I’m sure that nearly every reader will have at some time suffered from the condition known as insomnia. Even though I’m in semi-retirement and thus have no pressures of work to worry about, I still occasionally suffer from it. I may be thinking about my pension payments or having to report to the Immigration Police every 90 days or the annual extension of my visa or the cost of the next medical insurance premium. The list of things that we worry or think about is infinite.
When I am cycling 50+ km a day I rarely suffer from it, because naturally I’m very tired, but there are still periods when I take a holiday from my virtual rides around the world. I have learned over the past couple of years how to overcome insomnia and thought it may be helpful if I share how I do so. Before I start, I must note that medically there are various definitions of insomnia but I’m not going to go into that. I will leave a link at the end to a helpful article if you are interested in the medical terms and aspects.
It may seem obvious but the first thing is to establish a routine pattern of bedtime and waking up. In Thailand I’m lucky in that sunrise varies within a window of about an hour throughout the year, from around 06:00 to 07:00 so when the sun rises I wake up about the same time. About an hour before sunrise there is often a loud dawn chorus but this is coincident with the process of slowly waking up as the level of cortisol naturally increases.
When I moved here 6 years ago I found the dawn chorus to be a little irritating but now I always enjoy it and sometimes try to count the number of different call signs, which can often be up to 10. The increase in cortisol is normal and starts about 2 hours or so before fully waking up. It prepares your body for the day’s activities. Because the window of sunrise is so small it means that I don’t need to use blackout curtains. If the time of sunrise varies much more, as it does in the UK, or your bedroom is subject to bright street lights or neon signs then blackout curtains may be helpful.
The next step is never take gadgets like iPads or smartphones to your bedroom. Never look at your watch or clock when you should be sleeping or when you have to go for a pee which is a separate issue to this article. By all means if you have to get up for work earlier than usual then set an alarm but otherwise do not. If you do look at the time it will only increase your anxiety as you think, ‘blimey, I’ve not slept and I’ve only got x hours left before I need to get up” where x tends to be between 2 to 4 hours.
Most readers will know the next one. Control and limit the amount of caffeine. I used to a have a cappuccino after dinner and that was fine when cycling long rides but when not exercising it definitely has an adverse affect. So the latest time that I have a coffee is Z minus at least 4 hours, where Z is the normal bedtime. During any one day I try to limit myself to 3 coffees whether they are cappuccino, americano or espresso. On top of which I will have a cup of English breakfast tea first thing and maybe one or 2 cups of green tea in the afternoon and early evening.
Make sure you have a firm but comfortable mattress, a solid underpinning structure, (such as wooden boards) and a high quality pillow. There are many types of mattress and pillow available. Of note, it is recommended that you change your mattress at least every 10 years. So how do you choose? An excellent website is Sleep Foundation. It provides a free questionnaire and offers recommendations. It is a US organisation so the recommended products may not be available in the UK, but it will provide useful comparisons of the different types. There’s a catch, naturally, in that it will invite you to receive newsletters. I don’t find this to be a problem as I set a rule on my webmail provider to send automatically all email messages from the Sleep Foundation to a folder called, “Newsletters”. If they are trying to flog me something I usually delete the message. Sometimes the message is to undertake another questionnaire so that you can check progress in the quality of your sleep or to alert you to the latest products that are available.
Next is the temperature. The temperature range in Thailand is mainly in the order of about 10 C but in the UK it is in the order of 30+ C. So in the winter you need heating but in the summer you need cooling. Naturally, living in a country with an ‘extreme tropical’ environment I have air conditioning in my bedroom. In the Royal Navy, ‘extreme tropical’ is defined for air and sea ambient conditions but in this article we’ll just assume it’s very hot and very humid.
