I Have insomnia

“I Have Insomnia.” That little sentence that you never want to hear in your head is a game changer. Lying in bed, tossing and turning can be an incredibly frustrating and anxiety-inducing experience. The inability to relax and fall asleep can leave you feeling increasingly drained, restless and irritable. What’s more, as the hours tick away, you start to realize that there is less time to sleep now.

You think to yourself, if I can get to sleep now, at least I’ll still get five hours of sleep – that won’t be too bad. Then four. Then three. You then start worrying about the day ahead and how long you have to wait until you can go to bed again, only to repeat the cycle.

One or Two Sleepless Nights

Many people will recognize this scenario from maybe one or two nights of sleeplessness due to being ill or in pain. Perhaps from fretting about a job interview the next day, or agonizing over an event or something someone said to you yesterday. Maybe it’s the weather being particularly hot in a heat wave with no air-conditioning. Whatever the cause, being unable to fall asleep can make us feel like our insomnia is controlling us rather than vice versa.

If this sounds familiar, you want a cure for it fast. If you have had one sleepless night, going to bed a little earlier the next night might be enough to help you catch up on lost sleep. As a one-off, this is fine. After a week of not sleeping, it may be tempting to sleep in until the afternoon at the weekend. However, the advice from sleep experts is to try and go to bed and get up at the same time every night. That applies to weekends and days off too.

Chronic Insomnia

But what if your insomnia is chronic? In other words, it’s long term. Unfortunately, not being able to get to sleep or waking up several times at night can become a habit. It becomes ingrained in our behavior. Regrettably, dealing with prolonged sleepless nights takes time and patience. Forgive the pun, but there is no overnight cure.

Then the more you change your behavior to try and force yourself to sleep, the harder it is to get to sleep. The more trouble you have sleeping, the more you try another behavior to try and sleep. One pillow or two? Changing your sleeping position. Taking supplements or sleeping tablets. Napping during the day. Lying-in at the weekend. These behaviors are maintaining insomnia. It should now be apparent that short-term behaviors don’t work.

Hyper-Arousal

In addition, the constant worry and anxiety about not getting enough sleep makes your brain think you are under threat. It makes you anxious so that you can deal with the threat. You feel anxious and even angry, which leads to something called hyper-arousal. If you are hyper-aroused, you will not sleep. No amount of short-term behaviors will help.

Hyper-arousal is a state of increased alertness, anxiety, and tension. It is often accompanied by physical symptoms such as rapid heart rate, sweating, and shaking. While hyper-arousal can be uncomfortable and disruptive, it is not generally considered dangerous. Having said that, the brain is hard-wired to keep us safe and avoid threats, and the body identifies lack of sleep as a threat.

Evolutionary Relic

The body’s perception of lack of sleep as a threat is a relic from our evolutionary past. In times of stress, the body releases adrenaline and cortisol to give us the energy and focus we need to deal with the threat. These hormones help us to stay alert and use our stored energy reserves to fight or flee. While this response is helpful in short-term situations, it is not meant to be sustained for long periods of time.

When we don’t get enough sleep, our bodies may interpret this as a sign that we are in danger and need to be on high alert. Therefore, the more you don’t sleep, the more anxious you become, which means you sleep even less and the more worried and stressed you become. Whatever you focus on, you will attract. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.

What to Do About Insomnia

So now you want to know how to get out of this vicious circle and start getting a good night’s sleep. Here’s how.

Get some exposure to natural daylight

Most people know that getting a good night’s sleep is important for overall health and well-being. But what many don’t realize is that wakefulness during the day can also play a role in promoting sleep at night. That means no daytime naps. The body has an internal clock, known as the circadian rhythm, which regulates the natural cycle of wakefulness and sleep.

Exposure to sunlight during the day helps to keep this internal clock on track, and helps you to sleep better at night. So the number one secret to getting rid of insomnia fast is to make sure you get plenty of exposure to natural sunlight during the day. In addition, physical activity during the day can also help to promote sleep by making the body tired and ready for rest. The best time to get out is first thing in the morning, if you can manage it. You will find that it makes all the difference.

Go to bed when you are sleepy

The longer you experience wakefulness, the stronger your sleep drive is. The sleep drive is the biological process that makes us feel sleepy when we have been awake for a long period of time. The sleep drive is caused by the build-up of a chemical called adenosine in the brain. Adenosine is a by-product of cellular activity, and it accumulates throughout the day. As the level of adenosine increases, these chemicals start to attach to receptors in the brain. This causes us to feel tired.

