Remedies For Sleepiness – Get Rid of Cigarettes
Looking for remedies for sleepiness? Start with smoking! Often where there’s smoking, there’s insomnia. Nicotine can keep you awake. It’s a stimulant, just as caffeine is. So if your habit is to light a cigarette when you are unable to sleep, you may want to change your habit. Pick up a book instead – you’ll have the added benefit of decreasing the hazard of fire, since you won’t be smoking in bed as you try to fall asleep.
A number of studies have provided clear evidence that cigarette smoking causes sleep difficulties. In fact, insomnia ranks near the top of things smokers complain about. Smokers have greater difficulty falling asleep because cigarettes raise blood pressure, speed up the heart rate, and stimulate brain-wave activity. Smokers also tend to wake up more in the middle of the night, possibly because their bodies are experiencing withdrawal symptoms.
Experiments by Dr. Anthony Kales and his team at Pennsylvania State University showed that when a group of men who had smoked from one to three packs of Pall Mall cigarettes a day for at least two years stopped smoking, they fell asleep faster and woke less during the night. Their improvement occurred despite daytime cigarette-withdrawal symptoms of temporary irritation, tension, fatigue, and restlessness.
So if you are a smoker, deciding to quit cigarettes might very well be remedies for sleepiness and help to cure your insomnia, as well as help you live longer.
Test this for yourself if you wish, although it’s logical to be a non-smoker even if it has nothing to do with your poor sleep. When you have decided on the date to become a nonsmoker, start taking extra vitamin and mineral supplements rich in B vitamins, vitamin C, calcium, and magnesium to help with the tension; and lay in a supply of fruit juice, chewing gum, carrots, celery, popcorn, and other snacks to help you through the first rough days. Then make the big move. Stop smoking for a month, and see if your sleep improves.
Other remedies for sleepiness: Stay away from smokers; when you crave a cigarette, substitute a walk swim, bike ride, or other rhythmic exercise; order of cigarette that you hate and if you must have a cigarette, have one of those. Pledge to yourself to especially avoid smoking the waking up, the hour after finishing a meal, or the hour before going to bed-the times when smokers most often light up. It also helps to make a list of why you want to be a nonsmoker and look at it every day.
Some people can quit with just these measures, but for many people, the rate of success is better with professional help. You may want to consult with your physician, a psychologist or other therapist, or try a stop-smoking program or workshop recommended by your physician.
The first few days may make your sleep worse, since you could have nicotine-withdrawal symptoms. But don’t make your decision about the sleep effects of not smoking until you have done it for at least a month. Use your Sleep Log and think very carefully about whether you are having better sleep without cigarettes.
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