Thanks to errors of eating and drinking, and perennial anxiety that dogs present day life; even the elementary life need like ‘sleep’ are hardly met. Insomniacs pass difficult night lying on bed awake. If by any chance they do catch a nap, the slightest of noise usurps it. And then once again there are desperate attempts to find sleep. But sleep, as if, plays truant.
Sleep disturbance, like coughs and common cold, becoming common place. In the initial stages people try to fight this malady by taking recourse to sleep inducing drugs. But over a period of time, medicines start failing. Pills are no panacea for lack of sleep. On the contrary they carry with them host of side effects and serious ailments. So when you are unable to sleep on time, don’t be your own physician and do pill popping, but take recourse to simple sleep inducing techniques. It isn’t the sufferers themselves who do trespassing, at times even trained Doctors give them needless doses and prolong their ailment. Doubtless, these short cuts are no remedy for insomnia mania.
What these instant measures do infact is to wave problem just for a while. So it is worth your while to search cure in the core of your heart, rather than in a Doctor’s clinic. Because if the problem persists for long, it may take a serious turn and grown into intractable insomnia. Pernicious sleeplessness leads to mental aberrations, difficult breathing, and sleep walking where a person suddenly goes out on walk at mid of night. Infact sleep is as vital for our tired body as charger is for spent battery. It relaxes our muscles and other body systems so that we are fit enough to face challenges of the day ahead.
There is no clear opinion on how many hour of sleep would suffice for a man in good health. As a matter of fact quantum of sleep fluctuates depending on a person’s health profile. As a man ages, hours of sound sleep comes down. A newborn pegs 18 hours of sleep in a day. But the same child when 10-12 year old, comes down on scale, and sleeps for only about 9 to 10 hours. For an adult, 7-8 hours are enough. Some people though, are totally refreshed even by a five hour nap.
Yet there are people who doze in bed for 10-12 hours and yet remain lost and tired. By far the single most cogent reason for lack of sleep is lack of physical exercise. Urbanites, generally, avoid physical exercise. Their sedentary life style, like sitting in shops and offices, entails no physical exertion. Even on errands, motor vehicles are used, reducing physical labour to zero level. Significantly, it is only by manual work or physical exercise that sound sleep is ensured. Reason being that exercise leads to wear and tear in body muscles—for whose repair and regeneration—body must rest by way of sound sleep. It is noteworthy that physical exercise ought to be taken only during the morning hours. At dusk or at night—only strolling is advisable.
At dinner, only light and easily digestible food should be taken. That too well two hours before the stipulated time to go to bed. Eating fruits post supper helps digesting your food. A rich diet can stress your digestive system leading to disturbed sleep. Hence avoid heavy meal and sweetmeats at night.
Also contraindicated, after sunset, are stimulant drinks and food substance. Coffee, cola, tea and even chocolate contain spur element caffeine which agitates mind and whole lot of nervous system. That jettisons sleep. Hence these should never be taken after 4 p.m. in the day. Even cigarette, which contains antisleep nicotine, shouldn’t be smoked at the fall of dusk.
Some over the counter drugs, like those given for Asthmatic patients, are sleep disturbing in nature. If insomnia follow medication by such like drugs, one shouldn’t be overly worried. Because rhythm of normal sleep comes back soon after medication is over.
Preparing for good sleep is worth its while. Before going to bed, tensions of day long work, hopes, fears and disappointment should all be consigned to dustbin. Don’t go into flashback of what you did in course of the day just concluded. For this, you ought to make up your mind firmly two hours before retiring to bed. This will gear you up favourably and shorn of petty irritants, you will sleep like a baby. Should any wayward idea or negative emotion come near you, shove it off firmly. And replace them instantly with such sweet memories as please and pamper you.
Not all people are religiously inclined. For such people, catching a good night’s sleep needs meticulous work out. Do gardening, play game, or do any piece of work which can tire you physically. Once exhausted, sleep automatically comes calling. If sleep eludes you, get up from your bed. Do a bit of reading or some other work till your eyes feel heavy.
For a good night’s repose, it is essential that your life style is balanced and well organised. Liquor, cigarette, and excess of tea drinking can trigger onset of insomnia. So, it is for you whether you choose a well regulated life style, or the disease of remaining awake at night. Some physical ailments too precipitate insomnia. Whatever be the reason, it must be dug out for solutions. To begin with the problem should be addressed through benign methods. If such remedies fail, then Doctor should be consulted without hesitation.
Apart from fulsome sleep, even naps of shorter duration too can be extremely refreshing. Experts advocate snatching a nap post lunch taking care that siesta doesn’t last longer than 20 to 25 minutes time.
Problem of insomnia is cosmopolitan in nature. According to one survey, every seventh Briton, and every third American is doffed by difficult sleep.
Insomnia, doubtless, is a derangement of nervous system—rather than a mere physical ailment. Hence corrective measures mandate radical changes in the way we look at life, and not drugs alone. Keep needless worries at distance. Accept status quo sportingly. Work hard—physically. What you can’t change (for the better), ought not to be worried about for sake of your mental health. Do think about tomorrow, plan for it, but don’t panic for it. Burden of past and future times, if pulled along with the weight of present day challenges, can bring on knees even the bravest of brave. Hence the saying : ‘Let bygones be bygones.’
Sports and well being
Courtsey sports icons like Sania Mirza, P.T. Usha and Karnam Malleshwari, women have turned to sports, albeit a bit differently. Clubs, indoor games, and playing in a park with children are preferred activities. Playing cards, tambola and scrambles are also their favoured resorts.
Women from elite families engage in a game of money kittee called ‘committee dalana’.
Depending on their paying power this game sees thousands and even lakhs of rupees changing hands in socialite parties. Pelf and prosperity are brazenly displayed. Ladies in such groups generally discuss about their apparels and ornaments. But games like hockey, table tennis, swimming and cricket are hardly talked about, leave alone indulging in them for fun and exercise. Such damsel believe they are tender dolls draped in expensive cloths and jwellery from head to toe. Hence, if at all they must play, the game ought to showcase their wealth and riches.
Do you play enough?
Some figure conscious ladies try playing a bit of badminton, table tennis and such like games, hoping to shed some extra weight, but paradoxically, end up gossiping with neighbours, relatives and others present on ground, after a mere 5 to 10 minutes of actual participation in the game. Thanks to idiot box, and its crazy programmes like Sas-bahu et al, women get enough material to talk endlessly and waste time. So, where is the time to play games?
Games are basically meant to promote physical and mental health so that people forget their worries for a while and concentrate on their health parameters. Some high society gals, who are congnisant of this reality, are fewer in number. For women of middle-class and lower-class, this health awareness was as much lacking in past, as it is of now. Albeit their environment has changed. Earlier din and bustle of domestic chores was enough to exercise them and keep them in fine fettle. But now, thanks to myriad modern gadgets, house keeping doesn’t entail much of physical labour. Consequently the fair sex is falling pray to host of diseases like spondilytis, obesity and blood pressure. What with most of them used to television viewing and gossiping in their spare time.
Then there are women who fight shy of descending on play ground. To some others, their family norms don’t permit playing outdoors. These days computers and internet are a rage not only for the housewives but for the young girls as well. In order to remain slim and trim, these damsels will prefer dieting to doing sports. This is not to say that women are untouched by growing popularity and relevance of outdoor games, but the few that are indeed sports loving—are choosing them as career. Amateurism is out. That is, women engaged in other careers or vocation, have no time for games. Sports, it seems, has become verisimilitude of TV and internet engagements.
