Treating Insomnia with Xanax

Insomnia has plenty of causes and only a few effective treatments. All the insomnia medicines do is get you to bed; the cause of the insomnia still goes untreated.

Here are some of the common causes of insomnia:

• Stress
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Allergies
• Illness
• Age
• Decreases in melatonin levels
• Irregular sleep schedule
• Side effects of medications
• Alcohol or Caffeine use
• Eating before bed
• Environmental factors (noise, light, etc)

Behavioral Treatments

Develop a sleep routine. It should include some relaxing activities. Relaxing herbal teas are a great idea to encourage sleep. NEVER WATCH TV OR READ BEFORE TRYING TO SLEEP. This can cause you to get insomnia.

Another good behavioral tip is to exercise more during the day. If you get at least 20 minutes of running, biking, swimming, or anything that really gets your heart going, your brain will be more balanced and your body ready for sleep.

Most importantly, go to bed at the same time and GET UP at the same time daily. Sleep is a natural rhythmic cycle that must be maintained.

Treat the Underlying Condition

You need to find out what is causing the insomnia. If it is depression, talk to a doctor and therapist about treating your depression. Conversely, insomnia can cause depression, so this whole situation can become a confusion chicken-and-egg conundrum.

If allergies or another annoyance is keeping you up, figure out a way to treat that, because a lack of sleep can really disturb your immune system function. Antihistamines work for many people and help some fall asleep, but for others they can actually cause insomnia, so be careful. There are other allergy medicines out there as well as plenty of good decongestants.

Decrease in Melatonin Levels

This seems to happen as people age or as a result of certain life patterns. Whatever the case may be, it is painfully common. Luckily, it is easy enough to buy a melatonin supplement and take anywhere between 1mg and 5 mg an hour before bedtime. Doing this routinely will restore your sleep process.

Environment Factors

If you have noise or light creeping into your sleeping area and you haven't moved yet, let's assume that that's not an option. What can you do? Simple: ear plugs and eye mask.

Anxiety

It used to be that anxiety was the hardest problem to rectify. It involved all manner of tonics and potions and therapies. (Well, the therapy is still a good idea.)

What's more, as you struggle with sleep day after day, you start to really feel anxious about being able to fall asleep as well, never mind what started the anxiety in the first place. While there are mental exercises you can do to deal with the anxiety, those only work so much. This is one situation where going to prescription medicine makes perfect sense.

Xanax is an anti-anxiety medication that also has hypnotic properties. This means that while Xanax will relieve your anxiety and give you a more relaxed mind, it also works directly to carry you off to Sleepyland.

You don't need anxiety to treat insomnia with Xanax; ask your doctor today.