Surviving Insomnia & Why It's Important

Insomnia is a gross feeder. It will nourish itself on any kind of thinking, including thinking about not thinking. ~ Clifton Fadiman

A ruffled mind makes a restless pillow. ~ Charlotte Brontë

I've suffered from insomnia since I was about eight years old. I know it sounds a little young, but I simply could not sleep. I spent many a night coloring quietly in my bedroom, rearranging my closet, or just reading. I'm now an adult who suffers from insomnia and, frankly, it's getting a little old. I've vowed to try to fix this problem once and for all. I am convinced I'll be a happier, more productive woman if I can just get my sleep habits under control.

It's clear why we need to take advantage of a good night's sleep. From the Women's Health Section at Oxadox.com:

"Inadequate rest impairs our ability to think, to handle stress, to maintain a healthy immune system and to moderate our emotions. In fact, sleep is so important to our overall health that total sleep deprivation has been proven to be fatal: lab rats denied the chance to rest die within two to three weeks."

Michele Bender at LifeScript quotes Jodi Mendell, director of the Sleep Center at the Children's Hospital in Philadelphia:

You’ll also “get colds and flus, and long-term health problems, such as diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease from lack of sleep.

Lack of sleep has also been linked to fatigue (duh), reduction in brain performance and reflexes, and increasing your feelings of depression or sadness. It can even lead to weight gain. When we sleep, our body uses that time to correct chemical and hormonal imbalances, restoring proper blood-sugar levels, and generally reviatlize itself. When we don't sleep enough our body makes more Cortisol (a stress hormone) which leads to weight gain around your middle.

For me, the main cause of a sleepless night is not being able to turn off my brain. I spend my entire day multi-tasking, organizing my thoughts for my blog articles, and taking care of my family. When I slow down and crawl into bed, I find it hard not to re-play my day. Inevitably, I find something I forgot to do or think of a better way to write a sentence. The next thing I know, it's 3am and I'm seriously thinking about buying a home gym.

So how can those of us with this problem help ourselves? Kathy at Journey to Flow suggests the following:

Sleep in complete darkness.
Avoid loud alarm clocks.
Get to bed early.
Avoid caffeine.
Take a hot bath, shower, or sauna before bed.
Exercise regularly.

For earthy types, Veronika Namesse, in her article Overcoming Insomnia with Non-Medicinal Sleep Aids at Just Women's Issues suggests improving your sleep hygiene and managing your stress and relaxation:

When you improve your sleep hygiene, you will help your body conquer insomnia. Make sure to assess your practices and make changes in your daily activities when you need to. . .

Try to learn how to relax both your physical and mental faculties. Since it's hard to subjugate the function of the body and the minds right away, you need to wind them both down an hour before you go to sleep. . .

Comments

Been there

8 doesn't sound too young. I remember being awake (probably having my first panic attack) at maybe 6 or 7 years old. I read all of the books, tried to meditate, worked out, cut out all caffeine and still falling asleep was a anxiety provoking battle. I dreaded the end of the day. I dreaded travel or sharing a room with a roommate or boyfriend. I know that prescriptions aren't for everyone but having a sleeping pill in my pill case has profoundly changed my life. Better living through chemistry has worked for me. I wish you lots of satisfying zzzzs.

Submitted by jdrechsler on Wed, 01/28/2009 - 19:29

Just curious...

Some have difficulty sleeping for reasons of past experiences, and wonder if anyone has thoughts or suggestions on how to overcome that sort of causation. (For the record, not for me. I sleep fine, but dream horribly. ;-) )

nelle

llhaesa

Submitted by nelle2nelle on Wed, 01/28/2009 - 20:10

Thanks

Sleep in complete darkness.
Avoid loud alarm clocks.
Get to bed early.
Avoid caffeine.
Take a hot bath, shower, or sauna before bed.
Exercise regularly.

Thank you for these tips. I suffer from a bit of this too. I am going to implement these tips and see if there is any improvment

Submitted by shuckle83 on Wed, 01/28/2009 - 21:09

Have Fought it And Watching Daughter Fight
it Too

Insomnia is a scary thing. I recall being quite young when it happened to me-now I see my daughter, who is TWO, wake up at night and not be able to go back to sleep. She wants to 'talk' to me about things. We do all of the nighttime routine things, etc . . . Perhaps it is just a stage but it does worry me because I know how hard it is to not get enough sleep-and how tough it is to function.

