Not sure I’ve articulated this very well be here goes….

Had a second night of insomnia … my mind was racing about everything and nothing with Michael Jackson’s “Rock with you” playing over and over again in my mind behind all the other junk.

That’s Ok it’s nothing new… I’ve had episodes of poor sleep for up to 4/5 nights stressing over stuff on many occasions, while a tune of some description plays a never-ending soundtrack…. I’ve learn to live with it… sometimes I get it when I’m double excited about something.

But due to the fact, this time, I’ve really nothing to properly stress over (just household nonsense) it has lead to think about why I’m putting up with this…. not the insomnia but the STRESS.

So should I book in with the Doctor?

I guess I know the answer to that question, But wanted to raise the topic so other might be able to share their experiences for mine, others and maybe their own benefit.

Ta.

For insomnia, I don’t bother fighting it – I get up, go downstairs and read or something.  No point just lying there going mad.  Or you could try home made mindfulness, but don’t do it whilst lying in bed in the dark.

I have the Headspace mindfullness free trial app on my phone. On the rare occasions that I have trouble sleeping, I stick it on whilst lying in bed. I usually never make it to the end of the ‘podcast’ before being asleep.

Have a good think about things and truthfully answer this question “are you OK?”

If it’s no, for whatever reason, then go start the process and get some help.

I’ve been through it, had all sorts of stress, anxiety and depression issues. Insomnia is a byproduct of that

I got help, ultimately I sought private counselling which was fantastic in helping me understand how my brain works and how much of a d**k it can be to me and can cause very minor things to become anxious issues if i don’t control it

I’m in a much better place now, have only had one panic attack in the last six months and my depression has reduced by incredible amount.

As somoene who was an insomniac for a big chunk of my twenties i’ll share these tips you can try.

Bed is for sleep and nookie only. No reading, no TV, phone or Ipad. No biscuits. If you don’t fall asleep within ten or fifteen minutes, get up and do something else until you’re tired enough to sleep. Don’t ever lie awake in bed for long periods. You need to program the association into your brain that Bed=Sleep.

Keep a pad and a pen next to bed. If you’re lying awake with thoughts on a loop, get up and write a list of them on the pad.You can safely leave them there and read them in the morning if they’re so important. Once they’re out of your head and on the paper it makes a big difference.

Try and fall asleep in the same position every night. This reinforces the  bed=sleep association.  The minute I get into bed and lie on my left side, I can fall asleep in under a minute.

Good luck.

For insomnia, I don’t bother fighting it – I get up, go downstairs and read or something.

theres something to be said for that. If ‘thinking too much’ is keeping me awake, one of the things that bothers me about that is that I might be disturbing my partners sleep.

I tend now to have a sort of bail-out option – either just getting up and just getting on with something – or going and sleeping/lying down elsewhere.

One of the things that keeps your mind racing when you’re lying awake like that is not being able to act on anything- an idea, or a concern pops into your head and just keeps looping because its got nowhere to go – if you could just write down a decision, google a thing, write a to-do list or whatever it sort of puts that thought to rest.

So at times when I’ve got too much to think about I sometimes just dingy the idea of going to bed at all, or make sure I can readily just slope off to somewhere else if I can’t settle once I have gone to bed. As its usually work stuff I’ll be fretting about – theres a notebook and laptop to hand and I just snooze and if thoughts intrude I just act on them straight away.

It doesn’t necessarily mean I get more sleep but the time I’m awake is more restful.

Sometimes just having the bail-out plan is enough to then just get into bed and fall asleep as the worry of a restless night is resolved from the outset

So at times when I’ve got too much to think about I sometimes just dingy the idea of going to bed at all

I can function reasonably well on reduced sleep, so yeah if I’m stressed I often stay up really late playing video games or watching a film to make myself as tired as possible.  Sometimes my problem is too much sleep!

If you’re suffering from anxiety, then you’re suffering from anxiety, so you need to address it. Its no use saying that you’ve nowt to worry about. Your brain has decided otherwise.

I suffer from it really badly, but only periodically. There’s not much reason to it. It just happens when it happens. I went to the doctor and he gave me a prescription for beta blockers.

It’s not like being on anti-depressants or anything where you need to take them all the time. It merely addresses the symptoms of your anxiety when you need them, so it’ll lower your heart rate and calm you down, which will give you a bit of peace and let you sleep. You don’t have to take them regularly, just when you need them, and they work instantly

I find that my OCD gets worse when I have the least to worry about. It feels like I find things to worry about and get fixated on them. I had CBT and found it helped a lot and now I don’t really have issues. We are expecting our first child in a months time and so now that I have lots of natural worries I find I feel better mentally.

