Insomnia and sleep difficulties are common problems that I often hear about and help clients with in my practice. Lasting sleep problems can lead to real suffering and interference with ones life.
Here are two helpful articles on how to manage sleep problems through good sleep “hygenie,” Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, physical exercise, and various forms of relaxing the nervous system:
How to Cure Insomnia with Good Sleep Hygiene, by Jonah Larkin, L.Ac.
Many people suffer from disturbed sleep. When a patient tells me that they fall asleep easily, stay asleep through the night and wake up refreshed I feel like jumping for joy. Those with insomnia either have a hard time falling asleep, a hard time staying asleep, waking too early, or not feeling refreshed upon waking.
The solutions to each of these problems are multi-faceted. My approach to any problem medical or otherwise is to first pick the low hanging fruit. In the case of a good nights rest, this happens to be sleep hygiene. Sleep hygiene is defined as all the behavioural and environmental factors that precede sleep or may interfere with sleep (Wikipedia). Below are my general rules for sleep hygiene followed by all the scientific gobbledygook.
1. Turn off all screens 2 hours before bed (Yes, I know I can hear a collective “Yikes!”)
2. Download Flux for your computer. This is especially important if you’re a late night computer addict. It will automatically adjust the color spectrum on the screen of your computer from blue light to red light which will have less of a negative effect on melatonin production.
3. Dim all the lights in your home 1 hour before bedtime. Even better is to turn off all the lights and light a few candles.
4. Do a simple relaxation ritual before you climb into bed. This can literally be 30 seconds of relaxation or prayer but it serves as a powerful reminder to your body that it is time to relax. I recommend 2-3 minutes of soft belly diaphragmatic breathing.
5. Make sure your bedroom is completely free of light pollution. This means you should have good quality blinds to block out ambient light.
6. Your bed is for sleep, sex, and maybe a little softcore wrestling with your significant other or your kids, but not for work. Keep it that way.
7. The experts say go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day. I admit my city life seems to get in the way of this rule but we should all try our best to have a regular sleep schedule.
8. If you get up at night to pee try to not turn on any lights. Or if you can’t see then get a red (see below for why) nightlight because I don’t want you to sue me for stubbed toes. Your pineal gland won’t get fooled by the red part of the color spectrum.
9. Exercise. Watch a little kid run around all day and then knock out at soon as he/she gets home. If you have somehow convinced yourself that you have no time to fit in exercise then at least stand up at work.
10. Visit an acupuncturist. I know it’s a shameless self plug but I wouldn’t say it unless I knew it helped. Plus there are a bunch of studies that confirm my own conclusion (Cao).
Here’s another good article from Psychology Today: