Insomnia

I've been suffering from insomnia all of my adult years on and off and I just dealt with another bout of it. I was sooooo tired but as soon as I laid down my body was like "KIDDING!" I was still exhausted but I just couldn't sleep, I was getting maybe three hours of broken sleep a night.  My doctor whom I will call the Sleep Nazi gave me some advice, it wasn't advice I wanted to hear but I was willing to try it. It wasn't a super quick fix but within a week I was back to sleeping.

1-NO naps- no matter how tired you are NO naps....ugh this one killed me, I don't nap a lot but I have chronic illnesses which make me tired, a sleep condition which makes me tired and when I'm not sleeping at night boy do I really want to nap.

2-Go to bed at the same time every night and wake up at the same time every morning no matter what, no sleeping in even on weekends. ( I have to wonder if she follows her own advice)

3-Sleep 8 hours and thats it....okay so yes she gave me this advice but she is my primary care doc not my specialist and my specialists say that people with my conditions I need more sleep than the average person, 9-10 hours a night.

After researching online here are some things that I added

4- Melatonin- the evidence is sketchy but the side effects are few so I figured it was worth a shot

5-Tea with herbs for sleep, it took me awhile to find a tea that was gluten free AND didn't have an herb that interacted with my medications but I did.

6-A nightly bedtime routine

7-Putting my ipad on night mode to filter out blue light. I'm not about to give up reading on my ipad so I discovered it has a setting to change the light...I am so incompetent when it comes to technology

My nightly routine

At 9:30 I go upstairs, wash my face and then do ten minutes of gentle yoga to calming music...no on my feet crazy yoga, just gentle mat work. Then I drink my tea while I read, once my tea is done I turn off my lights and continue to read. at about 11 I go brush my teeth and take a HOT bath. I've read that you should do this about an hour before bed, not right before but it works for me. Also if I wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep I get back in the hot bath, I don't turn on the light, only have the nightlight in the bathroom.

Like I said, it was instant, it took about a week of being very very exhausted and miserable but it was well worth it!