Sleep hygiene, no matter where your insomnia comes from
It makes me so happy that there are people like Joeel and Natalie to help anyone and everyone take the first steps toward better sleep and better health, physical, mental, and emotional. Our cultures are so unhealthy when it comes to sleep that people get mocked for napping. We chug coffee and brag about how tired we are like it’s a contest. It’s so bad! We need sleep in order to clean our cells out, to clean our bodies and minds of debris and to regenerate.
Joeel and Natalie (a husband and wife duo) break it down so efficiently: sleep cycles, sleep disorders versus the every now and then insomnia, and all kinds of helpful tips. In my case, my insomnia comes with not only the narcolepsy but several other chronic illnesses. I’m in pain all the time and that definitely makes it harder to sleep. But for a lot of people, they may not have any other kind of health problem but still struggle so much. It’s so important to be able to make this distinction so that you can better communicate with your doctor if you need to consider diagnostic work to rule out an underlying cause, and so that you can address the issue no matter where your sleep problems stem from.
They also break down how important it is to have a routine for preparing for sleep. That includes making sure your bedroom is appropriate for rest and having a wind-down routine that may include natural remedies or even techniques to keep from stressing out about not being able to fall asleep. Getting worked up like that will just make it worse.
Take it from a narcoleptic: SLEEP IS HARD. My brain literally doesn’t create the right protein for deep, restful, restorative sleep. I have sleep paralysis. I hallucinate. My core temperature is wacky and abnormal. Instead of going down when I sleep, it goes up, and during the day it’s down and leaves me feeling cold and sluggish. I’ve struggled with it my entire life, and by the time I was an adult (and still undiagnosed until age 23) it got so out of control that I started to degenerate because of how little sleep I was getting. I’ve been on various sleeping pills (and even stimulants!), I’ve resorted to Xanax. Nowadays I mostly rely on supplements, cannabis, meditation, and practicing sleep hygiene. That last one is something I really wish doctors had taught me. It’s really not something you get unless you’re sent to a sleep specialist, and let’s just say my insurance was barely cooperative enough to get me through the sleep study and diagnosis.
It takes work, but there is hope. Whether you’re like me or not, I highly recommend giving these practices a try.
Listen to Get Better Sleep Now Step by Step Course and more self-improvement audio programs on Audiojoy — download free on iOS or Android.
