Insomnia: Getting Back to Sleep

Let’s find a way to get back to that peaceful sleep, followed by a blissful bracing day with crisp working brain that we once used to have in childhood.There must be people out there, like me, who are facing insomnia chronic enough to span a decade or may be more. The reasons may perhaps be serious like depression, stress or other diseases. On the opposite, that Insomnia could be self-invoked due to our own messing-up the biological sleep-clock and other bunch of activities. This latter kind of Insomnia can be worked out if we really put aside the hopelessness about sleep and put in some efforts to break the cycle of those habits that we practice unknowingly and wind-up getting no sleep and a further fatigued day ahead.

Here are my whips of tips for you that WILL work and make you to sleep like a baby if you really wish to amend. The process is slow but worth going through. We don’t want that big eye-bags and dark circles and withered skin, messed up brain condition and body-aches just because we cannot work on some new routine.

Setting the Biological Sleep-Clock:
Starting from today, get a notepad to keep track of your biological clock. To train your sleep-clock, note down the time you get to your bed and the following day do the same. With each passing day, try to match the digits of the time that you had put down the previous day. I wouldn’t say this would happen in a week or two but once you start it, your brain will get to synchronize and you’ll begin to get signals when it’s time for bed.

Get rid of Noise and Light:
Get yourself a pair of ear-plugs if you are among those who are sensitive to even a noise of pin-drop. This way, unwanted sounds, will not let you wake.

Light in a bedroom is another reason to not let your brain recognize the bedtime. Eye-pillows or eye-covers are cheaply available and accessible. They can be a real help. You can have one made with a fabric of your choice to avoid any skin allergies that are least likely to occur.

Bedtime Drink:
Remember how grannies still tell us to have some butter melt-in warm milk before sleep and we ignore that advice considering it out-dated. Grannies have the experience but let’s figure out the science behind it. Milk has a natural ingredient called Triptophan and when milk is taken with some good fat like cookies or almonds, Triptophan gets extracted in our bodies and sedate us. I personally loved to find this thing and since then I never go to my bed without milk and two cookies.

Work in office; Sleep in Bed:
Ugh, another very big mistake is associating your bedroom with work other than sleep. People spend hours finishing their office work in bed and then a minute later they lay down on the same place to complain that they can’t sleep. Guys, it is REALLY important to correlate your bed only with sleep and comfort, not with work and stress. Adding to this point, reading a book in bed is not work or disassociation with sleep because to some it is as addictive as a sleeping pill.

Neglect attractive afternoon naps:
Avoid afternoon naps no matter how much you want them. It makes you go through more effort to sleep on time at night. When that nap tends to overcome you, do the dishes, stroll a little or anything you wish to escape that particular nap-nap time.

Transform untidy to orderly:
Sleep does not like a rat’s nest. Yes, you do need to sort the clatter to make your room cozy enough for sleep. Slight cleaning of the room can be a wind-down activity too which you can do whilst listening to any symphony that soothes you.

Dinner on time saves whine:
Avoid heavy eating in the evening; never smoke and have alcohol right before bedtime; plus, limit the intake of caffeine. Chocolates, black tea and coffee are the known sources of caffeine.

Lavender and Tranquility:
Lavender is known for the tranquility it brings with it. Get your pillow sprayed with its mist. Another way is to burn the lavender-candle for an hour and turn it off before sleep. Your room will be thoroughly diffused by its aroma and its fragrance will gift you deep sleep.

Noteworthy, apart from this apple-pie arrangement that I presented to you, is that all these techniques focus on Transient or mid-term Insomnia primarily. The people who suffer from chronic Insomnia due to a number of diseases that I mentioned in my previous article need serious help from their physician or may be psychiatrist. Hope we all get to get good night’s sleep besides our weary dreary schedule.