Synthetic Sleep Aids – Can They Be Replaced?

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Instead of sleeping at night, insomniacs check emails on phone, shop online, watch movies and chat with friends

A recent article in Huffington Post, talks about sleeping problems that most people face and the use of synthetic sleep aids. I am sure, we all have experienced sleep problems or insomnia sometime or the other in our lifetime. We have discovered how we wake up in the wee hours of the night to stare into space. So, what do we do, we check mails, shop online, text friends, watch movies, and hang out with other insomniacs on social networking sites.

It is not crashing after a day’s hard work that is difficult, but to sustain sleep for about 8 hours seems almost impossible for many.

Synthetic Sleeping Aids

Many Americans rely upon sleeping pills for getting proper sleep. On taking these some people don’t even remember the things they do; all they remember is that they slept.

So, maybe it is time to think about better alternatives for getting proper sleep without harming our body and our mind.

Trace History of Insomnia and Sleeping Aids

Insomnia is not a problem of the current technology savvy world alone; rather, it has its roots that go way back hundreds of years. Maybe it is time to learn a few things from our forefathers regarding sleeplessness. They too would have lain awake at night ruminating of issues concerning them, so what did they do? Sleep aids, of course. Seems like most of their sleep aids came from nature. A very good and potential example is that of Chinese medicine.

Chinese medicine uses the seeds of zizyphus jujube to calm anxious mind and induce sleep. This seed has been found to contain natural sedative properties. This Chinese remedy for insomnia is used extensively and has a success record far surpassing those of synthetic sleep aids. Chinese herbal medicine continues to perfect its herbal formulas from over thousands of years without the use of any synthetic ingredients. These medicines have been accepted in Asia by governments of Japan, China, Taiwan, and others.

Precautions to be taken while Purchasing Herbal Medicines

No doubt, herbal medicines have proved to be very effective sleeping aids but most of them have some limitations:

Some of the herbal products are not worth buying since they may contain spurious products.
Some manufacturers sell herbal products without testing the herbs for contaminants.
There are many companies selling herbal products without having knowledge of the manufacturer or raw ingredients used.

Natural Sleep Aids Are a Safer Remedy

While choosing sleeping aids, do not use products that contain synthetic chemicals because most of them are not fully used in the body and simply get accumulated or excreted. It is always better to choose natural ingredients like our ancestors did. It is very much possible to opt for natural sleep aids in comparison to synthetic ones. The author, Cathy Margolin, goes on to say that:

Our ancestors found herbs to help them sleep and then perfected the use of mixing certain botanicals together. I don’t think there is the need to recreate the wheel now — we just need to know how to use it.

Opting for natural products is definitely worth considering where insomnia is considered. Do follow the advice of a registered herbalist or expert while planning to use natural produts.

Listed below are some clinical trials investigating new treatments for sleep disorder.