Tips to Stop Insomnia and Get Back to Sleep
How To Give Up Insomnia
I am writing this on a Sunday morning following a very restless night when sleep just didn’t want to be my friend. I have suffered with insomnia for many years but, by using a combination of techniques, it is more or less under control.
Yesterday, I spent much too long working on changes to my website. I was enjoying it, so the time shot by. I ended up sending out for a big Chinese meal late in the evening. A vast quantity of spicy food was washed down with several glasses of wine. If you want to lie awake half the night, just do as I did. The remedy is simple and obvious. Time to get a grip on the lifestyle.
Self-inflicted insomnia is easily cured. What I call "real" insomnia is a beast of a much deeper hue, debilitating and much harder to defeat. Even so, it is not impossible to overcome and there is a whole range of things you can do to get the upper hand.
Here I should state that I do not pretend to have any special medical or therapeutic knowledge and I would not advise anybody to stop taking their prescribed medication. I am just sharing my experiences in the hope that they might help other people who are struggling through wakeful nights.
The following tips for getting off to sleep are pretty well known but I think they are worth repeating.
1. Keep the bedroom just for bed with no reminders of daytime activities like work or study. Decorate the room in restful colours and use soft lighting. Make sure the temperature is comfortable and the ventilation adequate. Hang curtains which are heavy enough to block out the early morning light.
3. Have a bedtime routine. This does not involve doing anything special, it is just a matter of doing the same things in the same order each night. We all have things we do regularly: empty the dishwasher, put out the cat, lock the front door, set the alarm, brush teeth etc. These routine things are our steps away from the activity of the day, towards the restful night.
4. Make a soak in a warm bath part of your nightly ritual. Adding a few drops of aromatherapy oil to the water makes it doubly relaxing, soft background music makes the experience positively decadent.
5. Don’t drink alcohol late at night. A nightcap might make you feel drowsy but it will disrupt your natural sleep rhythms and exacerbate your problem.
6. A warm milky drink is the best thing to have last thing at night. (Yes, our mothers were right when they made us drink cocoa.) There are tons of instant milky drinks available and most ranges have low fat options. If you don’t like this milky, chocolatey type of drink, try out herbal teas but avoid anything containing caffeine.
7. Exercise is important but should be performed several hours before bedtime otherwise the adrenaline will still be pumping around your system and keeping you awake.
What if you follow the above tips, fall peacefully asleep and then wake up three hours later, in the dark middle of the night? To me, this is the most distressing type of insomnia. I know how it feels to wake up at 2.00 am, listen to the clock chime every hour round to 7.00 am, fall asleep and be rudely awakened by the alarm at 7.30. I always feel worse after that final snatched half hour of sleep than I felt in the middle of the night and sometimes get up insanely early to avoid it. The following tips can help you get back to sleep.
1. Recognise why you are awake. If you are too hot, cold or uncomfortable in any way, fix that problem. I often wake up thirsty, so I always have a jug of water at my bedside. Sometimes a drink of water is all that’s needed to get back to sleep.
2. Relax by breathing slowly and deeply and by concentrating on tensing and then relaxing every muscle in your body, one by one, starting with toes and working upwards to your head.
3. Keep a pen and paper by your bed so if you are worrying about things you have to do, you can write them down in a list. This way you can stop worrying about forgetting anything important. As you write each thing down, visualise it leaving your brain and lodging itself on paper where you will find it safely in the morning. I find this exercise helps a lot if I have things on my mind.
If all this fails, you have been awake for over half an hour and know you are in for a long wakeful night; give up, get up, go do things. You won’t feel any worse and you will probably feel better. There is no point in wasting those hours just lying there worrying about insomnia. If you feel sleepy further into the night, you can always go back to bed.
I gave up insomnia by sleeping whenever I could and getting up and doing things when I was wide awake even if it was the middle of the night. I decided to sleep when I could, not worry if I woke up at strange hours and not waste time tossing and turning in search of sleep. The decision to stop worrying was the key to my recovery.
