Insomnia : the all night rave that isn't fun

When I started to write this blog, I promised myself that I would only write about things that I am very familiar with and unfortunately insomnia is one of those things. Generally accompanied by its best friend Anxiety, insomnia usually sticks around for a couple of weeks, two or three times a year. Even though it’s appearance is relatively brief, this all night rave of worry and stress is all consuming and extremely debilitating. In this blog I thought I’d write about the things that help me get through these dark and lonely times and come out the other side feeling weary, but with a little more perspective. I’ll try not to regurgitate the same old tips on exercise and caffeine limits, but include some practical ideas that have helped me.

Get up , Get Out

No matter how little I may have slept, I try really hard to get up, make my bed and start the day. I find this helpful to try and reset my body clock and impose a routine on my sleep habits. If I really need to nap, I grab half an hour on the sofa, so that my bed is only associated with night time sleeping.

Run List for the day.

When I get up after a poor night’s sleep, I often feel rather hopeless and loosy-goosy about what I am going to do with the day. Anyone who has suffered from anxiety will know how hard it can be to make decisions. In order to reduce night time worry and avoid the ‘how the hell am I going to get through the day?’ feelings, I compose a ‘run list’ the night before. The ‘run list’ is very basic and includes little chores like dropping off the boys, walking the dog, work and also nice things such as reading a few chapters of a good book and having a bath. At the end of the day, I tick these off the run list, which makes me feel like that I am bossing it, in spite of the unwelcome anxiety and insomnia raving in my head.

Sleep Apps

Using sleep apps obsessively is counter productive in terms of giving too much time and energy over to ‘fixing a problem’ that can ultimately only fix itself. However, I do find sleep tracking technology quite useful with limited use (Sleepio). By looking at the quality, duration and time span of my sleep problems, I can see that my insomnia isn’t as drastic as I thought it might have been. It is clearly evident that my sleep goes through cycles and that I have made an excellent comeback from periods of insomnia. This helps me to challenge the irrational thoughts that scream ‘you will never, ever sleep again’ very rudely and loudly at 3 in the morning.

Meditation

In Russian, they don't say "I can't sleep." They say: "It isn't sleeping to me”. I really like this idea of not trying to sleep, but waiting for sleep to arrive. In order to welcome the elusive sleep, I use meditation to put myself in the most relaxed and calm position possible. I have to admit that I find quite a lot of meditation, in particular visualization, quite challenging. When I’m feeling anxious and wobbly, I find body scans and breathing meditations more accessible (Calm). In order to use meditation effectively at night, I try to practice once or twice during the day and attempt keep these sessions quite succinct, so that I don’t drift off to the ‘worry party’.

Insomnia can be really miserable and tricks you into thinking that it will never go away, but IT DOES. Rather like committing to a mantra, sometimes I find it helpful to write this down and repeat it often. Sleeplessness tends to ease once I have accepted its presence and worked out how I am going to manage it without being too controlling and obesessive. I don’t doubt that there are millions of others at this all night anxiety rave, and if you’re one of those party go-ers, please know that you have a friend (I’ll bring the vodka, you bring the whistles).

Sophie xxxx

Brighten up the insomnia party with new bedding in Liberty of London’s Felicite