No sleep is no fun.
I have been an insomniac for over 25
years.
Laying in bed. All comfy. Eyes closed
and brain is just yammering on and on and just wont. Shut.
up.
Over the past 30 years I have dealt
with this I have learned a thing or 2.
I will share some insights with you.
First and foremost resign yourself
to the fate that no matter what you do some days you will just not
sleep. By accepting this early it will help you in developing
counter-attacks for dealing with the sleepiness the next day. So far
my record is 4 days without even a head nod but by knowing what I
needed to keep going I was able to function. Not function at my best
obviously but function.
Learn when your second wind kicks
in. As you probably know our bodies all run on their own circadian
rhythm. If you try to go to sleep after your body has revved itself
up on a new cycle it is like trying to fight a house fire with a
Dixie cup. For instance: I learned in my teens that my second wind
kicks in a bit around 11pm so if I want to sleep I either have to be
in bed and asleep before then or wait 3 to 4 hours afterwards. This
is not always 100% accurate and does not hold 100% for every single
night. It is , however, a good place to start.
Ok there are little tricks of the trade
that will help you in your fight, you just have to find the right one
that helps you. I do not recommend anything in a pill form (allergy
medicine, sleeping pills, etc) they hurt more then they help. Soaking
your feet in hot water works as it draws the blood away from your
brain. Melatonin is a vitamin supplement that can help as well.
Your body will sleep when it’s tired
the trick is to shut the brain up long enough for it to realize it is
tired.
It might sound over simplistic but the
phrase to remember is “train your brain”
Your brain is going to do what it wants
when it wants, like an unruly dog.
Your job is to train it to understand
that when it gets certain cues it is to start the shutdown process.
One thing you can do is to get
comfortable and read an exceptionally boring book. This works
however there are drawbacks. One sometimes you get interested in the
book and, well, that’s not the point. The worst though is if it
works for to long then it will inhibit the ability to read a book
without getting drowsy. This I know from experience and it sucks.
One step I have developed for
myself works rather well. I create certain scenarios in my mind’s
eye each night and allow them to play out. Mini movies starring me
basically. Daydreaming with the eyes closed as it were. You could
use items like “what if I had superpowers” or “what if there
was a zombie apocalypse” or time travel, whatever. It really
doesn’t matter.
The idea is it
creates a distraction for your mind to concentrate on. So instead of
bouncing all over the place keeping you up it will focus on 1 thing,
the scenario.
The idea here is
you do this every night but don’t really change up your scenarios.
Stay with the same ones. Eventually once the movie starts playing in
your head your brain will take it as a visual cue to start the power
down sequence.
One note to
remember though is anything you go in deep on can affect your body
physically. For instance try not to imagine fight sequences as this
can increase the body tension, blood flow and even start spitting out
adrenaline. As you can imagine trying to sleep with an adrenal rush
is pointless.
If you have not
fallen asleep in about an hour go ahead and get up. I call this a
reset. There is nothing worse then lying there for hours and hours
waiting for sleep. Go get a drink or something and then go in and try
again. Don’t watch TV as this engages the brain, just veg out for a
few minutes. Also try to go to bed at the same time each night as it
too can create a cue for the brain to start shutting down.
The main thing to
note is to learn what your own certain tricks are and to adapt
yourself to using them. Study yourself and learn what you can do to
help you out.