I was fortunate in that I was not tied to a 9-5 work schedule, most of my work was done at home or in the library. All I had to do was make sure I was there for my children who were all school age.
Over a few weeks I "enjoyed" a strange lifestyle. I would go to bed at my normal time, get up at any time of night when I couldn’t sleep (usually between 3.00 am and 5.00 am) and read or write essays or do quiet household chores. Then I would get the children up and see that they had breakfast and got off to school. I would then, depending how I felt, carry on working or go to bed. My alarm would be set so that I did not have to worry about being asleep when the children came home from school (I never was: I think mothers have an internal alarm clock). I would sleep for as long as I needed and then get up and carry on with my day. At weekends I could sleep while the children were doing homework or out with their friends.
Gradually, my night-time sleep became longer and my spells of daytime sleep grew shorter. Without any effort or worrying, I reverted to a normal sleep pattern and resumed a conventional timetable.
Several years afterwards I came across this quotation: "If you can't sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there and worrying. It's the worry that gets you, not the loss of sleep". -- Dale Carnegie. I couldn’t have put it better myself!
If you have commitments which prevent you from using this "cure", I suggest you give it a try over a holiday weekend or any other time you can manage to be home for three or more consecutive days. You will not find sleep if you search for it or worry about it, relax and it will come to you.
Insomnia - Getting The Help You Need
Tags: Can't sleep? How to beat insomnia;Tips to Stop Insomnia and Get Back to Sleep;How to Diagnose Insomnia
How To Give Up Insomnia
I am writing this on a Sunday morning following a very restless night when sleep just didn’t want to be my friend. I have suffered with insomnia for many years but, by using a combination of techniques, it is more or less under control.
Yesterday, I spent much too long working on changes to my website. I was enjoying it, so the time shot by. I ended up sending out for a big Chinese meal late in the evening. A vast quantity of spicy food was washed down with several glasses of wine. If you want to lie awake half the night, just do as I did. The remedy is simple and obvious. Time to get a grip on the lifestyle.
Self-inflicted insomnia is easily cured. What I call "real" insomnia is a beast of a much deeper hue, debilitating and much harder to defeat. Even so, it is not impossible to overcome and there is a whole range of things you can do to get the upper hand.
Here I should state that I do not pretend to have any special medical or therapeutic knowledge and I would not advise anybody to stop taking their prescribed medication. I am just sharing my experiences in the hope that they might help other people who are struggling through wakeful nights.
The following tips for getting off to sleep are pretty well known but I think they are worth repeating.
1. Keep the bedroom just for bed with no reminders of daytime activities like work or study. Decorate the room in restful colours and use soft lighting. Make sure the temperature is comfortable and the ventilation adequate. Hang curtains which are heavy enough to block out the early morning light.
3. Have a bedtime routine. This does not involve doing anything special, it is just a matter of doing the same things in the same order each night. We all have things we do regularly: empty the dishwasher, put out the cat, lock the front door, set the alarm, brush teeth etc. These routine things are our steps away from the activity of the day, towards the restful night.
4. Make a soak in a warm bath part of your nightly ritual. Adding a few drops of aromatherapy oil to the water makes it doubly relaxing, soft background music makes the experience positively decadent.
5. Don’t drink alcohol late at night. A nightcap might make you feel drowsy but it will disrupt your natural sleep rhythms and exacerbate your problem.
6. A warm milky drink is the best thing to have last thing at night. (Yes, our mothers were right when they made us drink cocoa.) There are tons of instant milky drinks available and most ranges have low fat options. If you don’t like this milky, chocolatey type of drink, try out herbal teas but avoid anything containing caffeine.
7. Exercise is important but should be performed several hours before bedtime otherwise the adrenaline will still be pumping around your system and keeping you awake.
