Feb 13 2012
How I Cured My Chronic Insomnia
Photo by Alyssa L. Miller
I don’t use the term chronic insomnia lightly. Have you ever heard of a kid who fakes naps during preschool just to placate the teacher? That was me.
Despite my parents letting me stay up to 9-10pm when I was 8-years old—way later than most of my peers (thank you Dad, you rock!)—I inevitably drove them crazy by waking up at the crack of dawn (literally) on weekends ready to kick off the day.
In high school I averaged maybe 5 hours of sleep a night. Even today I rely on the occasional Ambien to make sure I sleep through a flight or get enough rest the night before an important event.
My insomnia is multifaceted. I have trouble falling asleep because I am very sensitive to light (sometimes I joke that I have invisible eyelids). I’m also very sensitive to sounds and have difficulty getting comfortable.
Once I’m asleep, it’s also way too easy to wake me up. And once I wake up, falling back asleep in less than two hours is nearly impossible. I wake up at any hint of light entering the room, or any abnormal noise.
I’ve tried melatonin, tryptophan, St. John’s wort, camomile, kava kava and antihistamines. Most of them just make me extra miserable because I get groggy and drowsy, but still can’t fall asleep. Ambien has been the only prescription sleep aid that works for me without major side effects, but it is not for everyone and I certainly did not want to rely on it for my day-to-day sleep hygiene.
But with a combination of these techniques, I’ve been able to control my insomniac tendencies and boost my sleep to a solid seven hours a night.
9 Tips To Cure Insomnia
1. Get on a consistent sleeping schedule
This one is probably the most important. The circadian rhythms that control your sleep-wake cycle originate in a part of your brain called the hypothalamus (specifically the suprachiasmatic nucleus, for you neuroscience geeks).
These neurons are sensitive to light and work to sync your biological clock to regular light-dark hours. The more consistent these are, the stronger your body will respond to natural circadian rhythms and the easier it will be to fall asleep when you’re supposed to.
2. No interactive screen time 1 hour before bed
As mentioned above, bright light can impact your circadian rhythms and staring into a computer screen late into the night can make it more difficult to fall asleep. Working and other mental activity can also keep your mind alert and prevent it from relaxing enough to fall asleep.
I am acutely aware of how difficult it is to unplug when you’re a workaholic, but a good night’s sleep does more for my productivity than I could ever achieve in the 12th or 14th hour of my workday, so I’ve learned to disengage well before bedtime.
Though I haven’t had any problems from watching TV or a movie, it’s best to stay away from any devices that require input from you for the last hour before bed. This means you should turn off the computers, smart phones, video games and tablets, no matter how badly you want to level up. Instead, try to quiet your mind by taking a bath, reading a book, having some herbal tea, cleaning up the house, listening to music or practicing meditation.
3. Don’t eat too late
Eating close to bed time, particularly a high-calorie, heavy meal, is associated with poorer sleep quality. I’ve also noticed this in myself, and when I avoid late night eating I get better, more consistent sleep. If you’re hungry, try drinking a glass of water and going to bed on an empty stomach instead. You certainly won’t starve to death.
4. Exercise daily
The best sleep I ever got was when I was marathon training at 5am every weekday before school. I fell asleep like clockwork at 10:30pm every night. It was glorious.
Heavy exercise is certainly a great way to invoke sound sleep, but even moderate activity like walking 10,000 steps each day can make a big difference in sleep quality. If you aren’t sure how much activity you’re getting, a Fitbit pedometer might be a good investment.
5. No caffeine after 1pm
This one was hard for me to believe. I’d been a heavy coffee drinker from a young age, and never thought it effected my sleep one way or another. If I was really tired during finals, coffee never seemed to help much and there were a few times when I fell asleep not too long after having a double espresso.
I’m not sure if I changed or if my sleep cycle was just so messed up that I couldn’t detect relevant differences, but now that I’ve switched to drinking mainly tea I’ve noticed that if I drink any caffeine too late in the day it is harder to fall asleep. I try not to drink coffee after 12pm, but 1pm is sometimes more realistic.
6. Use a white noise machine
My old apartment was just two doors down from a bustling freeway off ramp, and as you can imagine the traffic noise was constant. As someone who is very sensitive to noise, this posed a tremendous problem.
I’ve tried sleeping with ear plugs, but I have small ears and find them very uncomfortable. The solution that works best for me to control noise disturbances is the Sleepmate, a white noise machine that is quiet enough to ignore but drowns out most other ambient noise. This thing is a lifesaver if you’re stuck in a noisy neighborhood.
7. Black out shades or sleep mask
I realized early on that I’m sensitive to even the slightest amount of light in a room, even small ones like a laptop charging light.
If you’ve taken care of all the light sources inside your bedroom but are still bothered by light that sneaks in under the door or through the window, consider getting some black out shades or a sleep mask. The shades work great but can be expensive and kind of ugly. If you go with a mask, I find that the cheaper, less cushy ones are the most comfortable. Mine looks a lot like this one for under $2.
