The Natural Sleep Remedies That Work

I have been taking medical cannabis for about 10 days without interruption.  I have to say that I have been sleeping pretty well with only one wake up in the middle of the night.  I feel a little groggy throughout the day, but nothing like the sleepless fatigue that makes me drag through the day.  Also, I tend to have some anxiety during certain times of the day and I feel a lot more mellow now.  I will keep up with this routine and hopefully continue to sleep well.

Since I have a little more energy that goes along with sleeping better, I'm exercising more often.  At night I'm physically tired and mellow:  my recipe for a good nights sleep.  

Learning How to Sleep Better

I've noticed that trial and error is definitely the name of the game when learning how to sleep better.  My biggest problem is finding the right sleep remedy and then sticking to it for awhile.  Medical cannabis has helped me the most and yet I keep trying to take a break from it....big mistake.  I made some cannabis cookies that lasted about 60 days.  They were small and 1 cookie helped me to sleep about 8 hours.  Sounds like a cliche, but that was some good stuff!  Very strong!  One cookie was definitely enough.  After my cookies ran out, I decided to take a break from cannabis.  I slept OK without it for a few days, although I woke up a few times throughout the night.  Then I became a restless sleeper again.  I do have another form of cannabis right now, a tincture that I've used the last few days.  It's working OK, but does not have the long lasting effects of the edibles.  I am concerned about the long term effects of medical cannabis, although I believe that if you find something that works and doesn't have a lot of side effects then why not?

The laws in the US are such that not a lot of research has been done to determine the long term effects of medical cannabis. Prescription drugs have long lists of side effects and are difficult to withdraw from.  Cannabis has just a few side effects and is not as habit forming.  At least, that is what I've discovered.   In the near future I hope that medical cannabis as a sleep aid will become a viable alternative to the man made chemicals marketed by the pharmaceutical companies.

Always Tired

Lately I have been able to sleep mostly through the night using one of my herbal remedies.  However, my poor husband says that I snore like a banchee.  I usually have a glass of wine before dinner and have been wondering if drinking alcohol before bedtime has something to do with my noisy nocturnal disruptions.  According to an article in "The Huffington Post" a little bit of alcohol can help with sleep during the beginning of the night.  Too much alcohol can interrupt REM sleep which is important for memory and concentration.

So I decided to abstain from alcohol for a little while to see if my sleep quality improves.  It has only been 3 days and I am still snoring, only now I am waking myself up from the weird noises!  I will give it another week or 2 and see if there is a difference in my sleep.  It's worth a try.

My Experience With Natural Sleep Remedies

There are lots of natural sleep remedies available to those desperate souls (including me) who have tried everything.  I was hopeful and naive in thinking that my doctor could fix the problem by prescribing prescription drugs.  However, doctor prescribed drugs are extremely habit forming, don't always work, and are difficult to withdraw from. So I have turned to natural ways of overcoming my spotty sleep and sometimes downright insomnia.  Everyone is different and what works for some people does not work for everyone.  So...after lots of experimenting this is what I've discovered so far.

Melatonin

Melatonin is actually a hormone that everyone has. As we grow older melatonin (like everything else it seems) starts to lessen in the body causing us to wake up more often and/or not fall asleep easily.  It regulates our sleep/wake cycle and causes drowsiness.  It works by decreasing body temperature, slowing down bodily functions and causing us to fall asleep.

I began using melatonin several years ago and had some success.  I would fall asleep fairly easily and sleep about 6 or 7 hours before waking.  Recently I've tried it again and have not had much success. I would fall asleep then wake up several times during the night. So it melatonin doesn't seem to work for me.  There are probably better quality options out there for melatonin, but I bought the drugstore kind.

Magnesium

Not being able to fall asleep at night can also be a symptom of a magnesium deficiency.  Just a little bit of a deficiency can cause problems.  Magnesium can also be added to your diet through leafy greens such as spinach, kale, and swiss chard. Almonds, brazil nuts, pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds also contain magnesium.

Magnesium citrate can be found at health food stores and comes in a powder that you add to water.

I did have some success with taking magnesium at night before bed.  I would take it at night with water before bed. The directions say to take 1-2 teaspoons.  I did gradually work up to 1 teaspoon and was falling asleep fairly easily and staying asleep.  However, my digestive tract started to complain and I had to cut back to 1/2 teaspoon, then even less. I couldn't get over the stomach problem so I had to stop taking it.  

Medical Cannabis

I was in high school in the 60's when smoking marijuana was very popular.  Of course my friends and I had to experiment a little.   At the time I did not know of the medical benefits of smoking marijuana.  All I knew was that smoking marijuana produced a mellow high, gave you the munchies, and was much different from drinking beer.  

There has been some research that has shown that marijuana is an anti-inflammatory and opens up the respiratory passages when smoked.  Smoking cigarettes has the opposite affect and constricts or closes up the passages when smoked.  There is other research that shows that smoking marijuana causes the reductions of eye pressure or intraocular pressure in glaucoma sufferers. One of the most promising benefits is that smoking marijuana reduces the effects of chemotherapy in cancer patients, especially the nausea. Of course the benefit most interesting to me is that smoking marijuana helps with insomnia.

I have a doctor that is open to alternative therapies.  He suggested that I try medical marijuana for sleep.  The first form of marijuana that I tried was glycerin drops that you place on your tongue.  This was OK, but I only slept around 4 hours before waking up.  I stopped taking it for about 6 months thinking that it just wasn't going to work for me. I would just live with the lack of sleep!  

A few months ago I became desperate and renewed my prescription for the medical marijuana.  This time I bought the buds and put some of it in brownies.  I found a recipe on the internet to experiment with.  The first night I took too big of a piece and ended up getting a little too high and had trouble falling asleep.  The 2nd night I cut the dose in half and low and behold I slept all night!  Since then I have had other batches of brownies and have had pretty good success with sleeping all night.  

Another perk of using medical marijuana is that my asthma has improved.  Marijuana has been shown to decrease inflammation in the bronchial tubes when it is smoked. However, even though I'm not smoking it I do notice some improvement in my day to day breathing. 

Even though it has been only a few months of using medical cannabis, the improvement in my quality of sleep is encouraging. I will definitely continue to use it.

Why Can't I Sleep?

Do you know someone who has trouble sleeping?  I am one of those people! I have bouts of insomnia that sometimes lasts for weeks!  I've  heard that as you get older, people sleep less.  I don't mind sleeping less, but falling asleep is the problem. If I fall asleep within the first 15 minutes then I will sleep for a few hours.  If not then I lay awake trying to meditate and quiet my very fertile mind rehashing the day, yesterday, last week, last year or even 10 years ago.  Sounds ridiculous doesn't it?  I have tried multiple therapies and in future posts I will talk about some of them.

I never realized how important sleep is until I began to have some trouble.  Not sleeping well affects my whole life!  I am retired so I do have the flexibility to stay in bed awhile in the morning, but usually I just get up and try to go about my routine.  I have some coffee and don't feel too bad until about 11:00 and then I feel like I have to drag myself around the rest of the day.  I do try to take a nap and sometimes I fall asleep and sometimes I don't.  I've tried just ignoring the fact that I'm sleep deprived, but that will work only so long during my chore filled day.  I do have a busy life and a part time job and if I could count on 8 hours of sleep I could add on other fun things to my day!