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43Folders.com is Merlin Mann’s website about finding the time and attention to do your best creative work.

Insomnia: 12 ways to better sleep

Insomnia

This looks like a useful resource for people who're having trouble sleeping. It includes some educational hand-waving, tips on finding out why you aren't sleeping, plus cautions on the usual outboard sleep solutions (from the environmental to the pharmaceutical).

Here's their long-term, sustainable tips for developing better sleep hygiene:

  • Wind down prior to bedtime
  • Do not smoke (nicotine is a stimulant) or consume caffeine
  • Try warm milk or a light snack before bed (if this doesn't interfere with another treatment you are using)
  • Exercise daily, but not right before bedtime
  • Take a warm bath, but not right before bedtime
  • Keep a regular bedtime and rising time
  • Get in the habit of going to bed when you are sleepy and sleeping where you sleep best
  • Reserve your bed for sleeping only
  • Don't have any clocks visible to you
  • Reduce the amount of time you allow yourself to sleep until you fall asleep easily (your health care provider can help with this form of "sleep restriction therapy"
  • Schedule worry time during the day and put worries out of your head when it is time to sleep; you can write them down on 3x5 cards, and then let go of them
  • Get up if you have not fallen asleep in 15 minutes and practice a relaxing activity (e.g. handwork, reading a boring book) until you feel sleepy

Personally, I cast aside their hand-wringy warnings last night and treated myself to a cocktail of Melatonin and Valerian; slept like a lamb, I tells ya. Now on to cutting out tobacco, alcohol, caffeine, clock-watching, and worry. Yep. Need to get right on that.

What works for you? How do you beat insomnia?

TOPICS: Home Life, Links, Tips
Scott's picture

My wife had insomnia bad...

My wife had insomnia bad for the first 15 years we were married. About a year ago, this guy who saw my name on another GTD site called me, because I'd mentioned a GTD script I used for Entourage 2004. We became online buddies, and in return for helping him, he told me that he'd developed a sleep system (he's a therapist). I told him about my wife, so he sent us his CD system. Damn if it didn't work. I mean from the first night on. If you've ever lived with an insomniac, you know what a miracle this must have been like, because it was. I'd never seen anything like it. Boom, out for 8 hours. And she actually never finished the CD set. She read only the first part of the book, part of the first CD, and it's worked ever since. That was about a year ago.

I'm not tied to this guy's site whatsoever, and the above story is the honest truth. I've no idea if his system would work for others, but it was a damn miracle for my wife's sanity. You can check it out at SleepEasy.com.

 
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