Insomnia and Naturopathic Care

Here at Dalhousie Health & Wellness our naturopathic Doctors are trained to help you with Insomnia. When you have insomnia, you’re never really asleep, and you’re never really awake. With insomnia, nothing’s real. Everything is far away. Everything is a copy of a copy of a copy. (Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club).😩
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Tossing and turning at night and the inability to sleep can be one of the most frustrating things experienced by an individual! In addition, disrupted sleep can affect our health in many ways – including an increase in appetite, weight gain, depressed immunity, low energy, decreased attention span and many more. 😕
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Insomnia and sleep issues should not be considered normal and ought to be addressed before they begin to negatively affect our health. Surprisingly perhaps, insomnia also occurs more frequently than most would imagine. In fact, a study in the Canadian Journal of psychiatry showed that within the tested sample - over 40% of participants in a randomized survey presented with at least 1 symptom of insomnia (trouble falling asleep, staying asleep or morning awakening for a minimum of 3 nights per week in the previous month. 🕛
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The causes of insomnia are numerous and oftentimes the cases may have multiple sources. From a naturopathic perspective, insomnia can be very treatable once the actual cause is addressed. Normally, once secondary organic causes (like menopausal hormonal shifts, thyroid dysregulation etc) are eliminated or treated – the treatment focuses on identifying sleep hygiene and regulation of circadian rhythms (our sleep/wake cycle), regulating melatonin levels, stress hormones (adrenaline and cortisol) and investigating the individuals microbiome health. New research for example, illustrates strong evidence to suggest that 80% of our serotonin (a neurotransmitter that is responsible for metabolism, mood and sleep) is produced in the GUT by commensal (healthy) bacteria. That is why creating a healthy GUT environment is crucial for restful and uninterrupted sleep. 🌘

Dr. Michael Michna, Naturopath