8. Don’t drink too much alcohol
Though a small nightcap can often help me relax and fall asleep faster, too much alcohol is proven to disturb sleep and can cause you to wake up early. If you like to party, keep in mind that it may be impacting your life in more negative ways than you think.
9 . Practice mindfulness
Though light, noise and bad habits all play a role in my sleep problems, I’m convinced that at the root of it all is a wandering mind. These other factors just add levels of distraction to my already overstimulated brain.
In our plugged in world, constant interruptions are making it progressively difficult to keep your attention on a single task long enough to get it done. For me, the nightly task that eludes me is sleep.
Practicing mindfulness on a regular basis (e.g. spending a few seconds a day focusing on my breathing or taking the time to eat a bite of food slowly with my eyes closed) gives me the power to truly relax my mind when I’m trying to fall asleep rather than letting it drift to all the things I need to get done the following day.
Mindfulness isn’t easy, but the only way to get better is through practice. Whenever you’re waiting for an elevator, standing in line, walking up stairs, taking a bite of food, take a few seconds to reflect on where you are and how your body feels. Focus on a few breaths, in and out, and get accustomed to letting go of your worries. The longer you can sustain this practice the easier it will be to let go of your problems and get a good night’s sleep.
What helps you sleep better?
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Tags: alcohol, caffeine, coffee, Exercise, insomnia, mindfulness, sleep, Sleep Mate, tea, technology
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Melatonin works well for me, though I try not to take it too often. When I drink coffee too late in the day, sometimes I need it, unless I hit the gym and burn off the energy. Going to bed a bit hungry helps. I don’t usually have problems falling asleep (anymore), the problem is staying asleep. If I go to sleep at 11, wake at 2, can’t get back to sleep until 5, have to get up at 6 to get ready for work, I run into problems eventually.
I feel priviliged to get a 7 hour night, 5-6 is more my norm, and once every month or two, I’ll sleep 10 (usually aided by wine) to recover. Very annoying are those who tell me I should make sure to sleep at least 8 hours a night. Seems like silly outdated science, besides, it’s not happening, unless they’ve got a drug to help that I don’t yet know about.
A hot bath helps a lot, also. Alcohol generally makes for a bad night sleep, but sometimes wine actually helps (usually not).
Thanks for dropping knowledge about the SCN. Makes me feel good about staying awake through those long neuro lectures.
Ironically, the easiest I’ve ever fallen asleep was during formal seminar lectures in grad school *yawn* zzzzzz
I don’t have insomnia problem but I use the first five of the above tips on a consistent basis for a number of years, so I can vouch it works. I can also suggest if you have sleep problems try breathing exercise (simple inhale and exhale cycle) for 5 to 10 minutes or longer, it helps. Do meditation on a regular basis, even practicing a little bit daily helps.
I’ve developed a great bad habit before bed time: Watching the same episode of one of my favorite TV shows while in bed. I know the light isn’t great for me, but my biggest problem is calming my mind. When you watch an episode of something you enjoy, but you’ve seen literally hundreds of times, it allows you to focus without being stimulated.
I agree, that’s why I said tv and movies aren’t really a problem. I think it’s when the device requires input from you that it prevents sleep. Also, tv and movies tend to be much darker light than laptops and video games.
Earthing has helped me sleep tremendously better in the past 6 months. I got an earthing pad for our bed (http://www.earthing.com/) upon the recommendation of my naturopath. Wow – I sleep so much better. My quality of sleep is improved, I wake up feeling more refreshed. (No, I don’t work for this company, but I’m now a big proponent of earthing because it’s helped me a lot, not only with sleeping but with some chronic pain reduction.)
http://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-Long-Life-QuietCare-Purifier-17000/dp/B000050AQ5/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1329166358&sr=8-16
Here’s the Amazon listing to the air purifier I use in my bedroom. We’ve had this model in our house in different rooms for years. My sister has worked for an allergy company and she suggested this one to us. The pre-filter can be found for $10ish (you cut it into 2) which will last six months. Some purifiers have expensive filters so that’s why I like this one. I run the machine on the middle setting and that gives me the sound I like during the night. On the plus side it sucks in air and traps dust! When we are away from home I try and tire myself out all day long because I really miss the sound of my purifier!
I have had trouble with waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to go back to sleep. I assumed that was the reason i was tired by the middle of the afternoon. I recently learned I had an iodine deficiency which prevented my thyroid gland from functioning properly. The thyroid also affects the function of the adrenal glands which control sleep cycles.
I have been taking iodine supplements and adrenal support for 2 weeks and now i sleep through the night and have energy all day.
The change is remarkable!