What if you follow the above tips, fall peacefully asleep and then wake up three hours later, in the dark middle of the night? To me, this is the most distressing type of insomnia. I know how it feels to wake up at 2.00 am, listen to the clock chime every hour round to 7.00 am, fall asleep and be rudely awakened by the alarm at 7.30. I always feel worse after that final snatched half hour of sleep than I felt in the middle of the night and sometimes get up insanely early to avoid it. The following tips can help you get back to sleep.
1. Recognise why you are awake. If you are too hot, cold or uncomfortable in any way, fix that problem. I often wake up thirsty, so I always have a jug of water at my bedside. Sometimes a drink of water is all that’s needed to get back to sleep.
2. Relax by breathing slowly and deeply and by concentrating on tensing and then relaxing every muscle in your body, one by one, starting with toes and working upwards to your head.
3. Keep a pen and paper by your bed so if you are worrying about things you have to do, you can write them down in a list. This way you can stop worrying about forgetting anything important. As you write each thing down, visualise it leaving your brain and lodging itself on paper where you will find it safely in the morning. I find this exercise helps a lot if I have things on my mind.
If all this fails, you have been awake for over half an hour and know you are in for a long wakeful night; give up, get up, go do things. You won’t feel any worse and you will probably feel better. There is no point in wasting those hours just lying there worrying about insomnia. If you feel sleepy further into the night, you can always go back to bed.
I gave up insomnia by sleeping whenever I could and getting up and doing things when I was wide awake even if it was the middle of the night. I decided to sleep when I could, not worry if I woke up at strange hours and not waste time tossing and turning in search of sleep. The decision to stop worrying was the key to my recovery.
I was fortunate in that I was not tied to a 9-5 work schedule, most of my work was done at home or in the library. All I had to do was make sure I was there for my children who were all school age.
Over a few weeks I "enjoyed" a strange lifestyle. I would go to bed at my normal time, get up at any time of night when I couldn’t sleep (usually between 3.00 am and 5.00 am) and read or write essays or do quiet household chores. Then I would get the children up and see that they had breakfast and got off to school. I would then, depending how I felt, carry on working or go to bed. My alarm would be set so that I did not have to worry about being asleep when the children came home from school (I never was: I think mothers have an internal alarm clock). I would sleep for as long as I needed and then get up and carry on with my day. At weekends I could sleep while the children were doing homework or out with their friends.
Gradually, my night-time sleep became longer and my spells of daytime sleep grew shorter. Without any effort or worrying, I reverted to a normal sleep pattern and resumed a conventional timetable.
Several years afterwards I came across this quotation: "If you can't sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there and worrying. It's the worry that gets you, not the loss of sleep". -- Dale Carnegie. I couldn’t have put it better myself!
If you have commitments which prevent you from using this "cure", I suggest you give it a try over a holiday weekend or any other time you can manage to be home for three or more consecutive days. You will not find sleep if you search for it or worry about it, relax and it will come to you.
Insomnia - Getting The Help You Need
Experiencing an occasional sleepless night every now and again is normal and transient insomnia affects all of us from time to time, especially when we are under personal or professional stress, or our schedule changes significantly as a result of jet lag or shift work. But prolonged insomnia, lasting for perhaps six months or more, is another story.
If you have been unable to sleep every night, or most nights, for an extended period, then you may well suffer from serious insomnia.
If left untreated, such chronic insomnia can lead to a variety of significantly more serious conditions, including headaches, high blood pressure and even an increased risk of heart attack and stroke. What’s more, sleep disorders such as this can cause a loss of mental clarity and difficulty in concentrating. Insomnia and related sleep problems have also been linked to depression and other serious psychological and emotional problems.
Fortunately, addressing the problem, and getting the help you need for a better night’s sleep, can prove relatively straightforward. Whether you suffer from initial insomnia (trouble falling asleep), middle insomnia (difficulty staying asleep), or late insomnia (waking up too early), a process of simple adjustments to your daily routine, exercise, diet and sleep schedule will gradually result in a new pattern of healthful and fulfilling sleep.
