Everyone needs a minimum amount of sleep everyday and a lack of sleep can seriously affect our general health and, still many people don’t get enough sleep due to some unknown problems. It is not so strange to see that many people spend enough time in their bed, just rolling over their body without actually sleeping. Sleep problems affect the lives of thousands of people across the globe; it is estimated that sleep problems and insomnia cause tremendous loss in lost man hours and total production.

Though it is very difficult to exactly pinpoint the reason for sleep problems, certain factors do affect the way in which we sleep. For example, general illness and its associated side effects can seriously impair our ability to sleep better. Work related stress and people with depression also complain about sleeplessness. On the lighter side, people who snore loudly can spoil other’s sleep to a large extent! Breathing difficulties can also make your sleep interrupted by frequent disturbances.

There are many common symptoms which are associated with sleep problem like daytime irritability, lapses in concentration, loss of reasoning, short term memory loss and general tiredness. People with depression may display strange behavior while sleeping; it is so common to see some people with depression sleep very early, but only to wake up in the wee hours of the morning, unable to sleep again. On the other hand, many other depressed patients spend a lot of time in sleeping, sometimes for more than a day at a stretch. People who are suffering from depression usually need medical help to solve their sleep problems, as sleeplessness may further compound the problem.

There are several easy methods by which you can find a lasting cure for sleep problem. Some of them can be adapted by you, while a serious episode of sleep problem needs medical intervention. Generally sleep means undisturbed environment for your brain and constitution, so that they get enough rejuvenating time to heal and repair. Thus you may need to artificially create an environment suitable for undisturbed sleep. You may consider keeping the lights very low, so that your eyes are not hurt while sleeping. Lower your window blinds, turn down the volume of music and if possible wear eye cap, to ensure that you’re creating a favorable condition for your body to produce a chemical called Melantoin, a naturally occurring sedative in your body.

If you want to find a cure for your sleep problem, develop a healthy habit of sleeping at the same time everyday preferably early in the night. Also make sure that you wake up at the same time everyday, just to maintain the body rhythm and a regular sleep pattern. Avoid drinking alcohol, coffee, tea and other intoxicating drinks before bed time, so that your brain is not stimulated to cause a loss of sleep. A hot bath or a shower just before bed time will relax you and your body, so that you can get a good night sleep.

Unwind yourself by doing a bit of stretch exercise or by listening to some cool music or even reading light humor. Some people do ingest a lot of sleeping pills, which is often very risky and highly detrimental to one’s overall health. You may also turn obsessed with those little pills and become addicted to them. Sleep is a natural phenomenon; if you have sleep problems, always try and counter it in a natural way.

Sleeping problems in the elderly may involve a number of factors such as: decreased energy output as a result of retirement,the age of the person, their state of health, and any prescription drugs they may be taking for health problems.

Illness disrupts sleeping patterns in the elderly, and may result in increased awakenings due to physical discomfort caused by: urinary urgency, cramps, angina, chronic obstructive airways disease, and left ventricular failure, these may be only some of the many illnesses which cause sleeping problems in the elderly.

An elderly person may become very anxious about any change in their sleeping pattern, however, it will be necessary to thoroughly investigate the problem, in order to ascertain if this perceived sleeping problem causes dysfunction in their waking activities. If the elderly person has a carer, or lives with family, then the problem may be easier to assess, for what appears to be a problem may only be a normal change in sleeping pattern for the age.

The most frequently occurring sleeping problem in the elderly is sleep latency, the person may spend some hours in bed before sleep occurs. The elderly person may view this as a problem and request sleeping pills, whereas, all that is needed is to teach them how to reorganize their lives to cope with the changes in sleeping patterns they are experiencing.

Reduced energy output as a result of retirement with an increased opportunity to take naps, either as a result of boredom or just plain exhaustion, may contribute to reduced quality of night-time sleep.
The pressure of a normal working day has been taken away, so the energy output is considerably less, while this may be offered as a possible reason for sleep latency, many others factors may be involved.

There may be much confusion about sleep latency, the difficulty may be exaggerated because the person who experiences it may be convinced that unless they have 8 hours of quality sleep, they will become ill. Sometimes it is difficult to convince an elderly person that they no longer require 8 hours of unbroken sleep, but may be better served by a shorter night time sleep supplemented with day time naps.

So how can sleeping problems in the elderly be resolved? Firstly it is necessary to provide a warm comfortable noise free environment, if this is available then the addition of regular exercise, combined with a healthy diet may be all that is needed to resolve the sleeping problem. However, if the previous measures fail to help, many other modalities are available to help the person .

Reflexology is one of these modalities which provides a very gentle and effective aid to sleep , and aromatherapy has proven to be very successful to assist relaxation and sleep in the elderly. Both of these modalities have been used in nursing homes and have been found to assist not only sleep, but the general well-being of the patients.

Sleeping problems in the elderly should be thoroughly investigated before any medications are prescribed, unfortunately this is not always the procedure that is adopted. All too frequently prescriptions are written for potent sleeping drugs, for what has been described as insomnia by the elderly person. However, such is mostly not the case, but rather it’s a normal change of the circadian rhythms which occurs as people age, this requires education, not medication.

Provided that there is no evidence of disease of the central nervous system, such as dementia, Parkinson’s disease, post-traumatic brain damage, and chronic pain, then sleeping problems in the elderly are far better managed conservatively.