Tick tock, it’s three o’clock…..do you know where your mind is? It’s not asleep, and you’re tired of sheep…..
The Sheep Dog – 2017
Anyone who has ever encountered the insomnia monster at some point in their stress-filled lives please raise their weary heads. You know those dark nights of the soul where all the angst in your little corner of the world converges on your poor befuddled brain in an agony of what-ifs, and you even start to worry about worrying.
Worry Journal
After a few nights of this nonsense, you’re waaaaay overtired, much too tired to sleep and then you start to worry about never ever sleeping again, and how are you going to function the next day on two hours sleep when it’s already three o’clock and all you’ve done is toss and turn for hours, and it’s already starting to get light just as you nod off and the alarm clock shrieks from across the room, and you rise feeling like something the cat dragged in. Whoever invented daylight savings time should be fired. It’s bad enough that it’s getting light earlier in the morning, and the returning birds are twittering up a storm because they’re all excited about spring, and I’m excited too but I just don’t want to spring forward. As a former shift-worker, I’m not the best sleeper anyway. My circadian rhythm has been irreversibly damaged by years of flipping between days and evenings, but that lost extra hour seems to throw my delicate system all out of balance. Like many people I sleep better in the winter, when we can all hibernate like the bears in their caves which are warm and dark, no black out curtains needed. Now that I’m retired sleep isn’t as crucial as it used to be, as I don’t have to get up in the morning, or if I do I don’t have to be as alert as when I was working, but the world does not function on a 2-10 am sleep schedule. The world is full of morning people. I used to be one of them. So it was with great interest that I read The Sleep Solution by W.Chris Winter. What would a blog be without a good book, so here’s some bibliotherapy for insomniacs.
The Sleep Solution: Why Your Sleep Is Broken and How to Fix It by W. Chris Winter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a good read for anyone who struggles with insomnia or shift work. The author is a neurologist and sleep specialist physician. Not sure that I learned anything new, other than we sleep more than we think we do, even during the worst night of insomnia, because sleep is an inborn instinct, which is nice to know when you are trying to muddle through the next day. Nobody dies from lack of sleep, (unless I suppose you are in a car accident), and you always do manage to get through the day. It was an interesting perspective, and certainly lessens the worry associated with getting to sleep, which can be a vicious cycle. It’s a bit scientific but written in a humorous style which makes a dry subject entertaining ie it did not put me to sleep…..although I might have had a short nap on the swing…
The key advice I got out of this book is, a) your body craves sleep, it is a basic human drive, so we do sleep more than we think we do even on a night when we swear we didn’t sleep a wink, and b) we always function the next day. This is a simple concept, but somehow reassuring, and helps to break the worry cycle which is the worst part of insomnia, the worrying about not sleeping. Take the worry away, and you can sleep like a baby, well not quite, but it’s a refreshing idea. Of course, the book delves into the usual sleep hygiene routines, exercise, limiting caffeine, nothing new there, as well as chapters on sleep apnea, shift work etc. The author says no one ever died from insomnia, but that’s where I disagree. Studies show that accident rates are always higher in the week after the daylight savings shift, as are heart attacks. They have also shown a link between insomnia and obesity, diabetes, dementia, addiction and cancer. The WHO has now labelled shift work as a probable human carcinogen. Lack of sleep decreases natural killer cell levels by 75% according to some reports. (It’s enough to make you get that worry journal out!) Unfortunately, we have become a sleep-deprived society.
Meditation can be a useful tool to promote sleep. I once took a six week meditation class and while I did not have any luck meditating (lack of practice), a more experienced classmate told me she could nod off after five minutes. I was impressed, but she had been meditating for years. What did work for me was a meditation tape. The best part of the class was the melodious voice of the instructor, so I bought her CD, and listen to the insomnia meditation (13 minutes), if I’m having trouble winding down. Or if I wake up too early (those pesky birds), I will put it on again with my ear buds, and get a couple more hours of deep restful sleep. (Why is the most restful sleep always towards dawn?) The tape is almost like a form of hypnosis, her soporific voice counting to ten and then back down again is so relaxing, and there is music in the background, so it’s like a lullaby for grownups. One day in class she suggested we chose a special song so our bodies would learn to associate that song with relaxation. She played, Shenandoah by James Galway, and I left feeling like a jellyfish. I never listen to that song in the car however, driving while a jellyfish would not be a good idea.
Speaking of music, the song Count Your Blessings from White Christmas, is a lovely visual aid to falling asleep, when you’re tired of those stupid sheep…..seriously, has counting sheep ever worked for anyone? (I apologize for the Bing Crosby again but I grew up on his music). Old Bing just might have been the inspiration for those gratitude journals which were all the rage. I tried a gratitude journal once but found it only made me worry about losing my blessings, but it may work for some (more optimistic) people.
If you struggle with insomnia it’s good to have a bedtime routine, so your body knows it’s time for sleep. A cup of tea and a snack is a relaxing way to unwind. 
TV and electronic devices can be overstimulating, so turn them off an hour before bed, especially those bright blue light cell phones, which I’m sure will some day be found to cause eye damage. Low lighting is restful. Reading is good, unless it’s a suspense novel you can’t put it down. I jot down a few lines in my five year diary as a summary of the day. Reading a few pages of an inspirational book can also be a reflective way to end the day. 
There’s something about the smell of lavender that is so calming. Spraying the room with lavender pillow spray can become a sleep routine association and this can work well if you travel and are staying in hotels rooms with stale air.
- Lavender Pillow Spray
A more portable option is putting a lavender sachet under the pillow for sweet dreams.
