4 harmful effects of herbs for insomnia not everyone knows

1. What is considered insomnia?

 Insomnia is a common sleep disorder that includes poor sleep, difficulty falling asleep, and inadequate sleep time, making patients feel tired and lose focus the next day.

It is estimated that each year up to 7% of adults suffer from insomnia, the disease is more common in women than men. Insomnia can be the primary disease or a secondary symptom of other conditions; often occurs in individuals who are psychologically vulnerable, under a lot of stress, have multiple comorbidities or have a family history, a personal history of insomnia.

Long-term insomnia causes serious effects on health as well as mental health, patients are often in a state of fatigue, lethargy, difficulty concentrating, lack of vitality, affecting work, study and work performance. reduced quality of life.

             2. Insomnia in traditional medicine

Manifestations of insomnia are described by traditional medicine in terms of narcolepsy or narcolepsy. The cause of the disease is often due to physical weakness, long-term illness, old age, poor yin blood not enough to nourish the yang, due to heat disturbance, mental disturbances or emotional disturbances, unhealthy eating. ..

Treatment with traditional medicine is mainly aimed at sedation, clearing heat, chemical phlegm, and blood yin.

Some herbs commonly used by traditional medicine practitioners in the treatment of insomnia can be mentioned as lotus heart, passion fruit, lime vase, nem tree, tam ventricular bud, apple cider vinegar ...

Although compared to modern drugs, those derived from herbs are safer, with fewer side effects, but these drugs still have the potential to cause some of the following harms:

            3. Are herbal remedies for insomnia harmful?

Herbal medicines are safer, with fewer side effects, but they still have the potential to cause some of the following side effects:

1. Causes daytime drowsiness if taken during the day or in high doses.
2. Causes drug dependence if used for too long.
3. Allergic risk: for some people with atopy.
4. Orthostatic hypotension: Most herbal sleeping pills will have a mild antihypertensive effect. For people with low blood pressure should be careful when using. Should be used when full and can be considered in combination with many other complementary herbs to avoid lowering blood pressure when changing positions with manifestations such as dizziness, dizziness, lightheadedness...

          4.Practice sleep hygiene to help cure insomnia

• In addition, for the treatment to be effective, the patient needs to practice good sleep hygiene including:

1. Keep a regular bedtime and wake-up time, and don't spend more time in bed than necessary.
2. Avoid sleeping in the morning.
3. Avoid long naps, take short naps of less than 1 hour and avoid napping after 3 pm.
4. Keep a regular daytime schedule; Regular timing for meals, medications, work, and other activities helps keep the body's internal clocks running smoothly.
5. Do not read, write, eat, watch TV, talk on the phone… in bed.
6. Avoid caffeine after lunch; avoid alcohol within 6 hours before going to bed; Avoid nicotine before bed.