Four Easy Tools To Cure Your Insomnia
The Right Medication
Insomnia is something I have struggled on and off with my whole life. I remembered telling my mom nap time was the worst part about preschool because I never fell asleep and just flopped back and forth on my blue plastic gymnastic mats for two hours trying to talk to the other kids. The teachers always ended up putting had cardboard borders around me every day. Despite this inability to fall asleep quickly, I need seven-plus hours to function properly. Less than seven sometimes made me headachy, eye-stinging, and not able to focus. In my late 20s, I had a bad episode of insomnia. Overnight I became a full-time caretaker of my mom, plus a full-time teaching job caused me to stop sleeping.
At night, I would lie down and feel calm, not feel stressed out. I did not necessarily relate the feeling to the heart-pounding anxiety I felt with public speaking or heights.
job as the teacher of 34 sixth graders doesn’t have any room in it for sleepless nights? Thirty-four sixth graders are not going to entertain themselves because they are having an off day. You have to be at school on time, an
After several bad days of not sleeping, my primary care doctor gave me a Temazepam prescription. He said it was OK to take even long-term. Still, I had heard so much negativity about Benzos and how addictive they were. After a short time, I could tell I was developing tolerance. I have heard of people who feel calmer just having a Benzo prescription and never using it-just keeping it in their purse keeps them calm. Just having the prescription made me lose confidence in my ability to sleep.
At night, I would lie down and feel calm, not feel stressed out. I did not necessarily relate the feeling to the heart-pounding anxiety I felt with public speaking or heights.
After several bad days of not sleeping, my primary care doctor gave me a Temazepam prescription. He said it was OK to take even long-term. Still, I had heard so much negativity about Benzos and how addictive they were. After a short time, I could tell I was developing tolerance. I have heard of people who feel calmer just having a Xanax prescription and never using it-just keeping it in their purse keeps them calm. Just having the prescription makes me lose confidence in my ability to sleep. According to the National Alliance for Mental Illness’s(NAMI) website, Depression and Anxiety cause fro 50% of all insomnia cases. I was in my 40s before I started taking an SSRI and it significantly improved my insomnia. I have needed both CBT and antidepressants for the best outcome.
Cognitive Behavior Therapy
A few months later I was lucky enough to hear about a study at Stanford called Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) group for those struggling with insomnia. According to the Sleep Foundation website, CBT is a therapy that helps you change your own inaccurate negative thoughts and feelings about sleep.
It seemed amazing, but impossible. Changing your thoughts and feelings so that you sleep better. I am not sure I believed it would work at the time, but it was at Stanford who I trusted, and it was reasonably affordable. It seemed like I would need a lobotomy to get that kind of relief from my negative thinking. In a group setting, I could see how many other regular people were struggling with insomnia.
CBT is helpful because it teaches you valuable and specific ways of identifying feelings and negative thoughts that might be causing you problems—challenging your own thoughts. However, CBT only works for about 45 % of the population.
During the session, we focused on a different topic each week. We have to log our bedtime and wake times for two weeks to get a baseline. We worked on improving our sleep hygiene, which our your sleep routines like going to bed at the same and getting up at the same time each day, and avoiding naps to help you set your body clock.
Sleep restriction is a strategy where you restrict time in our bed to limit time in bed to only the hours we are sleeping. This strategy helps you break negative associations or connections you have with your bed. I also learned to turn off screens and not answer the phone a couple of hours before bedtime. Daily exercise is best in the morning outside in the light in order to help you set your body clock. Reading before bed helps me relax and distracts me from my anxiety. Smoking, drinking, or eating late at night can all affect your body clock or circadian rhythm
Meditation
A 2015 Forbes article said that Mindfulness Meditation rivals antidepressants for effectiveness in treating anxiety and depression. More and more research shows improvements to both brain structures and behavior. Meditation is about accepting your thoughts and emotions without judgment. Meditation can also give you the tools to replace negative thoughts with more positive thoughts. The new meditation apps like Calm and Headspace, Breathe. They made it easy to play as long as you have a phone or computer close.
Bernie Clark is like a 60s hippie, but he is amazing. He has many yoga and meditation videos on Gaia. He is one of the two teachers on the beginning meditation series, Here and Now: A Beginner’s Guide to Meditation., a 21-day series. Each 20 minutes episode with Bernie leading the meditation includes a few minutes of instruction and practice. You need to make meditation a daily habit if you want it to work for you later when you have anxiety.
Cannabis For Your Insomnia
CBD and CBDA works to help most people relax. Humboldt Apothecary makes CBD that they will ship to all 50 states. You can also try Right now it is sold and shipped to all 50 states.