Lavender sachets
Lavender also reminds me of France, a country that has an appreciation for all things lovely, and that is known for taking long lunches mid-day, with plenty of expresso after you are fed and rested. Try and get lots of sleep, because we’ll be spending April in Paris. Unfortunately, jet lag is a whole other story….
Quote of the Day:
“Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care
The death of each day’s life, sore labor’s bath
Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,
Chief nourisher in life’s feast.”
(William Shakespeare, Macbeth)
What are your secrets for getting to sleep on those dark nights of the soul?
thehomeplaceweb 
This is so interesting and useful. I have always had trouble sleeping (inherited from my dad I think). Sometimes I sleep, sometimes I don’t. I haven’t found anything that works particularly well yet, but new ideas are always so helpful 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
It can be a struggle, but I thought with a wee one you would be so tired out you would sleep like a baby (enfant)! I find my French has improved tremendously since reading your blogs. I will be doing some blogs on Paris in April but my french is terrible….
LikeLike
Sadly not! When I do sleep it is now always with one ear listening out for any sound coming from his room! Thank you very much for the compliment 🙂 I am so glad that you finding them vaguely useful 😉 I look forward to reading your Paris blogs…will you be travelling there or will you be posting to mark the anniversary of a past adventure? I adore Paris!
LikeLiked by 1 person
No they will be literary adventures! Sadly, I have never been to Paris, although I have read many books on it. I was wondering about your name, Chomeuse with a Chou – what does it translate to in English?
LikeLike
Perhaps you’ll go one day 🙂 it translates to Unemployed with a Cabbage/cutie pie. As a stay at home mum I am technically unemployed and chou is both the word for cabbage and a typical term of endearment for small children in france. My husband used to call our son his petit bout de chou when he was born, which roughly means the end of cuteness. But I liked to joke that he was calling him a cabbage end! It’s a tiny bit of a creative licence with the unemployed label, although strictly speaking it is true, but I really liked the idea of alliteration 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for asking! 🙂
LikeLike
Seldom do I not get my sleep, but when I can’t sleep I’ll remember your helpful ideas. Beautifully written and very helpful.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Karen! I am always envious of people who can sleep well, it is a gift we don’t appreciate until we can’t!
LikeLike
Very interesting post! x
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for the advice – not for myself as I have always been a good sleeper, but for my husband (see Chomeuse with a Chou’s reference to him above), who has never slept well in all the 33 years I have been with him. He stubbornly refuses to seek any help for it, preferring to complain. I have already ordered the book from Amazon (available over here on 3 April), so hopefully he will read it. I consider myself expremely lucky that I can fall asleep almost instantly (and if I don;t I just recite in my head lists of useful things such as US states, Kings and Queens of UK with dates, and usually I’m asleep within minutes) and as I sleep deeply all I need is 5 or 6 hours a day. The only exceptions were a couple of times before running half marathons (in my slightly younger years) and before catching very early flights, or more recently when I broke my wrist and would wake up with my shoulder aching and I couldn’t move into any comfortable position, but luckily I’m sleeping again now. I didn’t sleep properly for over 3 months, so I can now imagine the misery of never sleeping well and I sympathise.
LikeLiked by 1 person
How lucky you are…..and how your hubby must resent you! Perhaps he will like the book – it was quite funny, and the many reviews mentioning that is what attracted me to read it, although the author was in Oprah mag. also. I post book reviews on Goodreads.com and he actually commented on my review, so he must be a first time author. I find if I can get by on less sleep if it is deep sleep…..I have just now recovered from the daylight savings shift which was 3 weeks ago..
LikeLiked by 1 person
I suspect he will refuse to read it, but I shall, and shall pass on any helpful tips to him.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have heard the Bing Crosby song before, but “Shenandoah” has probably been a half-century since I heard it. Joni – hearing that song was a nice memory for me since I played it on the accordion when I took accordion classes when we still lived in Canada. I must admit the version I played did not sound as nice as this version which was very relaxing. But I would play it and my mom would sing to it – I haven’t thought of that in years. When I was in college, I was in the National Model United Nations and there were six of us went to New York for one week to participate in the conference. We did the conference every morning and had our afternoons free. There were three guys and three girls. One of the guys had narcolepsy and he told us when we first got together to study about our nation we represented (Egypt) that if he ever nodded off in the middle of talking (that would be him, not even us), that it was because of having narcolepsy and he’d fall asleep on a dime … and he did a few times. I had never heard of it before. I often fall asleep during the day and have nodded off writing a blog post – I definitely am exciting. I never get enough sleep but after hearing the TED Talks sleep expert, I know I am going to be more diligent about getting more sleep.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Getting enough sleep is definitely a perk of retirement! If I don’t have a good night, like last night because the winds were howling, then I catch up with a short afternoon nap.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, that is a plus, having a nap. I can see why lack of sleep was a problem when you worked though – you had to be sharp at work – me, not so much. Who even notices if I nod off at the other end of the keyboard. You had people’s lives depending on your accuracy. It is difficult to go to bed early in the nice weather as there is the big dog on the corner who is put out before owners go to bed and they never let him in right away and dog barks. And on weekends, they have family over and tie him up and he barks all day long.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It was an added worry – nothing makes insomnia worse than knowing you have to be sharp the next day. I always worried when I’d have a bad night, but one of my colleagues once said to me that I was better on my bad days than most people on their good days! Which was quite a compliment, so somehow the old brain always kicked in.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well, that is good – I could see how you would worry. The brain is likely more incredible than we give it credit for sometimes!
LikeLiked by 1 person