I have been on a quest for a good night’s sleep for years. Now I don’t mean that I’ve never had a good night’s sleep, I have. However, it has never been consistent. Then this year, it got even worse. It took me at least two hours to fall asleep, I was averaging three to five hours of sleep per night, and waking up repeatedly. My entire being was exhausted. It was very similar to my sleep patterns in law school, but I was about six years younger then. I initially chalked it up to stress, of which I had a lot. Then the stressors were resolved, but still I couldn’t sleep. I’m going to tell you about all of the things that I tried in my quest.
Melatonin
Melatonin is a hormone that is naturally produced by your body. Your body produces more melatonin as it gets darker in order to prepare you for sleep. When you tell someone you’re having a hard time sleeping, the people immediately recommend melatonin. Truthfully it is one of the most beneficial things you can add to your nighttime routine. Personally it helps with stress and makes me drowsier.
No Caffeine after Noon
I try as hard as I can not to drink any caffeine after noon. Keep in mind that honestly other than coffee I really only drink water throughout the day. As such, this isn’t too hard for me to do. However, every now and then, I would want a coffee in the afternoon, either as a pick me up or an excuse to leave the office. Now, if I need that pick me up or to get out of the office, I try to instead drink an herbal tea and take a B-12 vitamin.
SleepyTime Tea
For a while, I tried to drink Celestial Teas Sleepytime Tea every night before bed. Sometimes it helped, other times, it just made me pee a lot. I love Sleepytime Tea and I still drink it occasionally. However, what it helps me the most about it is not drinking the tea. It is the process of making the tea that I find most calming. It forces me to slow down, focus, and be a little more mindful. Drinking something hot at night also helps me reach ultimate levels of cozy, which is very important for my nighttime routine.
Blue light blocking glasses
I didn’t realize how much blue light was affecting my eyes until I got the blue light blocking glasses. When I picked these up in the spring, I knew I was going to be on my computer a lot studying for the bar exam. I figured I would be on my computer more than normal and didn’t want that to affect my sleep. Well, the joke is on me, because the light had definitely already been affecting me. I had no idea how much I was straining my eyes just looking at my phone without these things.
Turning off all electronics two hours before bed
In the same vein, I attempted to turn off all electronics two hours before bed. This meant that every night at 8:00 or 8:30 I would turn off my tv and go upstairs to begin my nighttime routine. I would put my phone on my charger across the room from my bed. I did my evening skincare routine, made my cup of tea, brushed my teeth and did not look at any sort of electronic for the rest of the night. I’ll be honest, I did not see a remarkable difference, other than not falling into Youtube holes as often.
Reading
What did I do for those two hours before bed? I read. Typically, I have a ton of books going at any one time, but at the very least I have one fiction book and one personal development book. I tried to dedicate the first hour or so to, my fiction book, then the last half an hour, I read my personal development book. Why do I split it up? I cannot be trusted with fiction. I have a tendency to get too into the story or too excited and either I can’t put it down, or I can’t stop thinking about it. Cutting myself off and forcing myself to read something that is significantly less exciting but still rewarding is a great way for me to calm down and get a bit more mindful.
What finally did the trick?
So I did all of those things. I changed my entire approach to my nighttime routine. I made it mindful, deliberate and a bit drawn out. That solved everything right? Wrong! When none of that worked…I called the doctor. So turns out, I am actually a victim of chronic insomnia. My doctor thinks that perhaps I have been so stressed for so long that my body no longer knows how to have a regular sleep cycle. In speaking with some of the other women of my family, this is not unheard of in our family. By trying all of those things before I met with my doctor, she was able to quickly determine that it wasn’t an environmental issue.
She told me she wanted me to keep up with all of those environmental changes that I had made. I didn’t need to be quite as militant with my nighttime routine as I had become, but they were very good habits to have. She prescribed me a non-habit forming medication that we hope will teach my body how to have a regular sleep schedule. The doctor also warned me that this would not be a quick fix. We will work on it and keep checking in because it will take a while for my body to learn how to behave. I’m hopeful that I will eventually be able to sleep well without help.
