Insomnia, a common condition characterized by difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep, is more than just a minor nuisance. It can impact every aspect of your daily life, including mood, energy levels, and overall well-being.
At Regeneration Health, we understand the challenges that come with insomnia and recognize that each individual’s experience is unique, which is why we take a holistic approach to understanding and treating it. In this blog post, we’ll get into the causes and effects of insomnia and discuss how functional medicine can help restore restful sleep.
What Is Insomnia?
There are two types of insomnia: acute and chronic. Acute insomnia is short-term and can be triggered by major life changes, stress, or disrupted routines. Chronic insomnia, on the other hand, occurs at least three times a week and lasts for at least three months. Its causes tend to be more significant, such as underlying health issues, lifestyle factors, and psychological conditions.
Causes
Common causes include:
- Stress: Racing thoughts and concerns can keep your mind active at night, making it hard to fall asleep.
- Schedule disruptions: Traveling or changes to your routines can disrupt your circadian rhythm, which guides your sleep-wake cycle.
- Poor sleep habits: Going to bed and waking up at different times each day, using screens just before bedtime, or doing daytime activities while in bed can also disrupt your sleep cycle.
- Hormonal imbalances: Imbalances in hormones like melatonin, cortisol, and thyroid hormones can contribute to sleep issues.
- Nutritional deficiencies: A lack of essential nutrients like vitamin D, magnesium, and B vitamins can affect sleep quality.
- Gut health: Because the gut-brain connection plays a role in sleep regulation, gut health issues can interfere with sleep.
- Eating before bed: Eating too much right before bed may cause heartburn, which can keep you awake.
- Mental health disorders: Anxiety disorders are known to disrupt sleep, and depression can cause you to wake up too early.
- Medications: Many prescription and over-the-counter drugs can interfere with sleep.
- Medical conditions: Conditions linked with insomnia include asthma, cancer, diabetes, chronic pain, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease.
- Sleep-related disorders: Sleep apnea and restless leg syndrome can keep you from falling asleep or staying asleep.
- Stimulants: Caffeine and nicotine are stimulants and can make it harder to fall asleep at night. Alcohol may help you fall asleep, but it prevents you from reaching the deeper stages of sleep throughout the night.
Effects and Complications
Sleep is an incredibly important aspect of health. No matter its causes, insomnia can have far-reaching physical and mental effects, negatively impacting your quality of life. People with insomnia may struggle to keep up at work or school, have a slower reaction time while driving, develop mental health conditions, or experience a worsening of long-term diseases or conditions.
How Functional Medicine Can Help
Rather than treating isolated symptoms, functional medicine recognizes the body’s interconnected systems in an effort to improve overall health. By addressing the underlying causes of disrupted sleep, functional medicine aims to provide long-term solutions rather than temporary fixes.
Comprehensive Health Assessment
The first step in treating insomnia is thoroughly assessing your overall health, including a lifestyle analysis, a review of your medical history, and detailed diagnostic testing. Evaluating nutritional deficiencies, hormone levels, stress responses, and gastrointestinal health helps paint a more complete picture of your health.
Identifying Root Causes
As mentioned above, insomnia can stem from a variety of sources. The goal of functional medicine is to identify these root causes in order to provide effective solutions. By reviewing the results of your comprehensive health assessment, your healthcare professionals can understand the factors contributing to your sleep problems.
Personalized Treatment Plans
Based on the comprehensive assessment and analysis, your practitioner will create a personalized, multifaceted treatment plan tailored to your specific needs. This may include nutritional support, hormone balancing, stress management, gut health optimization, or changes to your sleep environment.
Ongoing Support and Monitoring
Insomnia treatment is an ongoing process, not a one-time fix. Continuous support and monitoring ensure your treatment plan is effective. Regular follow-up appointments allow your doctor to track your progress and make any necessary adjustments to optimize your sleep health.
Regeneration Health Can Help You Get the Rest You Need
If you’re battling insomnia, you don’t have to suffer any longer. At Regeneration Health, our functional medicine approach can help you find effective, long-lasting relief and get the restorative sleep you need each night.
Don’t let insomnia hold you back from living the life you deserve. Schedule an appointment at Regeneration Health today to begin your journey toward optimal overall well-being.