What should I do when I have insomnia? Insomnia is a real scourge: 1 in 3 Americans report suffering from sleep disorders, and 73% report waking up at least thirty minutes during the night.
No, the quality of sleep of the Americans is not at the top… Are you one of them and would you like to find regular sleep cycles? When you wake up at night, do you often have trouble falling back to sleep?
The good news is that there are tips to combat sleep deprivation!
So, open your eyes wide, the advice given in our little guide to fight against insomnia attacks is precious.
Also read: What are the benefits of melatonin on sleep? benefits, uses, side effects, and dosage
Let’s go.
Am I Really Suffering From Insomnia?
There are several types of insomnia: chronic insomnia and occasional insomnia.
Occasional insomnia is linked to events in everyday life: change in lifestyle (work, move, etc.), returning from a trip during which you had major jet lag, stressful events, etc. In these circumstances, there is no need to be alarmed.
Small sleep disorders will go away once the event has passed and is integrated.
Where it gets trickier is when dealing with chronic insomnia. REM sleep time is thus reduced due to several health problems: it can be restless leg syndrome (your legs experience tremors at night), nocturnal apnea (you stop breathing during sleep) or depression.
For these problems, we advise you to contact a doctor so that he can prescribe an appropriate treatment.
Chronic insomnia can also be linked to the lifestyle of the sleeper, or even to psychophysiological causes: it is on these last two that we are going to focus and give you our best tips!
Betting On A Healthy Lifestyle To Have Good Sleep And Avoid Nocturnal Awakenings—Is That Enough?
When talking about insomnia, a few basic beliefs arise. Indeed, a few simple tips make it possible, if not to completely combat insomnia, to calm it down a little, and above all, to avoid nocturnal awakenings as much as possible.
The goal is to give yourself every chance to keep insomnia at bay, with a healthy lifestyle.
To help you fall asleep, you can then keep away stimulants such as coffee, tea, sugar, sodas and alcohol in the evening. By avoiding too large meals, you can also promote the onset of sleep.
And to help you produce the hormone of sleep and calm, certain foods can also accompany you.
Because yes, the links between sleep and food are very close. So, to sleep better, you can turn to foods rich in tryptophan!
This amino acid helps you to produce serotonin (the hormone of happiness), to promote sleep and to fight against depressive disorders, which can be the cause of many insomnias.
To fall asleep quickly, but also to enjoy a peaceful night until the early morning, you can then count on:
- Fish: salmon, cod, tuna;
- Legumes: lentils, split peas, white beans;
- Dairy products, parmesan;
- Oilseeds: almonds, cashew nuts;
- Chocolate;
- The banana;
- Beer yeast;
- Soy;
- Brown rice;
- Parsley;
- …
Finally, valerian or lavender herbal teas have interesting calming effects to help you fall asleep more easily. Certain essential oils, such as lavender, can also be sprayed in the bedroom to soothe your sleep.
Take Back Control Of Your Sleep
It’s not about breaking records to find sleep: here, it’s about making friends with your biological clock! You’re going to have to fight your sleep issues by redefining your sleep cycle, and stick to it.
To start, start by recognising the signals that alert you to the desire to sleep, and go to bed only when you really feel the need. As soon as your eyes sting and your yawns start to swell, waste no time and go to bed.
If after half an hour you can’t sleep, get up and engage in calm activities that don’t stimulate you. The goal is to only go back to bed when the next sleep wagon passes!
An important rule to integrate concerns the times of getting up and going to bed: you must imperatively stick to them, at all costs, day after day.
What Is Sleep Restriction?
It’s about reducing the time you spend in bed so that it matches your sleep time as much as possible.
Because the person who suffers from insomnia spends far too much time in bed.
To catch up on her sleep, she will want to go to bed early. If she does not listen to her biological clock, she will not be able to sleep and will only sleep for a few hours.
So, the concept is simple: if you think you only sleep 6 hours a night, give yourself a night of 6 hours, no more and no less.
You delay your bedtime while maintaining your wake-up time. So, if you think you only sleep 6 hours a night and you have to get up at 7 a.m., you will go to bed at 1 a.m.
Write down on a sheet how many hours you have slept, over a week and calculate the “efficiency” of your sleep, by dividing the number of hours of sleep by the number of hours in bed x 100.
The closer you get than 100, the better!
When you reach 85%, you can extend your sleep by 15 minutes.
Getting Back To Sleep Through Relaxation
If you are insomniac, to fall asleep quickly, you can set up a ritual before going to bed.
During the half-hour before your bedtime, indulge in a short session of yoga, meditation, or even abdominal breathing.
These activities help you calm down so that your body is ready to receive a better quality of sleep.
If you are insomniac, to fall asleep quickly, you can set up a ritual before going to bed.
During the half-hour before your bedtime, indulge in a short session of yoga, meditation, or even abdominal breathing.
These activities help you calm down so that your body is ready to receive a better quality of sleep.
Try Sophrology
Sophrology for sleep can also help you calm down before falling asleep. This relaxation technique is born from the association of neuroscience, psycho-corporal practices, and behavioral techniques.
To calm your stress, your anxiety, help you concentrate, or even manage your emotions, you can try some sophrology exercises just before falling asleep.
