I know a host of people suffering from insomnia. My grandmother and my father have had insomnia for as long as I can remember, and I have also had trouble sleeping for the past few years.
Many of these people complain of different symptoms. Some say that it takes a long time to fall asleep while other says that no matter how long they sleep, they do not feel fully awake. And there are those who wake up from their sleep for various reasons: to go to the bathroom or from a nightmare that literally wakes us up.
The morning after tossing and turning, I can feel that I am physically and mentally drained. I become excessively edgy or severely uninterested by whatever is happening around me. I don’t want to eat, so naturally I don’t want to cook. And even if I do manage to get something together for breakfast, I know I’m not going to enjoy it. And I even think about calling in sick just because.
It’s not just that. My eyes start stinging so badly that I didn’t know how to get through the day at work, staring into the computer screen. I even thought that I could pass out from a lack of sleep.
And this was my daily life for the past couple of years.
But recently, I have experienced a few positive changes in my sleep cycle. I have read a few books on insomnia and tried a few tips on those books. One of them was “The Stanford Method for Ultimate Sound Sleep” by Seiji Nishino. And I finally found a combination of methods that helped me overcome insomnia.
So what determines sound sleep?
The first 90 minutes after going to bed determines the quality of sleep, according to Professor Nishino’s book. If we sleep well for the first 90 minutes, then even if we only sleep for 3 to 4 hours, we wouldn’t be acting like sleepless zombies the next day.
Then how can we fall deep into sleep during the first 90 minutes?
First, we should be keen on WHEN we want to fall asleep. There comes a time when sleep comes naturally. We should not miss that time. If we do, then it is possible that we don’t get any sleep at all. Usually, one sleep cycle is about 90 to 120 minutes. So if we’re unlucky, then we could have trouble falling asleep for as long as TWO hours!
Then when do we usually feel sleepy?
Usually, sleep comes when body core temperature and skin temperature are close. Body core temperature is usually around 36.5°C, and skin surface temperature is usually around 34 to 35°C.
Allow me to give you an anecdote. Sometimes, our body temperature drops dramatically while hiking on a frigid winter day. This is caused by fast cooling of our clothes, wet with our sweat. But our feet and hands are covered in gloves and hiking shoes, so our skin temperature stays a bit higher than usual. This is when we tend to feel sleepy.
Sleep could come due to hypothermia. Source: Movie “The Himalayas”
How can we quickly lower our body core temperature?
Instead of trying to lower our body core temperature, we could try to keep our hands and feet warm. In fact, it is best to run a bath for about 90 minutes before going to sleep. But realistically-speaking, this is not going to happen.
When our feet and hands are warm, blood circulates our body better, which help increase both body core temperature and skin surface temperature. It is important to increase our body core temperature as high as possible 90 minutes before going to bed. That’s because the higher our body core temperature, the faster it drops afterwards, reducing the temperature difference between our body core temperature and skin temperature.
Then what are some things that we should not do before going to bed? We should minimize the use of our brains. Our brains need to be at rest for them to send a signal to our bodies to get some rest.
This means that we need to stay away from smartphones and computers. Some believe that blue light emitted from the screen disturbs our sleep cycle. But the bigger problem at hand is that it stimulates our brain. Bright light from these devices stimulates our visual senses, and our brains are constantly at overdrive, trying to intake our flashing screens.
How about working out before going to bed?
I usually do yoga in the evening, but I try to finish it at least 90 minutes before going to bed. I used to swim at night as well. But it did not tire out my body. Instead, my heart was racing and I could not get any sleep.
Children play hard when they are awake and sleep well at night. The time we are awake is pivotal to getting a good night’s sleep.
It helps to start the day by washing our hands with cold water, to wake our senses, and go out to the balcony and soak ourselves in the warm morning sun. It also helps to chew on hard foods like nuts to wake our brains up. And adding a little bit of walking an route to work also stimulates our feet, awakening our senses even further.
In other words, how we spend our day determines how well I sleep. I sincerely hope that you can make small changes in your daily routine to rid yourselves of painful insomnia.
I am no expert. I am just a person who has suffered from insomnia for far too long and decided to study this field on my own to overcome it. But if you have any questions about how to overcome insomnia or about insomnia in general, I will try to answer within my knowledge.