Is Your Mind Gabbin' at you all Night?

The ABZzz's of Sleeping Insomnia Free, a free ebook, offers tips, tools, techniques and suggestions for helping you to improve your sleep. As you follow the alphabet and arrive at the letter 'G', it brings to mind GABA - gamma-aminobutryric acid - that helps to stabilize nerve cells by decreasing their tendency to fire erratically or excessively. .

If you struggle with sleep challenges and mood swings, research suggests that this may result from a lack of the same brain chemical - GABA - gamma-aminobutryric acid. This is a chemical that is necessary for regulating your brain activity. "It's the brakes of your brain," says Karl Doghramji, MD, director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. "It stops activity."

Consequently, what this means, is that if you are lacking sufficient GABA, your mind may never completely slow down or shut down. It is thought that both anxiety disorders and lack of sleep, may be the result if you do not produce enough GABA, because GABA aids in neutralizing glutamate, which is another brain chemical that stimulates excitement. When you have too little GABA, you can end up with mind chatter, often referred to as 'Money-Mind', where your thoughts race from one to another and never seem to stop ~ which of course can play havoc with your sleep and keeps you awake.

Stage 4, your deep delta sleep, is the most important stage during sleep. Deep delta is where your brainwaves so right down. Even though your brainwave activity never truly stops completely, in stage 4 you are unconscious. This is when you produce HGH - human growth hormone - which allows your cells to repair and rebuild. This is when you produce sufficient leptin - a hormone that is an appetite suppressant. This is a critical stage of sleep that makes us feel rested and rejuvenated in the morning. When sleeping naturally and soundly, this stage usually happens about 45 minutes after falling asleep. As the night progresses, we usually go through all the sleep stages about 5 or 6 times (when you're sleeping properly). This means you should get about 5 or 6 deep delta segments is all is going well. As morning nears, these stage 4 segments do shorten and REM (Rapid Eye Movement) stage lengthens. Therefore, the research suggests that the first 3 to 4 hours of sleep are the most important because you receive the most stage 4 or deep delta sleep in this time span.

So, knowing how important your sleep is, the role of GABA, which calms the mind and slows down brainwave activity, is also important. Studies show that people with depression, anxiety, and other mood disorders are usually deficient in delta sleep, says Doghramji, speaking at the American Medical Association's annual Science Reporters Conference.

With this information, a new generation of GABA-stimulating drugs is being developed to allow both your mind and your body to get the rest it needs. If your anxiety and sleep problems are GABA related, the longer this goes on, the greater the risk to your overall emotional health. Obviously, if you experience daily as well as nightly anxiety and it is affecting your sleep negatively, you are best to consult your medical practitioner.

There are many GABA related supplements available online and in pharmacies, but since there is not a lot of data on them, specific research or knowledge of the purity of the ingredients, I recommend that if you take them, you take them with caution or under a doctor's supervision. Be aware that taking GABA can often help you to relax and reduce anxiety, but when taking GABA at night, it can cause very vivid dreaming.

There is currently research being conducted with the goal of treating both situations - anxiety and insomnia. However, until these drugs are on the market, consider alternative means for improving your sleep. Some of the easy things you can do are:nn· Maintain regularity in going to bed and getting upn· Encorporate calming activites prior to bedn· Exercise dailyn· Limit caffeine to the morningn· Don't eat too late at nightn· Don't have alcohol at nightn· Dim the lights at night to encourage natural melatonin production