I’m lucky in that I live in a compound and the ambient noise is negligible. Even though I have air conditioning I don’t use it throughout the night as it is obviously expensive and while it is a split unit type with the noisy compressor outside, rather than the old style window type, it does add significantly to the noise within the bedroom. So I turn it off when the light changes from red to blue and the noise drops. The blue light means the temperature and humidity are at the required level. For about 95% of the year we use fans continuously during the night. They run very quietly and are inexpensive to use. One on my side of the bed and one on Sa’s side. That way we can control the fans for each of our needs. I strongly recommend buying a fan for your bedroom for those 2 weeks of the year when the UK is warm and when, during the ‘sweltering’ 30 C, you cannot otherwise sleep.
JimJams: I find good quality cotton pyjamas to be essential. In the winter they don’t add too much warmth but they still trap body heat, especially if you use long sleeved pyjamas. I find that the summer though is when they are most effective as they wick away perspiration and they feel cooler than just sleeping directly next to the duvet, even if it has a good quality cotton cover. That’s when I use short sleeved jimjams.
Right, so we went to bed as normal. We’ve got good quality mattresses, pillows, bedding and pyjamas. We’ve got the heating and cooling as required. We’ve also blocked out the light if necessary and we are tired and sleepy. So we’ve, “fixed the foundations” as 2TK likes to robotically say!
But 30 minutes in bed and you are still awake. Or, after an hour or so you wake up and cannot go back to sleep. At this point the first thing to do is consciously force yourself not to look at the clock or your watch. Next, calm down. Whatever is troubling you, you are not going to solve it now. Switch it off and think of something else. Nope Mark, that still doesn’t work.
Okay. I have developed my own technique based on transcendental meditation which I learned and practised in my mid 20s. It didn’t work when I was at sea because of the inherent ambient noise from ventilation and machinery although I still found it helpful occasionally in reducing overall stress. I ‘m obliged not to tell you the technique because it is something for which you have to pay to learn and you need a qualified teacher. But I think it should be alright to advise of a similar technique that I have adapted and find it works for me in a much less rigorous way.
There are several other types of meditation but I think none is suitable for when you are laying in bed, staring at the ceiling and getting increasingly anxious that you won’t get enough sleep tonight while still fixated about the thing that is keeping you awake.
So what is it then? Well it’s nothing complicated. It’s best to prepare though before the night that you need to use the technique. Then when you do need to practise it you don’t add to the anxiety by having to start from scratch.
Take your time and think of a word with 2 syllables that reminds you of something or someone that you like and which makes you feel happy and content. This is your personal mantra. Unlike transcendental meditation you can change it if it does not work in practice. When you need to use the mantra you can now bring it to the front of your mind. In your mind start gently repeating the mantra. Let no space in between each repetition of your mantra; it should be a continuous stream of thought.
Inevitably other thoughts will invade your mind. Especially the thing that is keeping you awake. Gently brush them aside, metaphorically, and just keep repeating your mantra while blocking out all other thoughts. Do this for up to 15 perceived minutes by when your mind should be drifting off and you will be falling asleep.
If you still cannot drift off to sleep do not despair. Give it another perceived 15 minutes or so and come back to it again. During that pause let your mind run amok - get rid of as much rubbish that is stopping you falling asleep. Bad thought done. Next bad thought - done. And so on. Then consciously return to the mediation with your mantra.
If you have never practised this method, or anything like it, I suggest trying it before you need it. The best thing is to practise during the day in a quiet room. Sit upright on a sturdy chair with a firm back. Place your hands on your lap, take a couple of deep breaths, close your eyes and then start. Try not to do this for more than 15 perceived minutes. The next step is to practise this one night when comfortable in bed and when you are not anxious just so that you can experience what it feels like.
Whenever I am anxious and cannot sleep I use this technique and it invariably works. If it doesn’t I just get up, go downstairs and read the latest news. Even if I don’t go back to bed it will make me more tired and ready for the next night’s sleep. Which reminds me: I never take a nap during the day. In my view, it’s one of the worst things that you can do.
The link that I stated would take you to a more detailed article about the medical aspects is here.