A variety of natural sleep remedies (herbs, vitamins and minerals), when used appropriately, can prove an extremely effective tool in overcoming insomnia and generating a better night’s sleep. In fact, a few notable herbs and natural remedies have been medically recognized as the natural equivalent of several well-known artificial sleep aids and sleeping pills, and have been lauded for their effectiveness.
If you still find yourself struggling, even after making basic lifestyle changes and using proven natural remedies for insomnia (not to mention allowing an appropriate amount of time for these changes to take effect), you do need to seek the advice of a doctor. In this case, you could be suffering from more severe insomnia or a related sleep disorder like sleep apnea, narcolepsy or restless legs syndrome, all of which require the guidance of a medical professional.
The following questionnaire will help you determine your level of insomnia:
Simply answer each question "True" or "False"
1. I cannot remember the last time I enjoyed a good night’s sleep.
2. I have difficulty falling asleep at least four nights out of every seven.
3. I frequently wake in the night and struggle to get back to sleep.
4. I often wake up at least an hour or more before my alarm clock rings.
5. More often than not, I go to bed and get up at the same time each day.
6. I follow a regular exercise routine.
7. My diet includes a healthy balance of fruits, vegetables and whole grains.
8. I watch television or have a computer in my bedroom.
9. My spouse/partner complains about my snoring.
10. I am frequently sleepy during the day and often wake up feeling tired.
11. I often experience a tingling or crawling sensation in my legs and feet.
12. I frequently find myself accidentally falling asleep during the day.
Answering “true” to any of the first four questions will help confirm the fact that you may be suffering from serious insomnia.
Answering “true” to questions five through eight, however, suggests that you have already established the lifestyle habits conducive to a good night's sleep. Having difficulty sleeping despite following a healthy exercise, diet and daily routine suggests that you could be suffering from some form of insomnia. You may want to try using natural sleep remedies to manage your condition, and considering seeking the advice of a medical professional if it persists.
Answering “true” to the last four questions may indicate that you suffer from severe insomnia or a related sleep disorder, and you should seek the advice of a medical professional.
3 Surefire ways to cure insomnia while sleeping less!
Seems like you never get enough rest even after sleeping
long hours? You would know part of the reasons for this
fatigue, as you suffer from insomnia. But the other part on
waking up tired even after a good long sleep eludes you.
A good example of how insomnia wreck havoc in a person live
can be found my friend, Darren. Suffering from insomnia, he
finds it very difficult to concentrate and stay awake during
the day. This leads to a couple of failed relationship and
lost opportunities for promotion, because his tiredness is
seen as insincerity and no interest.
Highlighted above shows the mild effects of insomnia, the
tragic ones with many lives lost would be traffic accidents
where the drivers doze off.
Okay, now we succeeded in making you sit up and realized
that sleep disorder can disrupt your life, here's 3 surefire
ways to sleep once your head touches the pillow: -
Following a routine:
Following a routine would assist us to sleep better because
of our sleep cycle. 1 sleep-cycle contains 4 stages of sleep
with the last stage being the REM rapid eye movement sleep,
which is the easiest to wake up.
Getting up before or after REM sleep would make you very
drowsy and not rested. The former happens because you have
not completed 1 cycle, the latter because of the halting of
a new cycle. Therefore, from this experiment with your
waking time, you would know what time you are the most alert
and that would be the end of your REM.
And by the way, to get good sleep, you would need at least 1
cycle, which range between 5-6 hours depending on
individuals. So, to get quality sleep and to feel energetic
for the entire day, you do not need more sleep but waking at
the right time (6 hours versus the recommended 8 hours).
Sleeping Environment:
Now, not all of us would enjoy the 'correct' sleep cycle. If
you suffer from insomnia, chances are, you might have a
disrupted cycle. So, we need to 'persuade' your sleep-cycle
on when is the right time to sleep and wake.
To do that we need to lowered our body temperature. Low
temperature makes one drowsy while high temperature makes
one alert.
Creating an environment would give the body the low
temperature (drowsy), sleep experts say that the ideal room
temperature is 65 to 70 degrees F. This would give your body
the low temperature to fall asleep.
