Insomnia in popular culture

Insomnia in popular culture

by | Jun 9, 2020 | Christian meditation

Insomnia has been a featured disorder from many factors such as books and movies. Two cult classics one is a book titled Insomnia wrote by horror novelist Stephen King and the other is the Robert DeNiro film from 1976 Taxi Driver. There have been 28 songs written and recorded about insomnia and among the artists who recorded a song were Vanessa Carlton, Green Day, Radiohead, and Tenacious D. The most popular film based on the Chuck Palahniuk novel that was a hit about 6 years ago was Fight Club with Edward Norton and Brad Pitt and the lead character was a manic insomniac. This seems to be the most common form of sleeping disorder to the point that movies and songs were made about this problem.

People aren’t aware that this is a problematic issue for those who suffer from this. It’s not healthy to go without sleep because it can affect your immune system making you prone to catching things like the flu and colds. Not getting any rest can cause severe disorientation because your body wasn’t given an opportunity to rest and recuperate.

This is what drove the designer coffee movement up like the sprawl of coffee shops from Starbucks, Gloria Jeans, Seattle’s Best, and Caribou Coffee since you had a lot of late-nighters consisting of mainly people working in hospitals and college students who had to pull late nighters and cram sessions and needed to stay awake so when coffee wasn’t working they bought this over the counter pill called Vivarin which is equal to about 2 cups of coffee when you take the prescribed dosage.

It’s usually not a good idea to take Vivarin because it can interfere with your body’s ability to sleep and rest normally. You’ll find more college students getting sick a lot because they’re forcing their bodies to do things that aren’t normal like staying up super late and not getting at least 6 hours of sleep. Rest also provides your body’s digestive system to rest which makes up about 70% of your immune system so it’s ideal to sleep when necessary and taking short naps also works as a re-energizer to give you a burst of energy that works much better than coffee or caffeine pills.

That can become resistant since a lot of coffee drinkers tend to get very tired after a certain point and that’s due in part to the fact that you build up a resistance after having a few cups of coffee or cans of Coke so meaning it won’t keep you awake it will accelerate the rate of how fast you’ll start to feel sleepy.

So seeing pop culture idolize such a disorder is unknown unless the person who wrote the book or penned the song has a problem with it and decided to write or sing about it. The reason for it is unknown, but it’s rather interesting since a song can tell a story and the same of a book, but it’s obviously influenced a slew of songs, a few movies and a series of books where the characters are suffering from some kind of sleeping disorder from mild to severe.

A healthy diet is essential for optimal energy and a night of restful sleep. Avoiding certain foods is as important as including others in your daily diet. Eating a wide variety of foods and drinking plenty of water will keep your body well- balanced and provide a more stable energy level. Avoiding food that is grown, treated, or processed with chemicals, and limiting the amount of sugar and caffeine will also help your overall physical condition. Many foods promote restful sleep and are helpful in relieving some of the symptoms of certain sleep disorders. Eating the proper snack before bedtime can increase natural serotonin levels. Serotonin acts as a natural sedative and is made in the body from the amino acid tryptophan. Foods that are rich in tryptophan include chicken, turkey, cheese, cottage cheese, fish, milk, nuts, avocados, and bananas.

Many people use herbs and natural supplements as an alternative approach to treating their sleep disorder. There are many nutritional supplements and herbal products on the market. It is important to know how a specific product acts on the body as well as on the specific sleep disorder. For example, many people with restless leg syndrome have iron or folic acid deficiency. Taking an iron supplement may alleviate some of the symptoms of RLS. Many herbs are well known for promoting natural sleep. A clamming tea of chamomile or lemon balm can be very relaxing for many people that suffer from a sleep disorder.

Exercise and relaxation techniques, whether used alone or together, can reduce stress and muscle tension. Many people that use these techniques to lessen the symptoms of a sleep disorder do these before going to bed. They not only ease physical tension but they calm the mind and prepare the body to sleep. These techniques include mindful exercise, progressive muscle relaxation, breathing exercises, and yoga.

Meditation and visualization are also used by some sufferers of sleep disorders to calm the body before sleep. Two common forms of mediation are a meditation on breath and mantra meditation. Both of these types can have a positive effect on relieving stress and calming the body. Many people focus their energy on a healing visualization as a method of alternative therapy for their sleep disorder.

Sensory techniques that people use to lessen the symptoms of their sleep disorder are hydrotherapy, and aroma therapy. The two main techniques included in hydrotherapy, which means water therapy, are relaxing in an Epsom salt bath and a lymph stimulating footbath. Aroma therapy includes the use of therapeutic essential oils in baths, massage oils, room sprays, and simple inhalants.

Alternative behavioral and cognitive strategies used to combat the symptoms of a sleep disorder include improving a person’s sleep hygiene, stimulus control therapy, and journal writing.

Alternative practices and techniques can help many types of sleep disorders. Often they are used in conjunction with traditional medication and practices.

The Bibles Solution To Stress

The Bibles Solution To Stress

by | May 12, 2020 | Christian meditation

The word “stress” is common to many and usually associated with the responsibilities that come with our daily existence. Though the level and root cause may differ at different points in time, there seems to be an atom of it visible or lurking somewhere in our daily efforts to survive, live-out or fulfil our dreams.  In other words, we all have to deal with the issue of stress, whether it is physical, emotional, financial, or otherwise. 

Briefly speaking, stress is an induced psychological effect that starts off in our minds and then takes its toll on our bodies eventually.  Some people have argued that stress can be positive and leads to higher productivity as regards putting you on the edge, but more often than not, we attest to the fact that it almost literally saps the strength out of us, the energy, the enthusiasm, the vigor and enjoyment that comes with living if you like, free. 

So, that leaves us with the question – what does the Bible say about stress and its management?  The first thing to note is that the Bible does not deny stress nor its causes.  What we find rather is that we are not to allow ourselves to get enmeshed in its negative vibes which can be safely called worry.  Many times, feeling stressed can be a result of worry: worries about unmet goals for the day, about whether the goals can even be met given the timelines.  Worry also stems from unmet desires which then drowns such individuals in thoughts and then leads to stress.

John 14:1 gives us a remedy.  Stress inducers are bound to come but we are not to allow them to overwhelm our thoughts. In essence, a solution to stress is to stay positive.  At first, that may not seem helpful, but the effect on the mind is far-reaching.  This is because our minds have a way of amplifying thoughts when we ruminate on them for long.  So, when you notice a stress pattern, do not allow it in by absorbing it into your thoughts.  Firstly, give a smile, then say a kind word.  That puts you on a better pedestal and a cooler frame of mind to tackle the source of that stress. 

Furthermore, learn to be proactive by feeding your mind with the right thoughts all the time (Phillipians 4:8). It is a terrible habit to always be on the lookout for things to go wrong, or always foreseeing ill. Rather, what works to handle stress when they eventually come is to have shielded your mind with the right thoughts. That way, your first response will not be to jump off the cliff but to calm your nerves.  It is as the saying goes, “you don’t prepare for battle on the day of battle. 

Finally, having the right friends around you offers great and quick relief from stress.  (1 Corinthians 15:33, Proverbs 15:1). You can always rely on the good company for advice when you feel really stressed and their presence, in the least, helps alleviate it. The three solutions given are tested and proven to deal with stress effectively.