Insomnia
True sleep deprivation is a special kind of hell. I’m not talking about your run-of-the-mill shoddy night’s sleep, no. I mean not being able to fall asleep night after night, getting up with enough fuel to just exist until you stumble back to your bed, then repeating the cycle. I’m very lucky that this isn’t a chronic condition for me, but when it does happen, it derails everything. Work is harder, writing is not enjoyable (indicated by my absence these past weeks), and a crevasse between everything you enjoy and your zombified state broadens with each twilight battle.
The good news is I’m on the other side of it. I’ve repaired a strained relationship with my bed and am finally sleeping soundly again. Now that I have a renewed zest for life, I wanted to write about what helped me, since an alarming amount of people struggle to get a good night’s sleep.
1. Reduce your screen time before bed.
I think most people are aware of the blue light emitted from every corner of our dystopian existence. Exposure to blue light before bed prevents your brain from absorbing melatonin, the compound that tells you it’s time for bed. Most devices now have a Night Mode that filters out blue light and gives your screen an orange/red tint. What most people don’t know is that there is probably some residual blue light coming through. If you filtered out 100% of blue light from your phone screen, it would be unusable. It’s better to play it safe and stop looking at screens about an hour or two before bed. I either journal, read, or simply write out stuff I hope to accomplish the next day so it’s not bouncing around in my head.
2. Exercise every day.
The few times I have dealt with serious insomnia can be traced back to the same shortcoming in my daily routine. I got “too busy” to do my (almost) daily run. Over the years I’ve come to realize that exercise is one of those things that you should make time for, no matter how difficult. You simply feel better during the day and sleep comes much more easily at night. Studies suggest that exercise is a great way to reduce cortical hyperarousal at night, a state of elevated stress hormones and anxiety that has your heart pounding and mind racing. Exercise can help “burn off” some of your stress hormones during the day so they aren’t keeping you active at night.
“The thought of bedtime can trigger anxiety, and you wind up in a negative feedback loop. Mindfulness will help calm you down.”
3. Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day.
I’ve learned over the past several weeks just how important a regular bedtime and waking time are for your overall sleep hygiene. This is something that should be obvious, but many solopreneurs - especially those who do work on a computer - tend to think that anytime is work time if they’re feeling up to it. Working and relaxing whenever you want is the beauty of freelancing, isn’t it? It doesn’t really work that way. The quickest route to insomnia is playing fast and loose with bedtime. The more consistent you are with your winding down routine in the evening, the easier it is to get some restful sleep. Getting a full 8 hours will boost your productivity the next day and the quality of your work will be much better than if you had pulled an all-nighter.
4. Try mindfulness to reduce anxiety.
I know that “try mindfulness” probably seems like a catch-all recommendation for pretty much everything these days, but there is a reason why we’re hearing about it more and more. It works. Maybe not tonight, or tomorrow night, but working it into your routine will contribute to a better friendship with your bed. You may begin to dread bedtime after so many nights of awful sleep. Eventually, the thought of bedtime can trigger anxiety, and you wind up in a negative feedback loop. Mindfulness will help calm you. Don’t go into it the first time expecting it to eliminate anxiety, but a single 15-minute session of guided meditation will certainly help you control your breathing and lower your heart rate before bed.
5. Melatonin + Bedtime Tea
When all else fails, chemically-induced sleep is sometimes the answer. This is the one-two punch that really made a difference for me this time. I had been trying the previous four steps for a couple of weeks with very mixed results. It seemed that melatonin was the thing that clicked things back into place for me. Like I said before, it’s a natural compound that our bodies release and absorb at night. I guess my body was just dropping the ball on that for some reason. My new ritual has been taking 3mg of melatonin at 10 pm while I brew a bedtime tea blend (fennel, chamomile, valerian root, lavender, etc.). I sip the tea while reading a book or listening to a podcast. These last few nights I barely get through half a cup before dozing on the couch and dragging myself to bed. Sweet relief!
Trick yourself into sleeping.
There is a ton of well-meaning advice online for defeating insomnia, and I realize I run the risk of adding to the pile of potentially unhelpful information. Some things simply don’t work for everyone, which I discover every time I go through this. These five tips above are the things that have helped me and continue to contribute to my falling asleep reliably. My last piece of advice is to stop trying so hard. Working yourself up in a state of panic, thinking “omg it’s 2 am, I only have 4 more hours to sleep” is the worst possible thing you can do. Try to accept that you just might not get enough sleep, and try to pass the following day as normally as possible. Our bodies are pretty gullible. The less you try to go to sleep, the easier it is. ◉
Written by Seth Barham
