Insomnia: Alternative Medicine Popular

(WebMD)  Many Americans toss, turn, and try complementary and alternative medicines to ease insomnia. More than 35 million U.S. adults regularly had insomnia in 2002, and 1.6 million of them tried complementary or alternative therapies to get some sleep.

Those figures come from Nancy Pearson, Ph.D., and colleagues at the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), part of the National Institutes of Health. Pearson's team checked data on more than 31,000 U.S. adults from a 2002 government health survey.

One of survey questions was, "During the past 12 months, have you regularly had insomnia or trouble sleeping?" About 17 percent of participants said "yes." That equals more than 35 million people in the general public, the researchers calculate.

Insomnia was more common among women than men, and among people who were obese or had high blood pressure, congestive heart failure, anxiety, or depression.

Participants with insomnia were asked if they had used complementary or alternative medicine in the previous year. Complementary and alternative medicine was defined as including vitamins, herbs, massage, and mind-body practices such as meditation, yoga, biofeedback, and hypnosis.

Nearly 5 percent of participants with insomnia said they had tried complementary or alternative medicine to help them sleep. That translates to 1.6 million people in the general public, Pearson's team notes.

Almost two-thirds of survey participants who tried complementary or alternative medicine used biologically based therapies (including herbs and vitamins). Nearly 40 percent said they tried mind-body therapies.

As those numbers show, some participants apparently tried both biological and mind-body therapies.

Participants with insomnia who reported using complementary or alternative medicine were asked if they thought their treatment had helped them sleep.

Nearly half of those who used herbal therapies or relaxation therapy said they felt that their therapy had helped their insomnia "a great deal," the researchers write.

The study doesn't show participants' satisfaction rate for other complementary or alternative approaches to insomnia. However, more than half said that their complementary or alternative therapy was "very important to maintaining their health and well-being."

The findings are "interesting" and deserve more study, but don't scientifically prove effectiveness, the researchers note.

The NCCAM recommends that patients tell their doctors about any use of complementary or alternative medicine to allow for complete medical records. About 60 percent of survey participants said they had told their doctor about their use of complementary or alternative therapies for their insomnia, the study shows.

SOURCES: Pearson, N. Archives of Internal Medicine, Sept. 18, 2006; Vol. 166: pp 1775-1782. News release, JAMA/Archives.

By Miranda Hitti
Reviewed by Louise Chang

[sfhaug]

Dr. Siegfried Haug

. Most life-style changes need more complex, comprehensive interventions. Here are some obvious ones: The average person eats their main meal at night. Six to seven hours later that %u2018fuel%u2019 becomes available to the body as a burst of energy %u2013 at about the most inopportune time of anybody%u2019s cycle. Or on a relational level: Virtually all family/partner stress surfaces at night. Many times in bed. Sleep for mammals is a highly vulnerable state. Anything threatening will put the system on alert. Then there is an even more fascinating phenomenon: Men outsleep women 2:1. My theory (and approach) is based on long term observations. Women have a tendency to associate letting-go (of an issue, problem, thought) with not caring. Their male partners who want to put things to rest (for the time being, anyway) are often criticized for not being involved deeply enough.
Whatever the reasons for our epidemic problem with falling and staying asleep are, we need to realize that insomnia is a symptom, not a disease. A symptom is a message %u2013 it needs to be heeded; medication by-and-large shoots the messenger.
Thank you for the opportunity to give you this feed-back.
S.F. Haug

[mrbiofeedbac]

A superb program:

SLEEP WELL by Dr. Peter Hauri
RELAXATION AND SLEEP

Many people who have difficulty getting to sleep and/or staying asleep have never learned to relax very deeply. For them, learning relaxation skills may alleviate their sleeplessness. Research suggests that the type of relaxation technique is less important than that it be well learned. However, there are some points to ponder:

Not all people with sleep disorders are tense, and those who are biologically relaxed but still cannot sleep, may not benefit directly from relaxation training. Nonetheless, learning relaxation skills will assist them in coping with day to day stress and this can help reduce the contribution of psychological factors to their sleeplessness.
The relaxation training program should be used at the time of sleep onset - at the time when conscious control is waning. It is also important to practice for more than a few hours. Research has shown that 5 to 30 sessions of concentrated relaxation training (20-30 minutes) may be necessary before your sleeping problem will start to improve.
Relaxation training helps all tense people, not just those with sleep-onset problems. Tense patients, especially older ones, may fall asleep easily in the evening from sheer exhaustion. Awakening naturally a few hours later, as all people do, they may then have difficulty returning to sleep and could use relaxation skills.

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