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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
traypup's picture

I work from home, but...

I work from home, but stop working no later than 7 pm. That's the absolute latest I'll drink caffeine, too. Lately, I've been falling asleep by daydreaming about what I'd do if I won the big lottery jackpot. Sometimes getting up and taking a couple of Smooth Dissolve Tums helps, believe it or not.

If I really can't sleep, I'll go down to the office and read LiveJournal or catch up on email lists that I enjoy. I'll answer personal mail. Nothing work-related. After a while, I'm too tired to do anything but sleep. Then I go back to bed and kick my husband out to the couch because he's snoring. (I recently terminated my relationship with a very difficult client and I suspect that when the grace period I gave them is finished, I'll sleep like a baby no problem. Desperate times call for desperate measures.)

 
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