Slumber in the Earthen Touch

Something humans let go for centuries since they adapted to modern conventions turns out to be an effective cure of insomnia.

THE ex-Marine protagonist in Andrew Peterson’s novel First to Kill (2008) believed in this rule: “Sleep when you can.” This serves well in military operations when, at the sight of enemies, no sleep becomes necessary until the mission has been accomplished.

But insomnia can make ordinary civilians behave like soldiers to their detriment. Who can beat insomnia at its peak? People of advanced age mostly have it, or at least their sleeping hours get shorter and shorter with age. Adults who have an increasingly hectic city lifestyle can be so primed up with stress that they may not put their heartbeats or their minds to rest even as the dawn breaks. Chronic insomnia has been estimated to cost tens of billions of dollars annually in the United States alone.

You cannot just pop down sleeping pills whenever you want it. Drug dependence can be as deadly, if not deadlier, as lack of sleep. Yet, an effective cure for insomnia is accessible to us without us knowing it.

Recently, five scientists headed that includes cardiologist Stephen Sinatra of the University of Connecticut, noted studies that show the effectiveness of... [READ MORE]

This article appears in SunStar Cebu newspaper on 7 November 2012.

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