Incidentally, the reason caffeine helps us stay awake is that it blocks adenosine receptors. However, eventually, the sleep drive will become too strong to resist, and we will fall asleep. Not having caffeine at all is best. If you really cannot give up your coffee, stopping it around lunchtime is best.

Therefore, the next not-so-secret-secret is to go to bed when you feel sleepy. Not because it is 10pm. Sleep is meant to happen naturally. If you are sleepy, you will sleep. If your body needs to sleep, then guess what? It will sleep. Without sleep, we cannot thrive and survive. Stop fretting about it. It will happen.

Wake up at the same time every day

According to sleep experts, one of the most important factors in maintaining a healthy sleep schedule is to get up at the same time every day. This includes weekends and holidays. The human body has an internal clock, known as the circadian rhythm, which regulates various physiological processes, including sleep. This clock is influenced by environmental cues, such as sunlight and temperature.

When we stick to a regular sleep schedule, we effectively reset our circadian rhythm, making it easier for our body to know when it is time to sleep and wake up. As a result, getting up at the same time every day can help to improve insomnia by resetting the body’s natural sleep-wake cycle. Getting up each day at the same time also enables wakefulness, which we have already discovered promotes sleep.

It may be hard to wake up and get up at the same time. The alarm will go off, and you will want to hit the snooze button. Don’t. No matter how sluggish you feel, get up and start your day. As this habit, gradually embeds itself into your behavior, you will feel less sluggish each day. Eventually, you won’t even need the alarm, although it’s probably best to set it anyway just in case you do happen to sleep in late one day and miss the bus or arrive late at work.

Try CBT to stop sleep anxiety

We have discussed not sleeping due to feeling anxious and stressed, which only makes it harder to fall asleep. This cycle can be frustrating and exhausting, but there is hope. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a type of therapy that can help people manage their sleep anxiety. CBT focuses on changing negative thoughts and behaviors that are contributing to anxiety. CBT teaches you how to better cope with stressors and develop healthier sleep habits.

Over time, these interventions will reduce sleep anxiety and improve overall sleep quality. With that being said, just remember this isn’t a quick fix. Unfortunately, if you want to beat insomnia on a long-term basis, it means embedding some habits forever. Remember, short-term behaviors don’t work.

If you’re struggling with sleep anxiety, talk to your doctor or a mental health professional about starting CBT treatment. You can see a counsellor face-to-face or there are online therapists (9). As always, do your due diligence.

Do not clock-watch

One cause of sleep anxiety is fixating on how long you have been awake or asleep. Strangely, people who sleep well over-estimate how long they slept, and those with insomnia under-estimate how little they slept. Comparing the amount of time you slept (or didn’t) with someone who sleeps a solid eight hours every night is just another reason you will get anxious and perpetuate that sleeplessness/anxiety cycle.

For this reason, another important strategy to stop insomnia is to not keep checking the time when you cannot sleep. Obsessing on the time and how little you have left to sleep, just adds to the anxiety. Likewise, if you wake up, do not check what time it is. This way, you will have no idea how long you stay awake.

No day-time napping

Battling to get to sleep at night and not managing it conditions you to nap in the day. The more you nap to enable you to function, the worse night-time sleep becomes, and the more you need your daily nap. Another vicious circle. There is no battle going on in the day, so you naturally fall asleep more easily. But we want this to happen at night. So avoid the day-time naps.

Keep a Sleep Journal

Finally, once you are sleeping well on a regular basis, start a journal. Each morning, write down how well you slept. How long you slept, and how you felt when you woke. How energetic you were next day. You can even make a note about your dreams. The reason for this is that now and then you will have a bad night. You need to remember that everyone has the occasional sleepless night. That is perfectly normal.

This is where the journal comes in. It stops you obsessing about not being able to sleep, like you used to do when you were not sleeping. It helps you remember that you are not an insomniac. You are a normal person who has the occasional sleepless night. It sounds simple, but it works.

Put Insomnia to Bed

You now know some strategies to help you overcome insomnia. Reducing sleep anxiety with CBT, going to bed when you are sleepy, not clock-watching if you do happen to wake up, getting up at the same time every day, getting some natural daylight, and keeping a sleep journal. It won’t be a quick fix, but by embedding these habits into your life, insomnia will be a distant memory.

To access our complete section of articles dealing with insomnia, click here .

If you’d like to learn more about CBT, click here for the Sleepfoundation.org article, “Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-1)”.

[grwebform url=”https://app.getresponse.com/view_webform_v2.js?u=wfNAY&webforms_id=57753701″ css=”on” center=”off” center_margin=”200″/]