Do You Have Trouble Falling Alseep? Holistic Approaches to Treating Insomnia

Many Americans experience difficulty falling asleep and/or maintaining their sleep. Some people accept this problem as "normal for me" and don't even think of themselves as having insomnia. This is partly due to the fact that many people think "insomnia" means a total inability to sleep. I consider anything less than a restful eight hours of sleep to be a health issue; and in my clinical practice I find difficulty sleeping to occur in near epidemic levels. For those who require help, we find that most are dissatisfied with conventional pharmaceuticals, and are happy to try holistic methods. My clients typically experience very good results with my natural therapies.

Acupuncture 
Acupuncture is a highly effective treatment for insomnia that draws on over 2,000 years of wisdom. As the needles are placed on specific points along the body’s energetic meridians, you can feel a profound sense of relaxation flowing through you; and the effects definitely include improved sleep, especially with a series of treatments. Some patients remark on their improved sleep even when it has not been previously discussed as a health issue.

Acupuncture is virtually painless, as the needles are actually very fine filaments. Besides treating specific symptoms and diseases, acupuncture provides extra benefits, such as stimulating our bodies to produce extra endorphins, which scientists cite as being five thousand times more powerful than morphine. So, acupuncture treats insomnia, as well as depression, anxiety, irritability, and general stress.

Herbal Medicine 
Herbal medicine offers profound benefits for sleep issues. Plants have been used for thousands of years, and when applied in a scientific system, herbal medicine stands as arguably the most comprehensive and effective healing system in the world. Even in the world of pharmaceuticals, some drugs are made from plants, and others are direct chemical analogues of plants. Plants have been evolving along with humans for millions of years, and they act as a biological key that intrinsically fits with the human body. Chronic issues such as insomnia often respond better to herbal medicine than to pharmaceuticals. 

Homeopathy 
Homeopathic remedies provide a safe, non-toxic, and effective treatment of insomnia. There are remedies that can treat simple, self-limiting, and occasional symptoms. More importantly, we achieve profound results treating chronic issues through constitutional treatment, in which we select a medicine based on a person's overall make-up on both physical and psychological levels.  In this way we can successfully treat many health issues, including insomnia.