AYURVEDIC MANAGEMENT OF INSOMNIA - A CASE REPORT

*Jithesh M. and Anju Chandran

ABSTRACT

Insomnia is a disorder of sleep in which the individuals come across difficulty to fall asleep, stay asleep or both. People with insomnia often don't feel restricted when they wake up from sleep, which leads to fatigue and other associative symptoms. Insomnia is the most common among all sleep disorders as per American Psychiatric Association (APA). In fact APA states that one-third of all adults report the symptoms of insomnia. Between 6 -10% of all adults have symptoms severe enough to be diagnosed with insomnia disorder.[1] The modern management include CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) as first line treatment for chronic insomnia, sleep hygiene training, usage of sedatives etc.[2] Ayurvedic psychiatry categorises the disease under nidranasa, which is considered as the decreased state of kapha, vitiated vata along with Pitta and flaw of both body and manas.[3] Hrdaya (manas) is the seat of chetana (soul) in living beings, when it becomes invaded by tamoguna person falls sleep. Hence excess tamoguna is the cause for sleep and satva guna is cause of wakening.[4] A 34 year old male patient attended the Ayurvedic Psychiatry OPD 2 months back. He has decreased sleep and problem with initiation of sleep as well as its maintenance from almost last 5 years. As per the patient, he won't get sleep at all, no deep sleep even with allopathic medicine, which he was continuing from the last 5 years. This case was diagnosed as Nidranasa, and considering the dosha predominance and present complaints, a protocol with special preference to sodhana therapy was performed. The selected protocol was effective on assessment and highlights the role of Ayurvedic treatment management in Insomnia.

Keywords: Insomnia, Nidranasa, Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Insomnia severity index.