“An absolutely astounding study published in the British Medical Journal showed that just four sleeping pills a year will triple your risk of dying! Taking 18 pills a year will quadruple your risk of death! And the study pointed out that certain medications are worse than others, with Ambien boosting the risk of an early death by 5.7 times and Restoril by 6.6 times. That means sleeping pills are killing 500,000 Americans annually – just slightly below the numbers of heart disease and cancer!”
If that message doesn’t keep you awake at night, nothing will. And although discussed last year, the newest information about “sleepers” makes it even more important that you do not embark on a regimen of sleeping pills without first exhausting all other treatments to get you to sleep better. So how are you supposed to get to sleep and stay asleep without sleeping pills, either by prescription (Ambien, Restoril, Lunesta, Sonata, etc.) or over- the-counter pills?
To get good sleep, your brain and pineal gland chemistry (melatonin, serotonin, etc.) must be in balance. You will need plenty of quality protein which contains amino-acid nutrition like tryptophan. And you will need the correct treatment to address nervous insomnia. You know this one – you just can’t sleep because of your nerves.
The following paragraph was written by a top physician of his time. It seems almost comical it was written in 1934! “Nervous insomnia, like many other conditions directly related to lack of vitamins and minerals, has been considered a result of the high speed of modern civilization. It is quite true that overwork, worry, mental stress, etc., aggravate the ailment. But the real cause is lowered resistance to stresses, lowered stamina and increased nervous irritability because of deficient nutrition.
Given today’s state of our economy, the hustle-bustle world we live in, our ever-worsening health, our inept politicians, and the constant degradation of our food supply, the stresses of living are surely greater now than in 1934. Fortunately for us all, most of this stress, lowered stamina, and increased nervous irritability has it origins in nutritional deficiencies. And this can be fixed.
Test This Insomnia Protocol First
This is where you should start your insomnia protocol before getting hooked on sleeping pills. It is easy, cheap, not habit-forming, and safe to first test the nutritional connection to insomnia. Here is what you should do.
- Eat a high-protein dinner of fish, meat, poultry, etc., with vegetables. Remember your Grandmother’s cure for insomnia? A glass of warm milk (protein) at bedtime. Of course her milk was real, raw, non-pasteurized, and non-homogenized.
- Skip the starch, processed foods, booze, coffee and tea at dinner. If you have a sweet for dessert, keep it small and finish by 6 p.m.
- Do not eat or drink anything after 6 p.m. For millions of people a drop in blood sugar (caused by too many sweets and carbohydrates for or after dinner) wakes them up after a couple hours of sleep. Instead eat quality protein and vegetables which will keep your blood sugar steady while feeding your pineal gland, your brain, ad your production of melatonin and serotonin, all needed for good sleep. You will need to do this for at least 90 days for a good test.
- Add the anti-insomnia protocol. During this same time, and before embarking on all kinds of expensive, high-tech tests and prescription drugs, use two products that make up the anti-insomnia protocol – Catalyn and Min-Tran. Simply take Catalyn (2 tablets) and Min-Tran (6 tablets) at bedtime. Catalyn is still a top selling nutritional supplement (food concentrate) after 80 years of sales with no advertising. How many of the latest super supplements will still be selling in the year 2093? And min Tran has a 52-year track record. Its name tells its story – it is an organic mineral supplement that makes you more tranquil. Both are produced by Standard Process. Do not take more than two Catalyn at bedtime because Catalyn can eliminate fatigue. At bedtime this would defeat its purpose as an anti-insomnia product.
What Else Works
- Use a melatonin supplement. If you can’t rebuild your own melatonin/serotonin balance with good nutrition, a melatonin supplement may help you sleep. It is best to take .3 mg (3/10 of a milligram) or less because higher doses are less effective. Many people do well using Deep Breathing at bedtime to help them fall asleep. As a side benefit, it will help you relax and lower your blood pressure. You can find Deep Breathing instructions in your Encyclopedia of Pragmatic and Holistic Medicine.
- Exercise. Lots of folks get better sleep after they exercise. A strong walk after dinner is often sufficient. And studies show that television should be kept out of your bedroom. If you watch TV, do so in another room, and use your ventilated, appropriately darkened bedroom only for sleeping.
- Reduce pain. Lots more folks are awakened throughout the night by small aches and pains. The way to test this is to take two Advil or some other aspirin-like product at bedtime for one night and see if you sleep better. If you do, that is not the sign to take pain killers every night. Rather it is a sign that you need better nutrition to heal up minor sprains and strains of living so that you do not have pains at night. Your anti-insomnia protocol will help here.
- Check your prescriptions. If you take several prescriptions, be sure to look them all up in a Drug Handbook. Find out if they can, alone or in combination, cause insomnia. You may need the help of a pharmacist with this. Many communities now have pharmacists that help people work out health problems caused by Rx drugs. If you take several prescriptions, you may be shocked to find out that your insomnia has been caused all along by your doctor.
- Check out a sleep center. Also very important – the latest studies show that Sleep Centers are now extremely helpful in getting you to overcome insomnia. Do not overlook this possibility if all else fails in your case. Reliable studies show that seniors in particular get very good results and much better sleep after just a few counseling sessions at a sleep center.
In Summary
Change your diet for 90 days. Eat quality protein for dinner with little to no refined or processed carbohydrates, and nothing after 6 p.m. Use the anti-insomnia protocol to fulfill nutritional deficiencies that can keep you awake. Check to see if your prescriptions are the cause of your problem. Exercise lightly after dinner. Get the TV out of your bedroom. Use Deep Breathing. And if all else fails, try a good Sleep Center. All before you embark on a lifetime of drugs.
