This is Optimal Health Daily.

Six Steps to Better Sleep by Michael Bruce with livehappy.com, and I'm Dr. Neal.

Happy Sunday and welcome back to the show where I act as your very own personal narrator

and read to you from some of the most popular health and fitness blogs online.

But for now, let's get right to it and start optimizing your life.

Six Steps to Better Sleep by Michael Bruce with LiveHaphy.com.

Wasted, Wiped Out, Zonked, Nackard. If you have insomnia, then you know what it feels like to be very,

very tired during the day. That's because you simply are not getting enough good quality

sleep at night. Research shows that sleep deprivation affects every organ system and can bring on

severe psychological distress. In fact, in many countries, it's used as a form of torture.

Many factors can cause acute or chronic insomnia, including anxiety, stress, depression,

and physical ailments such as asthma, cancer, and heart failure. In addition, noise, light,

or extreme temperatures can interfere with one's sleep, as can a change in sleep schedule

and many other factors. What are the symptoms of insomnia? If you have insomnia, you might have

difficulty falling asleep, you may wake too early, or like Live Happy Editor at Large Shelly Levitt,

you may wake up many times during the night. During the day,

you might feel tired, irritable, and have a lack of motivation, or problems with concentration and

memory. You might find yourself making mistakes at work or school and having unexplained headaches

or stomach pains. Not surprisingly, one symptom is worrying about sleep. How is insomnia treated?

The main treatment for insomnia is cognitive behavioral therapy,

a highly effective form of talk therapy in which you counter irrational thinking

with more logical thought patterns.

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