Lie down on your bed, and close your eyes.
Imagine yourself in a place that brings you serenity and well-being. It can be the image of a peaceful lake nestled in the heart of a green valley.
This place, perfectly silent and isolated from everything, is conducive to rest and meditation.
Let yourself go in this landscape that envelops you in softness, wonder, and happiness. Linger in the blue, bright, and restful sky.
The sun’s rays plunge into the water, and a light breeze caresses the lake and forms a few discreet waves.
Then linger on the air around you: still lying down, you breathe gently and deeply.
You inhale through your nose for 4 seconds, and fill your lungs with oxygen as you contemplate the peaceful lake, then you exhale through your mouth, also for 4 seconds.
Observe the trees near the lake: the sound of their leaves soothes you, and helps you to fall asleep.
Every evening, do this little meditation session for about 5 or 10 minutes.
Whenever you are stressed about going to bed for fear of seeing the insomnia that disturbs you reappear, close your eyes and imagine yourself at the edge of this lake again.
Calm Yourself With Heart Coherence
This practice helps you manage your stress, your anxiety, and your emotions. The impacts of cardiac coherence on your mental, physical, and emotional health are numerous.
Also, note that this technique would reduce the risk of depression and high blood pressure.
The objective is simple: to have balanced breathing, to slow down your heart rate, and to enter a state of total calm.
To do this, inhale for 5 seconds, gently, through your nose. Then exhale for 5 seconds, slowly through your mouth. In this way, you achieve 6 breaths per minute. The effects of this cardiac coherence exercise have effects on your body for several hours:
– You lower your production of cortisol, the stress hormone;
– You act on many neurotransmitters, especially those that convey emotions;
– You increase the production of serotonin, which helps you prevent depression and anxiety;
– You increase your auricular natriuretic factor, a hormone secreted by the heart and which acts on high blood pressure.
By carrying out this exercise of cardiac coherence, the effects on your health are remarkable: you reduce your arterial hypertension and you limit your cardiovascular risks. Your body recovers better, which makes you feel less tired and less stressed.
In short, there is no shortage of reasons to turn to cardiac coherence to calm insomnia and take care of your health!
Meditation To Relieve Insomnia
Before going to bed, meditate for 10 minutes. Meditation of the senses can be particularly interesting for calming insomnia, and will help you stop all the thoughts that are spinning in your head and that you cannot put on hold.
To truly be in a calm environment, lie on your bed and close the door.
Nothing should be able to disturb your harmony during these few minutes. To help you, you can put on a sound background when you perform this exercise: the song of birds, the sound of a flowing river, the rain, or the forest.
Focus on one of your senses. For example, you can start with hearing:
What Do You Mean?
How does the noise feel to you?
Do this for a few moments, then switch to another direction. Imagine yourself in a place that calms you, and linger on what you see: the colors, the nuances, the objects, the landscapes. Then move on to smell and touch, taking your time.
Through this exercise, the idea is to become aware of the sensations experienced through your senses and find peace.
Trust Relaxing Pillows
To succeed in soothing yourself, you can turn to relaxing pillows: they act directly on your neck, which is the part of the body where all stress-related tensions accumulate.
By offering you a high level of comfort, and high-quality support for your head and neck, they actually allow all the muscles in your body to relax.
To be sure to opt for a pillow that will take care of your neck, you can turn to memory foam. This viscoelastic material wraps around your neck by deforming under the heat of your body.
As soon as you move at night, the pillow filling moves with you, to adapt to the contours of your head and neck.
The tensions accumulated in the cervical spine are removed, and you can relax perfectly!
To find the relaxing pillow that suits you and that will help you fight against your insomnia, this little test of 8 questions will accompany you: it allows you to take stock of your sleeping habits (number of hours slept, sleeping position …), your comfort preferences, your possible health problems and your morphology to guide you to the tailor-made pillow that suits you!
How To Hold On After A Sleepless Night?
If you are prone to insomnia, you are certainly looking for solutions that will help you live your day better after a restless night.
So, how do you hold on after a sleepless night? First of all, you can start with a good shower, preferably cool. It will revitalize you and help you approach this day with enthusiasm.
At breakfast, opt for healthy foods, and avoid fast sugars. Opt for honey, whole meal bread, dried apricots, dates, fruits, oilseeds, green tea.
During the day, your snacks should also be rich in nutrients, vitamins and minerals. At noon, opt for a light meal, which is easily digested. Quinoa, muesli, vegetables, eggs can make up your plate.
During the day, if you feel like you’re nosediving, go for a walk. Take in the fresh air, or wake up your body with the rays of the sun. Walk about fifteen minutes to revitalize yourself!
To sleep well without going through the sleep aid box, take care to equip yourself well for a quality night.
By choosing ergonomic pillows, you will be able to ward off certain worries that sometimes cause some sleep disorders, such as neck pain or even respiratory problems. Ready to say goodbye to bad sleep?
Conclusion
Now you know what you should do when you have insomnia. Keep in mind that you should also try to get up at the same time every day, including weekends, and preferably early.
Conversely, avoid going to bed too early, at least 2 hours after dinner, and devote the bed to sleep to create bed conditioning.
I have an extended article stating: What type of sleeper are you?