Insomnia

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The point being this all was very confusing for Aja Evans.

"It's the worst type of pain," Evans recalled.

"I didn't know whether to hold my knee, get it straight, let it go.

I thought it was over." After a pause, the Morgan Park senior sheepishly added: "I kind of overreact sometimes." Yet her apprehension was understandable, even if her immediate self-diagnosis was somewhat off the mark.

The injury Evans suffered at the end of a triple jump at York in February 2005 was indeed significant: a torn meniscus with strained ligaments that shelved her for the entire indoor season.

The fallout was somewhat less dire, because Evans eventually returned to her two feet and ran all the way to the state finals of the 100-meter dash, in which her time of 12.33 seconds was good for a fourth-place finish.

Now it's a matter of performing this season without a crutch-literally and figuratively.

"Everything is mental since my injury until now," she said.

"I knew I had to be mentally ready to get over it and keep going.

This year I have to finish out strong." When she left the hospital after her injury that night, she was on crutches and had her leg immobilized in a brace from her upper thigh to her shin.

The glints of depression didn't set in until she turned spectator at practice.

"You never know how it feels to miss it until you're actually out and you can't do anything but sit and watch," Evans said.

"She's been Downstate since her freshman year, so, yeah, it was a big setback," ...

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Schizandra berries also have a tonic and sedative effect, making them helpful both for ba href=/insomnia/a/b and low energy, especially low mental energy.

Siberian ginseng is widely used to relieve stress, to help people adapt to life changes and jet lag and to enhance athletic or work performance.

Herbs are not an anachronistic throwback to a bygone era.

Rather, herbs are a much-needed tool to strengthen our "nerve power" so we can more readily relax and manage the stress in our lives.

Taken internally or in a therapeutic herbal bath, and with key nutrients on the side, herbs are a valuable component in any relaxation program.

In addition to medicines, herbal products also have a say in the healthcare systems as de-stress nutrient supplements.

5-hydroxy-L-tryptophan (5-HTP) is a metabolite of the amino acid L-tryptophan and the precursor to serotonin and melatonin, two brain chemicals necessary for preventing anxiety, facilitating sleep, regulating mood and controlling appetite.

5-HTP can be obtained in synthetic form or as an extract from the Griffonia simplicifolicia plant.

Herbal myths Society's growing interest in herbal products and other dietary supplements stems from a disappointment in allopathic medicine.

Because herbal products are thought to be "natural", many people believe that they are safe.

However, herbal products can be as toxic as or even more toxic than prescription medicine.

They can also have unwanted side effects, cause drug interactions ...

...ba href=/insomnia/a/b drug, may cause users to drive or binge eat while sleepwalking.

New prescriptions fell 11 percent for Paris-based Sanofi- Aventis SA's Ambien and 4.2 percent for Sepracor Inc.'s Lunesta, a similar drug, in the two weeks after the New York Times reported the rare side effects, according to Verispan LLC, a health-care market research company.

Ambien generated 1.5 billion euros ($1.8 billion) of sales in 2005.

Patients may be reluctant to take the drugs as a result of the reports of side effects, doctors say.

The incidence of unusual sleep activities tied to Ambien is rare and not a cause for alarm, according to Sanofi.

Sleepwalking occurs in about 4 percent of the U.S.

population, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, based in Westchester, Illinois.

``I have no doubt that any sedating agent can lead people to do strange things in the night, but it's rare, and most people who do these things are taking no medications at all,'' said psychiatrist David Neubauer, associate director of the Johns Hopkins Sleep Disorders Center in Baltimore and author of the book ``Understanding Sleeplessness: Perspectives on ba href=/insomnia/a/b.'' The New York Times reported on March 8 that Ambien was linked to traffic arrests around the nation, citing records from state toxicology laboratories.

A week later, the newspaper said researchers at the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center in Minneapolis and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, f...