I do yoga before bed now, which helps. Hot tea sometimes helps. Turning off the computer an hour before and reading for a while seems to help, too. I also do deep breathing if I find myself stressed or thinking about things. Deep breathing in and out, pushing out any thoughts and sometimes that works. And if all else fails I move to the sofa. For some reason, sleeping someplace else puts me right out!

Kathy

Allbusiness:Working Mothers

Mama Marathoner

Submitted by Kathy333 on Thu, 01/29/2009 - 04:08

My personal experience

I have found that the insomnia comes and goes for me.

If I spend more than 30 minutes tossing and turning, I get up and do something until I'm tired. I may go ahead and work, read a book, or watch TV. Sometimes I'm up until 3am, but I just try not to take a nap the next day so I'm more tired. I also try to go to bed early the next night (around 8:30 instead of 10). I find that if I try to stay up until my normal bed time, I'll be fighting insomnia again.

I have taken Ambien and love it. My husband says I snore more when I've taken it, though, so I try not to do it unless I really need to. Beware, though. Ambien means it when it says take the pill and go to bed. You may feel (at the time) that you're fine and can complete a few more tasks, but I'm here to tell you that you won't remember them. People buying things on Ebay or eating are not just stories. I once found my kids' Halloween stash, ate the good parts, then hid it again. The next day I had no recollection and had no idea where the candy was stashed. The only evidence was the candy wrappers by the bed!

As for the bad dreams, I have suffered from those as well. I have nightmares that would make Stephen King cower in the corner rocking back and forth. I learned a technique called lucid dreaming. Essentially, I become more aware of what is going on in my dreams and therefore have more control. It's helped a lot.

Thanks for the feedback! Keep it coming. Maybe together we can come up with more solutions for our night owl ways.

BTW, do any of the rest of you insomniacs feel like you need more than the traditional 8 hours of sleep? My body clock tends to need 10 to feel completely rested.

Melanie
Contributing Editor at BlogHer.com (Web/Tech)
Blogging Basics 101
Bloggy Giveaways
Don't

Submitted by Melanie Nelson on Thu, 01/29/2009 - 06:32

Yoga has helped me too

I'm sure it is different for everyone but a regular yoga practice has helped my mind relax and sleep come more naturally. I've also read that insomnia can be related to wheat allergies.

http://doesabodygood.blogspot.com

Submitted by Cherre on Thu, 01/29/2009 - 13:18

I meditate right before bed

I meditate right before bed and even do a little mindfulness practice once in bed to try to stop all the mental chatter. I also need to really monitor my daily anxiety and take care of it so I'm not still not trying to process it in bed.

I have also found covering the digital clock helps so I can't do mental math statistics every 10 minutes on how much or how little I have slept.

I, too, need about 9 hours a night. Doesn't happen often enough.

Submitted by magsmadison on Thu, 01/29/2009 - 18:16

Not just me

Thanks so much for this post. I drop to sleep quickly only after an exceptionally physically exhausting day.

I have found it helpful to chant something over and over again in my head. I guess that's meditation, right?

My friend has been suffering badly after delivering her first baby. She doesn't want to take prescription pills. I am emailing this post off to her.

Submitted by snigdhasen on Fri, 01/30/2009 - 21:14

Even adults can use a bedtime story now and
then

Thank God for iPods and audio books.

The right kind of bedtime story -- interesting, but not exciting -- can take my mind off my inability to get to sleep long enough for my natural tiredness to take over. The iTunes store has some free downloads of university lectures, so that even if I have to lie in the dark for an hour or two, at least I'm learning something new.

Submitted by Merry Sunshine on Sat, 01/31/2009 - 12:49

insomnia

Yes--thank god for audio books--I'm with you, Merry Sunshine. See my blog, sleepstarved.org, on listening to books on tape.

There are many more suggestions in my book INSOMNIAC. I interviewed dozens of insomniacs, and I heard about many imaginative and ingenious ways of coping with it.

But habits are only part of the story. Some of us can follow every rule in the book and still sleep badly. I've lived with insomnia all my life and decided to find out what's known about it. Precious little, it turns out--scientists know very little about this condition that plagues millions. And receives little research funding (it afflicts more women than men). But people do find ways of living with it.

Submitted by Gayle Greene on Sat, 01/31/2009 - 18:58

yoga and insomnia

Yoga today is very important in people’s life. It keeps people healthy. Yoga and Meditation
are effective in the treatment of
insomnia. And I have some good yoga tips
at http://www.jiyohealthy.com/category/stress/
which will help u.

Submitted by Niyati on Wed, 09/16/2009 - 21:38