To make sleep even more effective, we should encourage the
production of a chemical known as melatonin, which induces
sleep.
A darkened room (darkness) would release melatonin. These
two prong approach would slowly conditioned your body to
feel drowsy for you to begin your sleep-cycle
Exercise:
To even better your sleep-cycle, you need to exercise, and
preferably in the daytime under the sun. Exercising under
the sun contributes to raising your body temperature.
As a rule of thumb, if you maintain a high body temperature
through the day, as night approaches, your body temperature
would drop and you would fall asleep easily (that's assuming
that you want to sleep at night).
Go ahead and learn more about sleep disorder and quality
sleep. Without reading this article, would you have known
that sleeping more does not mean better rest or feeling more
energetic? So, to effectively cure your insomnia and get
more quality sleep, try to see insomnia as your enemy,
something you need to know more in order to defeat it.
"Know thy enemy and know thyself, and you can win every
battles"
Seems like you never get enough rest even after sleeping
long hours? You would know part of the reasons for this
fatigue, as you suffer from insomnia. But the other part on
waking up tired even after a good long sleep eludes you.
A good example of how insomnia wreck havoc in a person live
can be found my friend, Darren. Suffering from insomnia, he
finds it very difficult to concentrate and stay awake during
the day. This leads to a couple of failed relationship and
lost opportunities for promotion, because his tiredness is
seen as insincerity and no interest.
Highlighted above shows the mild effects of insomnia, the
tragic ones with many lives lost would be traffic accidents
where the drivers doze off.
Okay, now we succeeded in making you sit up and realized
that sleep disorder can disrupt your life, here's 3 surefire
ways to sleep once your head touches the pillow: -
Following a routine:
Following a routine would assist us to sleep better because
of our sleep cycle. 1 sleep-cycle contains 4 stages of sleep
with the last stage being the REM rapid eye movement sleep,
which is the easiest to wake up.
Getting up before or after REM sleep would make you very
drowsy and not rested. The former happens because you have
not completed 1 cycle, the latter because of the halting of
a new cycle. Therefore, from this experiment with your
waking time, you would know what time you are the most alert
and that would be the end of your REM.
And by the way, to get good sleep, you would need at least 1
cycle, which range between 5-6 hours depending on
individuals. So, to get quality sleep and to feel energetic
for the entire day, you do not need more sleep but waking at
the right time (6 hours versus the recommended 8 hours).
Sleeping Environment:
Now, not all of us would enjoy the 'correct' sleep cycle. If
you suffer from insomnia, chances are, you might have a
disrupted cycle. So, we need to 'persuade' your sleep-cycle
on when is the right time to sleep and wake.
To do that we need to lowered our body temperature. Low
temperature makes one drowsy while high temperature makes
one alert.
Creating an environment would give the body the low
temperature (drowsy), sleep experts say that the ideal room
temperature is 65 to 70 degrees F. This would give your body
the low temperature to fall asleep.
To make sleep even more effective, we should encourage the
production of a chemical known as melatonin, which induces
sleep.
A darkened room (darkness) would release melatonin. These
two prong approach would slowly conditioned your body to
feel drowsy for you to begin your sleep-cycle
Exercise:
To even better your sleep-cycle, you need to exercise, and
preferably in the daytime under the sun. Exercising under
the sun contributes to raising your body temperature.
As a rule of thumb, if you maintain a high body temperature
through the day, as night approaches, your body temperature
would drop and you would fall asleep easily (that's assuming
that you want to sleep at night).
Go ahead and learn more about sleep disorder and quality
sleep. Without reading this article, would you have known
that sleeping more does not mean better rest or feeling more
energetic? So, to effectively cure your insomnia and get
more quality sleep, try to see insomnia as your enemy,
something you need to know more in order to defeat it.
"Know thy enemy and know thyself, and you can win every
battles"
Tags: Can't sleep? How to beat insomnia;Tips to Stop Insomnia and Get Back to Sleep;How to Diagnose Insomnia