Insomnia: One of the Worst Parts of Mental Illness
A few suggestions on how to get a better sleep
Hello Good Readers!
Well, I was part of the advisory panel for a wonderful foundation I volunteer for called CureSZ, which serves people with schizophrenia and their families, and the subject of insomnia came up. I wanted to address the topic, without actually knowing if I have covered this recently. In case I have, I strongly apologize, but hope my audience can stay with me on this one and read carefully in case I discuss any methods you haven’t heard of. You are of course welcome to just watch or use the video above. It is meditation and relaxation music designed to help people fall asleep. I think meditation is such an excellent way to relax a person that everyone should learn about it and use it. I tried a great deal of meditation techniques, but what was most instrumental for me was to go to an actual Buddhist Monastery and take meditation classes. I had great experiences with a Tibetan Monk teacher but many forms of meditation can be helpful. At the moment, I am trying to practise a type of meditation I threw together myself which includes some aspects of breathing, and other aspects of mantra meditation. This calms me and helps me sleep when I practice it at night and benefits me in many ways, one of them being I am more calm when I use it.
There are many facets to insomnia. Before taking my advice, I strongly suggest that people go and talk to their psychiatrist and see about getting into a sleep clinic. The unfortunate part of doing that for me was that it was over a year waiting list to get into a sleep clinic and by the time the appointment rolled around, I was no longer able to make it to my appointment. I definitely want to set up another appointment though, some of my sleep problems are troubling. One of them is that I have concerns I may have sleep apnea, a serious condition, and the other is that I am not sure if I still snore and how loud. This may seem like a minor thing, but when I travel I often stay in hostels with other people sleeping in the same room and time and again I have had people want to kill me for my snoring.
I would like to start with a couple of “mom” suggestions. First of all, if you can’t sleep, try heating up some milk in a sauce pan and add a little sugar or your preferred sweetener. The milk will become bitter if you don’t. The best method is to combine drinking this warm milk with eating a banana. I have found many times that having a small snack before going to bed or going back to bed after waking in the night is helpful, but not exactly something I want to whole heartedly recommend because it can cause weight gain and leave your dental hygiene in a bad state. One of the interesting things that can be done without a snack when you wake up after having a bad dream is to simply go back to sleep on your other side from the one you were sleeping on. I have no idea why or how this works, but it has worked well for me a number of times. One thing I discovered shortly after moving out on my own was that if you have a bad or upsetting dream, taking a multi-vitamin and then returning to sleep can work wonders.
Of course, if you have a full day and exercise a little, it will often mean you will get much improvement in your sleep. If you add that to taking a little melatonin, you should be able to rest almost normally. It can be tricky to find just the right dose of melatonin. I seem to have found a dose that works for me (3 mg at night) but the main problem with this dose is that it often makes me very drowsy and even grumpy for the next day. This leads to naps, and sadly, even though I think they are awesome, naps get in the way of proper sleep.
Something I experienced was the ‘bank account’ affect of sleep. We all need around 8 hours, some more, some less. It is up to you to learn what works best for you. But whatever amount we need, we have to get it each night. Any sleep missing comes out of your account and must be made up later. Sleep an hour under your needed time all during the week? Understand that you will likely be exhausted by Saturday and need to sleep in. Like naps, sleeping in makes it more difficult for you to keep a proper circadian rhythm. If you want to conquer insomnia, you need to get proper rest at the same time each day. Consider this to mean that your teenage party days are over and you don’t want them back anyway. Wake up at the same time and sleep at the same time every day, all week.
One of the things I wanted to mention was that if you are having trouble sleeping, try not to take sleeping pills or tranquilizers, and if you already use them, try to stop them. I was going through a period where I literally thought I was losing my mind. My cognitive skills were way down and my short term memory was shot. I remembered a friend who had a masters of social work telling me that he went to a doctor for sleeping pills and the doctor told him that he could prescribe them, but they would affect his memory. I realized after taking stock that I was taking a couple of pills that could affect my memory. It was very hard to get off them, and I sought out some online 12-step meetings which helped me a great deal. Some of the others seemed to think I was wasting my time and theirs seeking help for drugs that weren’t even illegal, but I went to the meetings anyway and ended up being able to stop the pills. Now, 5 or 6 weeks after stopping all of my unneeded pills, my memory and cognitive skills have greatly improved. Sleep has been very difficult at times, but I find that when I sleep without chemical assistance (I don’t consider melatonin to be a drug as it is a hormone that naturally appears in our systems) I was having some of the best sleeps of my life.
Now, there are some people that I am unable to help with insomnia, but I will do my best. These are people who tend to be unable to sleep properly because they worry a great deal. A friend, who was an incredible support at a critical time of my life said he used to worry, and he would get up and ask himself, “What can I do about this problem right now?” If he needed to contact someone he would write a letter, and even mail it if he could. Email works fine in this situation, but physically writing a letter can do more to ease tattered nerves. I often think of how my mom would worry herself sick. This sort of thing is likely best treated by a certified psychologist. I have been hearing from many sources that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is one of the most effective ways of re-framing thoughts. I haven’t gone in for the CBT treatment, but I did get some amazing books from the library where a highly intelligent and caring doctor walked his video audience through the basic steps of CBT and I found it very helpful, though it also left me with the desire to seek out in-person counselling. I also found the same course on audible audiobooks, which I would encourage anyone with a sleep problem to download make the effort to listen to.
Another tip that perhaps should have been put higher up is that I have found taking a hot shower after being unable to sleep, gives me the refreshing relaxation and clean feeling that is essential sometimes to me falling asleep, and also to me getting a better rest.
Well dear readers, please do follow up with any questions, topic suggestions, or words of feedback and encouragement. I will leave things at that for now. Here’s wishing all of you a pleasant, long, and restful sleep!
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