Home Remedies for Insomnia

It is possible to get by with very little sleep. Leonardo da Vinci, it is claimed, trained himself to take a nap for fifteen minutes every four hours, ninety minutes in total leaving the other 22.5 hours of the day to spend productively painting and inventing. However, most people do need their usual seven or eight hours and the lives of insomniacs who are unable to achieve this can be fairly wretched. The proprietary preparation Nytol can be obtained from chemists without prescription and there are two types of home remedy, lettuce and sleep hygiene.

Lettuce: Mr J. Jolly from Cheshire describes his experience of the hypnotic qualities of lettuce: 'I was a housemaster at an approved school. My charges, boys of fifteen to sixteen age group were in dormitories for about twenty boys. The morning after having had a rather difficult "lights out" time with boys complaining about being unable to sleep, I was overheard by an elderly cook who excused herself and interrupted the conversation stating that the traditional remedy was to give them a lettuce leaf to eat.

'On my next evening duty shift I raided the pantry for the biggest lettuce leaves I could find and dished them out as required to the slow sleepers. Hey presto! It worked. Since then I have often wondered whether test match cricketers lunches of large salads are responsible for so many early afternoon dismissals.’

Home Remedies for Insomnia
Sleep hygiene: Dr Colin Espie, clinical psychologist at the University of Glasgow, provides the following advice. It starts with elementary 'sleep hygiene'.

Exercise — late afternoon or early evening is best. Avoid exercise near bedtime. Fit people have better quality sleep.

Diet— snacks before bedtime should be light and fluid intake limited.

Caffeine - coffee, tea and 'cola' contain this; intake should be moderated.

Alcohol— regular use as an hypnotic disrupts sleeping patterns. A hot milky drink is preferable. Environment — bed and mattress should be comfortable, room temperature should be around 65 degrees Fahrenheit.

Next it is necessary to establish an optimal sleeping pattern.

(i) Go to bed only when you are 'sleepy tired' and not by conventional habit.
(ii) Put the light out immediately you retire.
(iii) Do not read or watch television in bed.
(iv) If you are not asleep within twenty minutes get out of bed and sit and relax in another room until you are 'sleepy tired' again.
(v) Do not nap during the day.
(vi) Do not take recovery sleep to compensate for a previous bad night.
(vii) Follow the programme rigidly for several weeks to establish an efficient and regular pattern.

Finally, he gives advice on overcoming the two main impediments to sleep.
Tension: Practice a relaxation routine when in bed. Concentrate on breathing, try to breathe deeply and slowly. Tense and relax major voluntary muscles groups in turn interspersed with breathing exercises. The groups comprise arms, neck and shoulders, face and eyes, stomach, back and legs.

Intrusive thoughts: Tell yourself that 'sleep will come when it is ready', that 'relaxing in bed is almost as good'. Try to keep your eyes open in a darkened room and as they naturally try to close tell yourself to 'resist that just for another few seconds'. This procedure 'tempts' sleep to take over. Try to ignore irrelevant ideas and thoughts. Visualize a pleasing scene or try repeating a neutral word such as 'the’ every few seconds.