I’ve been a chronic insomniac myself and can relate to a lot of your points (starting with not taking it lightly: nothing more annoying than people who think this is just a thing you make up, or that their occasional bad night can be labelled as “insomnia”).
A few things should be mentioned though:
– Be careful with tea, as depending on the tea you drink it may actually contain the same levels of caffeine as a cup of coffee (some variants, more popular in some countries than others actually do not contain any bound caffeine or theanine. They aren’t really tea, but it’s the common name).
– Screens are bad, whether you are actively interacting or not, though you are right that being active is worse (as it obviously keeps your mind going than when you stare at it with a blank face). And some screens are worse than others, depending on type (cathodic, LCD, LED…) and settings. Be sure to dim the brightness as much as possible, and turn contrast higher to still be able to correctly see (I work with computers more than 16hours a day on average, and I actually set my screens, TVs included, to 0 to 15% brightness and a 60 to 75% contrast). Be sure to set a refresh rate that won’t make your eyes drier. Make sure to take breaks and force yourself to look at something else every now and then (which also helps to preserve your eye sight, coincidentally, as it will force your eye to re-focus temporarily on something else).
– Meditation helps, if your problem is more mind related. My most troubled period with sleep was in high-school, though I didn’t feel like it related to my life in general. However, I found out that practising a few mental exercises that take my mind off of other things can help. Can be simple things like picturing a relatively simple object and trying to detail all its parts one by one. The problem for me with this is that it gets close to some aspects of my daily work and sometimes allows my mind to shift back to it, which is the opposite effect… Reading a book helps, as long as it’s not something too serious and that makes you think, and not something adrenaline packed that will make you want to keep going.
Doing menial tasks is also a good cleanser, as long as they don’t frustrate and make you angry (don’t do your taxes before bed…). But sorting out papers on your home desk works, or even preparing a batch of laundry for the morning or doing the dishes.
– Exercise. Don’t do anything competitive or too straining (or adrenaline will keep you awake: could never sleep at all after a football game and always showed up tired at school on Mondays), but do a light exercise will tire you a bit and it’s also a good mind cleanser. Exercise, bath, read a bit and lights off works relatively well for me.
– Pitch black darkness is indeed important for me, but some people really dislike the disorientation feeling you might get when you make up from a nightmare or even in the morning. For me, it helps to keep me asleep longer (on the other hand, if I know I’ll need to get up in the morning, I don’t close my shades)
(Obviously, to everyone their own: these may not work for everybody, and you need to know what’s best for you. It took me years to refine the best process to put myself to sleep, so I wouldn’t pretend it necessarily applies to others.)
Here is another take on this problem I just saw today. Grounding oneself.
http://www.foodrenegade.com/can-earthing-help-adrenal-fatigue/
Duane, the earthing approach is interesting to consider. Never really considered the impact of static electricity for instance (wonder if there’s any tangible research on this).
That reminded me of other things:
– wear very light and soft clothes to sleep
– make sure to have the right temperature in the room
– make sure to have good natural ventilation in the room and open the window for a good 5 minutes before going to sleep
– take off your watch! That one might sound silly, but that was recommended to me as a kid and actually seemed to help: watches (or jewellry, I guess, but watches were probably back then more common and heavy and a general case, whereas nowadays more and more people just use their mobile phones and don’t have a watch, interestingly) can add pressure to your arm and trouble your circulation, if ever so slightly.
Other people care about aligning your bed and body based on cardinal points. Never did much for me, don’t know either if there’s substantial research on that.
I agree with everything but what I am doing and what I should do are miles apart. Lack of good sleep? If I listen to the radio, comedy morning shows I am associated with. I dream of being in the corner of the studio watching. Last night? My Brother which I no longer talk to and my long lost(dead) Mother brought home three penguins! Back to a house I have never been. The penguins kept attacking me. Longer story but, I can’t sleep like that. The light the TV The Radio all make since. But Stubbornness keeps me from cutting out.
We share many of the same problems sadly. I myself have found:
1) No Caffeine After Noon
2) Limited Alcohol
3) No interactive Screens
4) Limiting Fluid Intake
…all seem to help. I also use foam earplugs when in noisy situations (aka traveling) and might look into the black out shade suggestion!
“I’d been a heavy coffee drinker from a young age, and never thought it effected my sleep one way or another.”
With rare exception, “affect” is the verb, “effect” is the noun. I’d love to edit some of your blog, if only because I find it a wonderful resource. Thanks.
I would love to include your tips on my blog. I am currently collecting information like this before I launch. I will include a link to your site along with your article. The link to submit your story is included. Thank you and great info!
Hi Darya,
I found this site which has links to research on Earthing. I thought you might find it interesting. I don’t have access to the sites where most of the research is found.
http://www.earthinginstitute.net/index.php/research
Keep on Growing,
Duane
I compete at olympic weightlifting and on heavy training days I always end up having a great sleep later that night. I am guilty of needing a tv to watch to help me fall asleep though