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.
