Say Good Night to Insomnia

For the last 35 years I've had insomnia. Within the past 15 years I did all sorts of things meant to aid a better night's sleep. I made sure I used the bed only for sleep and sex. I eliminated wheat and caffeine from my diet. I started meditating. Started doing yoga. I've never taken sleeping pills because there are too many hazards involved and I really don't need to add, "break addiction to sleeping pills," to my list of things to do.

I did continue to drink (sometimes to excess) but have more or less ended that habit within the past year.

And yet, the insomnia persisted. What I've come to learn is that I'm a polyphasic sleeper. And (of course) there are people out there who could argue that this is part of my (and our) genetic make up. That for some ungodly reason a person needs to be wide awake in the middle of the night staring at the ceiling. Maybe 2000 years ago I would've thrown another log or two onto the fire. Who knows for sure?

All I know is that until I become a millionaire (and it's coming soon) I have to pay the bills and right now that means that I go to work more or less between 9 am and 5 pm, Monday through Friday. And being up in the middle of the night on work nights, tends to leave me a little muddle headed during the workday. Luckily I'm not a brain surgeon so no one ends up hurt when I'm a little out of if.

Regardless, I'm super irked by the fact that my sleep habit appeared to be all over the map. So I embarked upon what I call, the great sleep re-patterning of 2013.

I bought this book -- Say Good Night to Insomnia.

Now, I'm the sort of person who can be extremely lazy. But I'm also the sort of person who, when I put my mind to it, tends to achieve her goals. I won't get into all the details (you can buy and read the book if you want those). The subtitle is: The 6-Week Program proven more effective than sleeping pills. That's a fairly bold claim. But what's crazy, is this program really is working. Basically I've been tracking my sleep and following the exercises.

For anyone who's ever quit smoking or drinking coffee, you'll know that the first 2 weeks are hell on earth. Really and truly sticking it out is a b*tch. I was all kinds of irritable and crabby. But then I noticed, I was starting to sleep a little better. I realized that I had been in bed for too long. I've started to go to bed at the same time each night; lights out at around 11 pm. And I get up around 7:30. (I think I might even move that to 7 am but why go nuts right now?) Occasionally I still have one horrendous night where I'm up for 2 hours and nothing will send me back to la-la land, so I just deal. But all the other nights -- it's awesome, I sleep.

If you suffer from insomnia, I feel your frustration. Perhaps you'll read the book and follow the program and get some respite.

I realized that if I'm to die young, happy, and rich I have to be able to get a good night's sleep, or else all is lost. I used to feel so out-of-it during the day and I know that had an effect on my ability to make wise decisions. As I get older and head toward my good-death, I know that I want to get the most out of my days and in order to do that I have to be able to sleep well. Besides I partied really hard in my youth so I don't have any regrets on that count.