Sleepless in Lawrenceville

Do any of you have trouble with insomnia? .... Any suggestions on how to overcome insomnia without drugs? I like to drink relaxing herb teas, and will do so on a regular basis when I have extended periods (days/weeks) having trouble going to sleep. I will frequently listen to music too. Sometimes with lyrics, sometimes not, it just depends on my mood at the time. I believe for me this ties in with the comment made about “go someplace in your mind that you want to be” (good point). Music sometimes helps me shift my mental focus and rest. If I avoid the TV and computer at least 2 hours before bedtime I find it is much easier to go to sleep. Reading is much better. The routine thingy is good too. I love my pre and post bedtime rituals. Avoid stimulating foods. The Yogic term for this is “rajistic food” if you care to research that angle. Sometimes it is disturbing, irregular noises that don’t allow me to relax enough to sleep. I frequently run an inexpensive 20” box fan all night to get the pleasant drone/hum to distract me so I can sleep. (You can also buy “white noise” generators and CD’s.) This typically can take some getting used to, but once hooked it can also be somewhat addictive. I’ve no doubt that it is stress that most often keeps me up. So if your problem is chemical, etc. then maybe these things won’t help. I had a period of over a year (around 1994) where chronic pain kept me up, which was really destructive to me at the time, but eventually I got over it. “It all works out in the end. If it hasn’t worked out, then it isn’t the end.”

Do any of you have trouble with insomnia? .... Any suggestions on how to overcome insomnia without drugs? I like to drink relaxing herb teas, and will do so on a regular basis when I have extended periods (days/weeks) having trouble going to sleep. I will frequently listen to music too. Sometimes with lyrics, sometimes not, it just depends on my mood at the time. I believe for me this ties in with the comment made about “go someplace in your mind that you want to be” (good point). Music sometimes helps me shift my mental focus and rest. If I avoid the TV and computer at least 2 hours before bedtime I find it is much easier to go to sleep. Reading is much better. The routine thingy is good too. I love my pre and post bedtime rituals. Avoid stimulating foods. The Yogic term for this is “rajistic food” if you care to research that angle. Sometimes it is disturbing, irregular noises that don’t allow me to relax enough to sleep. I frequently run an inexpensive 20” box fan all night to get the pleasant drone/hum to distract me so I can sleep. (You can also buy “white noise” generators and CD’s.) This typically can take some getting used to, but once hooked it can also be somewhat addictive. I’ve no doubt that it is stress that most often keeps me up. So if your problem is chemical, etc. then maybe these things won’t help. I had a period of over a year (around 1994) where chronic pain kept me up, which was really destructive to me at the time, but eventually I got over it. “It all works out in the end. If it hasn’t worked out, then it isn’t the end.”