacs who don’t have any trouble regarding sleep, in the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
The report of this research says that after application of cooling caps during nights the group of insomniacs slept normally for long hours within 13 minutes of time after in bed compared to 16 minutes in the healthy controls, by wearing these cooling caps as the other group of non-insomniacs does.
These cooling caps contain the circulating water that easily cools off their brain temperature making them able to fall asleep just like people who don’t have the sleep disorder problem. They slept for more than 89% of the time than they usually slept before wearing these cooling caps in other days.
The report of this study reveals the fact that these cooling caps raise the level of one vital psychological element known as melatonin which scarcity in the frontal cortex in the brain appears as a result of excessive thinking in nights and due to lack of healthy sleeping habits leading to insomnia disease.
People who suffer from insomnia, their metabolic rate in the brain is increased which is quite unusual than the normal brain activity. However, this metabolic rate in the brain can be reduced with the cooling effect that one can ensure by wearing cooling caps just before their bedtime during nights.
The cooling caps help to lower the temperature of frontal cortex in the brain so that one can easily fall and stay asleep persistently during nights without much effort. The more common scenario faces by insomniacs patient is that they get constant thoughts and wondering when they try to sleep in nights.
They face difficulty to shut off their brain function leading to high brain’s temperature that makes sleeping absolutely impossible for them. Your body has an internal circadian clock which remains active during the day time and regulates your sleeping and wakefulness
This biological clock of the body keep your temperature warmest during the day time and started to reduce your body temperature with the end of the day so that you can easily doze off.
However, in the cases of insomnia patients, their body doesn’t follow this rule strictly and their body temperature doesn’t reduce in the evening that causes their temperature level too high to fall asleep easily in nights.
The research on cooling caps effect in insomniacs conducted in Pittsburgh was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health and National Center for Research Center.
However, this still needs some more studies to evaluate its effectiveness on all insomniac patients as the study was conducted on a limited group of people. Also, it is not clear in this study which type of patients will benefit more with these cooling caps.
Other than that it was found in this study that those whose cooling caps were set on the lowest temperature, fall asleep more easily than those whose sleeping caps were slightly warmer. This simply implies that cooling off brain can help a person to fall asleep easily.
Other Tips to Cope With Insomnia
If you are suffering from primary insomnia issue or chronic insomnia you can ease your symptoms with many effective lifestyle changes or rather by maintaining a good sleeping hygiene every day. The below mentioned tips will help you to cope with your condition so that you can easily fall asleep more deeply.
Use Bed Only for Sleeping and Sex
Your bedroom is only for the purpose of sleeping and having sex, so there should not be any third work or activity that you should do or think about. People who generally have a habit to do some of their works while they are in bed or in the bedroom during nights, their mind get automatically diverted due to alertness for their respective work.
With such kind of mental alert, you cannot expect a peaceful sleep on time. So make sure that you avoid watching TV or checking your mobile phone or your study work in your bed and bedroom. The bedroom should be reserved for sleeping only and to make out.
Make your Bedroom Environment More Comfortable
Make sure the environment of your bedroom in complexly noise free, dark and have cool and soothing room temperature with comfortable beddings. This kind of comfortable environment in your bedroom will compel your body to get sleep as soon as you lie in your bed.
Limit your Day Time Naps
People who take naps in day time especially more than one time in a day affect their sleeping quality during nights. Usually people have a perception that naps can compensate your missed sleep but in reality, it again hamper your next night sleep by keeping you awake for longer hours in bed.
So avoid taking naps during the day time to ensure that you can sleep consistently during nights at least for 7 to 8 hours.
Maintain Same Sleeping Pattern
People who are insomnia patients should follow a fixed sleeping pattern means their sleeping and waking up time should always be the same. It happens with working people or students that on weekends they like to wake up quite late than their normal days waking time.
This particularly they do for compensating the sleep that they have failed to manage in the weekdays or for giving more comfort to their body. This temporary rest can affect you in other days by letting you restless all day when you will not be able to sleep till late in the morning.
So whatever the day it is make sure that you always sleep and wake up at the same time without failing.
Avoid Alcohol and Stimulants Intake in Nights
People who drink alcohol in nights have difficulty in sleeping especially sound sleep. Though alcohol has sedatives so it might cause you to sleep initially however after a few hours it can cause arousal and restless night sleep. So it must be avoided to ensure quality sleep.
Stimulants such as caffeine or nicotine have a bad effect on your sleeping quality. Especially if it is taken before bed during nights as it can cause difficulty in falling asleep. Also if you manage to sleep somehow initially then also frequent nighttime awakening problem exists leading to insomnia issue.
Do Not Eat Just Before Bed
Avoid eating or drinking just before your bedtime as it can badly affect your sleeping quality as well as duration. If you eat something just before your sleeping time your digestive system gets activated for its work resulting in you will not feel the relaxation in the body which is necessary for falling asleep.
Also if you drink so much water or any soft drink just before your bed then it can overburden your bladder leading to the necessity to use the washroom that can disturb your sleep in midnight.
So make sure that you finish your dinner and snacks at least 3 hours before your bedtime.
Avoid Stress
One common reason for an insomnia health concern is excessive thinking nature of people that make their mind and body restless resulting in they face difficulty in falling and staying asleep throughout the night.
So make sure that you leave all your worries out of your bedroom. You can use some stress-relieving therapies and technique to deal with your stress and for keeping your mind and body relaxed to prepare for quality sleep.
Exercise Everyday
Daily exercising has lots of health benefits out of this long list getting quality sleep in nights is one. With regular physical activities like aerobic or other kinds of exercise, you can maintain a healthy hour sleep without much difficulty.
To ensure the benefits of exercising make sure that you don’t workouts just before your bed as it will raise your body’s metabolic rate which is not required for easily falling and staying asleep in nights.
If you are so much enthusiastic for workouts then make sure that you maintain three hours gap between your bedtime and exercising.
As insomnia health issue can cause you to develop many chronic and life-threatening health concerns so it is very important that you don’t ignore it anyway. Along with maintaining different tips to ensure quality sleeps in nights, you can surely be benefited if you try cooling caps to cure insomnia. This is especially beneficial for people who are not getting an effective result out of insomnia medications or treatments.
[expand title=”View Article Sources“]
- https://aasm.org/cooling-the-brain-during-sleep-may-be-an-easy-natural-and-effective-treatment-for-insomnia/
- http://healthland.time.com/2011/06/17/tip-for-insomniacs-cool-your-head-to-fall-asleep/
- https://www.webmd.com/women/guide/insomnia-tips
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