As the days go on, more and more people are being self diagnosed with insomnia. 30% of the world has insomnia and the numbers aren’t decreasing, they’re only getting worse. In this article we are going to be debunk what is insomnia and how to get rid of it naturally.
What Is Insomnia?
Insomnia is a persistent problem of having trouble falling asleep and staying asleep. I used to have trouble falling asleep every night, and that made me dread going to bed. When the sun would go down, I would get anxious about going to sleep. I hated the night time.
I had to take the supplement melatonin to help me fall asleep. The melatonin helped around 50% of the time. There is a weird cycle that is created for insomniacs. The cycle is developed from two things for insomniacs and that is sleep anxiety and hyper-intention.
- 1st Cycle: Sleep Anxiety
– As the nights go on, your insomnia tends to not improve, so you develop a sleep anxiety where you get anxious before going to sleep and while trying to fall asleep. This sleep anxiety makes it even harder and harder to fall asleep.
- 2nd Cycle: Hyper-intention
-Hyper-intention is where since you know you have trouble falling asleep, you have an even more intention of falling asleep. This intention actually makes the insomnia worse because you have such a desire to fall asleep. The nights that you don’t care about falling asleep is the nights you have no trouble. Just like making new friends. When you want to make new friends so bad that you end up pushing friends further away.
Blue Screens & Melatonin
This is the biggest killer to our insomnia and that is screens. Tablets, cell phones, and televisions is what is keeping you up at night.
Here’s why: When the sun goes down at night, your brain naturally produces an hormone called melatonin which is the hormone responsible for you feeling tired and falling asleep. But what happens when the sun goes down and you are sitting in front of a blue screen late into the night? You brain doesn’t release any melatonin because your brain thinks that the sun is still up from the blue screen from the TV or phone. A rule of thumb is not look at your phone or TV 1 hour before going to bed.
Screens are killing your sleep and making your insomnia worse.
Stimulants, The Killer Of Sleep
Anything that excites the nervous system will keep you up longer, hence caffeine, sugar, and alcohol. What you may not know about alcohol is that the first few drinks you have acts in your body as a stimulant. After several drinks, the alcohol changes from a stimulant and act as a depressant. That’s why you wake up feeling sad the next day after drinking. So a couple drinks will ultimately keep you up longer.
You know what caffeine and sugar does, it keeps you up longer. That’s why it’s important if you have insomnia to only drink caffeine in the afternoon, not in the evening.
Sleep Like A Baby
You have heard of the saying, “I slept like a baby.” When people use this saying, they are implying that their sleep was a deep sleep. Babies never have trouble falling asleep and staying asleep. My baby cousin fall asleep at my grandma’s dinner table the other day. For babies, sleep is the most important thing for them because sleep is what is helping them grow.
Since sleep is a very important thing for a baby, their sleep is always deep with no trouble. Babies can fall asleep anywhere. So what this means is that your insomnia was developed and learned. Your childhood and lifestyle is what is causing your insomnia.
4 Ways To Get Rid Of Insomnia
- Develop A Nightly Routine.
-The whole point of a nightly routine is to associate the routine with sleep. Whatever you do before you go to bed should be a routine so your brain will know that it’s time for bed. But if you start bringing the things you do in while you are awake into your nightly routine, your brain will still think that it’s daytime, so you will have trouble falling asleep.
-It’s important to not bring your phone into bed with you. Because the phone is something you use during the daytime, so your brain will think it’s still daytime and you won’t be able to fall asleep. As soon as you lay in bed and hit that pillow, your brain should be conditioned where you immediately feel tired. So if you are laying in bed watching TV, then your brain will associate laying in bed with being awake.
-My nightly routine is to journal and then take a shower in the dark. This routine normally makes me tired and I fall asleep within minutes.
Pro Tip: If you have bad insomnia, it would be ideal to get your TV of your bedroom.
2. Spend More Time Alone
-A lot of people who have insomnia is because they are scared to be alone. Sleep is the only time you are truly alone with yourself and your thoughts. So that makes people need to fill the silence and the aloneness with the TV and their phones. I used to need the TV to be on to fall asleep because I was scared of being alone with myself. If you would just practice periodically throughout the day spending a few minutes alone with nothing to distract and entertain you , sleep will be much easier.
-That’s why I preach meditation because you are fully alone with yourself and your thoughts. Meditation makes being alone at night easier. Even if you are sleeping next to your lover, you are still alone during sleep because you and lover can’t share the same thought pool.
-Once you start enjoying your own company, your insomnia goes away.
3. Work To Your Edge/Exhaustion
-Today, we aren’t as active as our ancestors. This is because we don’t have the same challenges as we did in the past. Everything is convenient and easy with a touch of a button. Having such convenience today in 2020 we are going to sleep with a lot of unused energy in our bodies.
-What happens when you don’t use the energy? The energy goes to your head and you eventually use it through overthinking and running through “what if” scenarios. That’s why it’s important to work hard at your job, exercise, read, etc. to use stored up energy.
-Picture yourself as like a phone battery but this phone as no OFF button. What is the only way to turn off a phone with no OFF button? Drain the battery! You are the very similar. You need to use the energy so you can go to sleep exhausted, and sleep like a baby.
4. The 4,7,8 Method
-This breathing method is a lifesaver. One major cause of insomnia is stress. And what goes hand and hand with stress? Overthinking! Overthinking will have you up to 3am. So how does one relax their brain activity down? Try the 4,7,8 breathing method.
-How the method works is your inhale through your nose for 4 seconds, then you hold that breath for 7 seconds, and then you exhale for 8 seconds. Repeat this exercise at least 4 times. This will help relax you and slow the brain activity down. Anytime I used this method, I am normally asleep within less 10 minutes. This method is truly a lifesaver. Try this method and see for yourself.
Thanks for reading, I hope this helps get rid of your insomnia.
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