I used to also have sleep issues but I learned that sometimes the next day I felt better after next to no sleep. So now when I cannot sleep I don’t worry about it because I realize that personally I don’t have too much of a correlation between sleep and how I feel the next day.

Solfeggio Frequencies

Diarise your thoughts

Solfeggio Frequencies

Diarise your thoughts

Not my favourite album of theirs

I’m Hector Riva, welcome to my world! 😉

My stress management has been poor for 25+ years, very typical for those with Seasonal Affective Disorder. I try to have a 1700 curfew on taking caffeinated drinks, but I’ve been very conscious of having regular super-strength coffees on days at home, 4 heaped spoons in a ~350mg mug about every hour from when I get up (typically stupidly late recently at gone 0800) until 1700… Which has then brought on extra random anxiety and the telltale symptoms of tensioned cheek muscles.

I’ve spent summer 2018 feeling far more mentally fatigued than normal, at first I thought it might be the prolonged winter we had, but recently I had other theories…

Been wearing yellow lenses in cycling glasses until last two weeks (so less sunshine hitting my retinas)

I had hopes to tackle the Mendips cat3 hills on my road bike, plus tackle some cat2 including Bwlch Y Groes this year, but I’ve felt so indecisive about booking due to fatigue (and the cost of travel/accommodation)

I’ve had a bit of stress recently (child with a medical condition, money worries, wife diagnosed coeliac, wife with depression and anxiety issues followed by currently going through a divorce) as well as the usual work stuff. At times my sleep has suffered.

I’d agree with just get up – I seem to be able generally to get to sleep, but I’ll then wake up very early in the morning unable to do much but worry/ligthly snooze. When I have got up and just gone to work etc it’s much better. Some relaxed music has helped me at the worst times too. Also I’ve found that these days I’ll sleep equally well anywhere, so I’ve done a couple of midweek mini adventure bivvies and slept well/woken naturally and not minded being up a bit earlier as I’m out with the bike and it just means more riding before work :).

The thing is that whilst the other things are really the biggies, it’s always a work task or something minor that’ll enter my mind – even when work’s pretty routine and non-stressful. I’m lucky in that it has been due to life events, and on that note I’d ask whether all these things really are OK? It’s not something I can reason myself out of – with the divorce I was just very nervous about being able to cope alone, doing the tasks that my ex once did, despite knowing it was quite manageable and I actually have more free time now. I guess you to some extent just have to accept it, but get whatever help is appropriate – if it’s really for no apparent reason it sounds like some help might be required.

Silencing the chattering mind is one of life’s greatest challenges. Someone has already mentioned the Headspace App, Mrs Slack uses it to great affect and may work for you?

Mindfulness in general, meditation as you are aware OP, teaches and enables one to observe the inner dialogue, without engaging with it.

Either that or a big fat doob just before bedtime. 😉

Its a troublesome state of mind, I wish you well.

Think of it like this;

1) your mind will chat and advise as it more or less wishes, depending on your current mental state

2) your conscious mind, which you control, cannot directly control the unconscious mind. But it can indirectly.

3) By not getting involved in the minds chatter, you consciously direct your attention onto something positive and go on with your day, leaving the mind there to chat by itself.

4) when you are stressed, not only your mind chatters, but you feel it in your body as well. Manifestations could be fatigue, ibs, difficulty sleeping, headaches, missed heartbeats, nervousness and so on. Its very difficult but you need to ignore these the best you can as well. Sometimes these symptoms can be very scary.

5) It takes a while to de-stress – it wont happen overnight. Once destressed the thoughts and body return to a more normal state.

The usual stuff, try cutting out caffeine, and I’m sure I’ve made a link between having an unhealthy high calorie desert and not being able to sleep…makes sense if my brain is on a sugar high.

Interesting about the ‘no reading/bed is for sleeping’, I’ve always read in bed until I feel tired, which can be 20 minutes or two hours.  I’m not on 24/7 call anymore so perhaps I’ll remove the phones and kindle from the bedroom to avoid temptation…

Finally, I’ve got glasses with a blue light filter that I wear daily, supposedly reduces eye strain from computers and phones etc (I sit in front of a PC all day).  When I got them I was trying to work out if I was falling asleep earlier, didn’t notice any change but long term over the last year I have not had any prolonged periods of not being able to fall asleep for hours.  Don’t read too much into that as obviously stress and overall tiredness changes but I do wonder if the lenses are helping.