(what I learned from my own sleep issues and bouts of insomnia as a result of sleep anxiety)
- Use a light therapy lamp for mornings (I use this only in fall & winter months) – makes a HUGE difference. This is the one I use: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BCLLYN5
- At night, stay away from blue light. Modern devices (both computers & phones/tablets) should have a setting that removes the blue light from the screen and makes it more yellow. I’ve been using this for years and it does make a big difference. If you need software for your computer to do it, you can try: https://justgetflux.com/
- Try to use your bed only for sleep. You don’t have to be crazy rigid about this, but the mind so easily associates things together – which means that if you use your bed for all kinds of other activities like watching TV, reading, etc. – you will more easily be restless when it comes time to actually sleep.
- Rule out nutrient deficiencies: You can get Vitamin D, B12, ferritin and iron tested as well as anything else the doctor recommends based on your specific situation.
- Lack of structure in one’s schedule and lack of physical activity can ruin sleep schedules since it messes with a sense of regularity when it comes to when to feel tired vs. awake. So, I would aim to go to bed around the same time every night. This might be really hard to regulate at first though, so you may want to first start with trying to regulate your circadian rhythms through light when you wake up, and no blue light at night.
- To add to the above point, try to get some level of physical activity even if small. There are a lot of good home workouts (like pilates) that can be definitely challenging enough to feel at least a bit worn out afterwards.
- If lack of general structure in your day is a problem, do your best to come up with a very general structure for your days. An ideal sleep & waking time, and some consistent activities that you’ll do throughout the day no matter what. For example, some level of exercise like a daily walk, some level of study/learning or towards a hobby, or meal prep, etc. Try to keep yourself busy and engaged so that you don’t rely on dopaminergic activities too much which will then cause you to become more idle and restless overall, which will make sleep worse.
- If you can’t sleep at night, it doesn’t really help to lay in bed for hours – and this also prolongs the likelihood of restlessness while you’re in bed. If you really can’t sleep, try reading for a while or getting up and doing a few rounds of pushups and sit-ups. Something that will help make you sleepier, rather than indulge in a dopaminergic activity like being on your phone or playing a game – this will usually make it worse.
- Do your best to not take naps longer than 30 mins. This will throw off your sleep schedule (if this is uncontrollable, there may be something else at play – likely need to investigate with a doc).
- Promoting winding down time before you want to sleep and no other time can be really helpful. When I had insomnia, I used to only be able to sleep with a specific podcast that was designed for people with sleep issues: https://www.sleepwithmepodcast.com/ – to my utter surprise, it worked better than sleep meds.
- Sleep meds can be highly addictive psychologically, if not physically as well, because you’re training your brain to rely on something else for sleep. As a result, it reduces your belief (often both subconsciously and consciously) in your own ability to get yourself to sleep. This bandaids the issue and creates a bigger long-term problem. Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor, but barring any medical circumstances that require the use of sleep meds, I would personally only use these very sporadically if possible.
Insomnia-Specific Tips
- The more pressure I put on myself to sleep enough (or sleep at all), the more I resisted. So, for those struggling with insomnia, we might try things like a sleep journal, night time routine, warm bath at night, etc. – all to improve sleep, but these things can actually just build up pressure around getting to sleep and end up not working at all. You instead want to reinforce to your body and mind that sleep CAN be effortless like it was in the past, and not require a huge planned out routine.
- To manage my insomnia after the worst part of the insomnia bout was over, for a long time I would operate just slightly sleep deprived, so that I more easily fell asleep at night. This isn’t ideal, but usually DOES work.
