Do you suffer from anxiety? Stress? Physical exhaustion? Do the symptoms cause sleeplessness, resulting in your waking the next morning feeling like you did an entire week's work during the night? Even worse, are you afraid of taking chemicals that make you sleep, though maybe only for a few hours? Do the side effects of taking drugs frighten you?
There are other, more natural ways to treat stress, anxiety, and sleepless nights. One way to alleviate the problem is by avoiding the causative factors, eating lighter, eliminating caffeine containing products, shunning alcohol, and increasing physical activity. All these are steps in a concentrated program to reduce stress and promote relaxation and sleep.
In addition to these steps, you might consider the addition of the herb Valerian. Extracts from the root system of the plant have been used for centuries to help people to relax and sleep. Traditionally, extracts from the root of the valerian plant have been used as a sedative to help people with insomnia, anxiety and some types of pain and nervous conditions.
There are those who think of Valerian as a modern day Valium like product because of its marked relaxing effects. One of the major advantages of valerian is its lack of side effects, particularly those associated with ingestion of benzodiazepines (Valium and similar preparations). Valerian is totally unrelated chemically to that class of drugs, is not addicting or habit forming, and has no demonstrable synergistic action with alcohol.
Although more than 200 species of valerian exist, the one most often employed is the European species, and only the roots are utilized in creating extracts. There exists more than 100 constituents in the extract and, as of now, no one portion or group of them has been proven responsible for valerian's unique action.
Numerous controlled clinical trials are recorded that demonstrate valerians effectiveness. Compared with a placebo (a product with absolutely no known activity) and with Valium and other similar drugs, valerian has been confirmed as an effective drug in its sedative effect.
One of the drugs drawbacks is that it isn't immediately effective. Often, a patient will have to take the prescribed dosage for 2 to 4 weeks before realizing its benefits. Once its desired effects have been reached, the drug should be taken about 45 minutes to an hour before going to sleep.
There are no reports of toxicity or interactions between valerian and other medications. It is atypical that a patient on valerian would experience morning hangover, but on the rare occasion when that would happen, an adjustment in dosage would eliminate the problem.
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