We’ve written before about the apparent benefits of yoga as a way of relieving insomnia. Today we wanted to share an actual pose that is specifically designed to ease insomnia.
Plus we loved the name and just had to work it into a blog post somehow.
Video courtesy of That’s Fit.
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We’ve all heard the old wives’ tale that if you can’t get to sleep, you should count sheep. Well it looks like that recommendation has now been turned on its head. According to this piece from the NY Times, counting sheep could actually keep you awake for longer.
The article suggests ditching sheep and imagining yourself on a sunny beach instead. That definitely sounds more attractive to us but we wonder whether the study also discredits the idea of counting backwards from 3594 in 7s to cure insomnia? Because we kind of liked that one!
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The Opinionator Blog over at NYTimes.com recently published a great article about insomnia titled, ‘A Thousand and One Sleepless Nights‘ – and it gave us a lot to think about.
First and foremost, we came away wondering whether 19th Century society had a better understanding of just how serious insomnia can be compared to the age we currently live in. Back then, insomnia was depicted as, ‘… a horrible torture,’ and something that could lead to insanity.
We don’t want to take things that far, but it does seem that back then insomnia was taken far more seriously compared to today – a time when almost everyone claims to suffer from insomnia after a single night of sleeplessness, and when insomnia sufferers are wary of mentioning their condition to others due to the lack of understanding most people have.
Are we walking backwards, or are we learning more about insomnia, and offering more hope to insomnia sufferers? Sure, these days we have sleeping tablets – but did you know that they only provide an extra 11 minutes of sleep compared to placebo pills?
Food for thought, indeed.
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A really interesting article was recently published over at Science Blogs about insomnia and metacognition. Basically, it tells us that as soon as we make sleep our goal, our brain will keep checking up on our progress – resulting in no sleep at all.
The article puts this theory into the example of trying not to think of a white bear. As soon as we give ourselves that goal, we find it impossible not to think about a white bear – as the article puts it, “Our attempt at repression turns into an odd fixation”. It mentions a study of 110 undergraduates who were split into two groups. One group was told to fall asleep whenever they wanted, the other were told to fall asleep as quickly as possible. The second group took far longer to fall asleep – instead of drifting off, they kept checking to see if they were still awake. That mental check would wake them up.
The article is well worth reading if you’re at a loss as to why your insomnia just won’t go away. Next time you try to fall asleep, take some of the pressure off yourself and don’t think about sleep or worry about sleep. Just relax and have some faith – who knows, one day it may be repaid.
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We just finished reading a rather shocking article over at CBS News about the US health care system. That in itself isn’t the focus of this blog, however we couldn’t believe it when we read the following part of the article where the author describes getting declined for health insurance:
A week later I was finally able to talk to an underwriter who said the sleeping pills I had for my semi-regular trans-Atlantic flights brought the hint of mental instability (because the diagnosis was “insomnia”) but I could apply for “reconsideration” with a doctor’s note.
So there you have it – if you do the right thing and seek medical advice for your insomnia, any consequent diagnosis could leave you uninsurable in the future. Furthermore, we take serious issue with the suggestion that insomnia sufferers are mentally unstable.
We need to raise the awareness and understanding of insomnia now. Please help us.
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We’ve written before that Buddha may help you cure your insomnia, but now we have something a little more concrete.
Reiki is a Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation that promotes overall health and well-being. In Spokane, WA it is being used to help insomnia sufferers get much needed sleep. Reiki involves placing hands on or above different parts of a person’s clothed body to encourage the flow of energy.
So, does it work as a natural insomnia cure? Well, apparently a 57 year old female insomnia sufferer was able to sleep for 10 hours immediately after her first Reiki treatment. No mention of the long term effects, but that’s a pretty good start, so it could be worth exploring.
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Insomnia affects people differently. For some, it’s just a minor distraction. For others, it’s a major obstacle to living a ‘normal life’. There is no single cure for insomnia – it affects people differently, so it’s only natural that a cure that might work for one person does nothing for another.
Having said that, we’d highly recommend you read this blog post by Zachary Burt – it’s a fantastic read. Zachary shares the symptoms of his insomnia and then he tells us how he conquered his insomnia.
Now, just because Zachary’s tips worked for him, it doesn’t mean they’ll work for you – but it’s always worth trying new things. You’ll never find out what works for you unless you try.
In any case, when it comes to suffering from insomnia, it’s always good to be reminded that you aren’t alone.
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We were just reading one of the many insomnia articles we get through each day when we came across this little nugget. Apparently, studies have shown that many insomnia sufferers have sensitive stomachs or irritable bowel syndrome. Therefore, if you refrain from eating after 5pm and drink more liquids during the day, you may find sleep easier to come by.
This is a new one on us – so we’d like to hear your thoughts. Do you find the hour at which you eat affects your quality of sleep? Have you tried changing your mealtimes in an attempt to relieve your insomnia? Our comments form is below, as usual.
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Since the idea for Insomnia Land was conceived around six months ago, the project has been coming along brilliantly. It all started with a Twitter account in October 2009. We then launched this insomnia blog in November 2009.
Our aim is pretty simple: we want to raise the awareness and understanding of insomnia. To do this, we want to bring insomniacs together – to give them a place where they can find support from other insomnia sufferers in a fun but respectful environment. As the online community develops, we hope that others will be able to see just what insomnia is and how it affects people.
We launched the online community privately on 1 February 2010 and are slowly inviting people to join. We don’t want the community to grow too big, too fast – you can’t build real relationships when a thousand people join overnight.
We currently have 20 members – in just over three weeks they have contributed almost 600 posts, which is a fantastic achievement. Some discussions taking place right now in the community include:
This is just a small selection of discussions taking place in the community. There are many more – some of which are completely unrelated to insomnia; they’re off-topic and help us to get to know each other in a light-hearted environment.
So there you have it – we think we’re doing great just now. We’re growing slowly and we’re building a fantastic resource for insomnia sufferers and a great place for finding new friends.
At the moment, we don’t have a fixed date for a public launch. If you’re interested in joining the community, please get in touch.
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A study published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine has found that teen drivers are twice as likely to have a car accident if they feel sleepy behind the wheel. The study found that adolescent drivers were 2.1 times more likely to have had a crash if they experienced sleepiness while driving and were 1.9 times more likely to crash if they reported having slept poorly before getting behind the wheel.
We still cannot fathom why insomnia is rarely taken seriously, despite studies like this one coming out all the time. We want to change this, one person at a time. Please join us.
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