Insomnia: A Journey To Healing

[Twega]

Hello, my dear night dwellers. As we all know, Insomnia is one tricky thing to befall a living thing. I’m sure most of us have been jealous of our dogs or cats. How easily they sleep, their minds still and tranquil. Us, however, goddamn. Some of us might not have anxiety or depression, yet still, we dwell in the night till the morning all the same. That’s precisely the point I’m about to make. Insomnia is one of the most mysterious and puzzling “illnesses” or conditions there are. There are no clear answers. Some people fix it by fixing their diet; some people have medical conditions, some mental. Some none of those.

I know it’s hard to feel optimistic about this fucking condition. Trust me; it brought me to the brink of suicide. I am much better now. However, my journey is not the same as yours. My body isn’t the same as yours, nor is my mind. We are all unique, yet we insomniacs share a lot of things in common as well. It took many many hours of studying insomnia, biology, diet, neuroscience, nutrition, pharmacology, self-help techniques, psychology, a bit of literature, the human microbiome, and believe it or not, Zen Buddhism & Meditation, to finally have an understanding of how to deal with my insomnia. I’ve gotten it under control. However, I had to accept many changes I needed to make.

Insomnia could be a journey to start discover yourself more deeply. Biologically, mentally, spiritually. I am not religious; I was born Muslim and became an atheist in my teens. I still consider myself an atheist to some extent. But spirituality does have an impact on your mental state. So does your biology, your nutrition, your lifestyle, etc.

Now the danger arises when you dismiss these topics on hand and think you already know them. I can’t stress this enough. Your mind will trick you into thinking you understand when you don’t. It will trick you into dismissing them. It will come up with any reason possible to avoid introspection and come up with excuses to not read more and change yourself. Do not trust your mind. Do not trust your thoughts. Trust your intuition. Trust direct experience. This you can rely on. Learn things and then directly experience them and see what happens. Many of you will intuitively know that this makes sense. Obviously, it would help if you still had your mind to read and think and remember, but you get the idea.

It will take maybe two years for you to filter out the good information from the bad. To see what lifestyle change works and what doesn’t. You need to keep an open mind, and you need to start to learn things proactively. Be consistent in your lifestyle changes. Not just try something for a week and say, “Fuck that it didn’t work, that’s bullshit.” That thinking right there is bullshit. Learning=change. Behavioral or psychological. If you read that stress induces insomnia, but you don’t do anything to change your stress level, then you haven’t actually learned. You just memorized a fact. You will be amazed by how many things you didn’t expect to influence sleep that does.

“The greatest enemy of knowledge isn’t ignorance; It is an illusion of knowledge.” -Stephen Hawking Many people know that gut bacteria influence your mood and sleep. So they google how to increase gut bacteria. They get an article saying that probiotics increase it. They buy probiotics. Try it. Feel nothing. Then say, ok, well, it’s not my gut bacteria. When in reality, probiotics alone don’t help that much at all. This is just one out of a million examples.

Insomnia isn’t your fault. It’s the worst thing to be told that it’s “just in your mind.” In a sense, it is true, but all of us have very little control of our minds and bodies. I know it’s hard to be motivated when you are sleep deprived. Somedays, when I lose sleep (rarely these days, maybe 5-6 days a month), I start to feel the same ways I felt before. Low energy, tired, want to give up on life. Just shitty overall. Suppose you sleep better the day after, or whenever, get back into the journey. We can’t control our sleep, but we do have control over many things that can start to influence both our minds and bodies. Later on, your mind and body will be your friends, not your enemies. But that won’t come quickly. Obviously, you see how big of a subject this is. I can’t explain every trap and obstacle. This is your journey to make.

“Suffering is the greatest teacher.” -Guatama Buddha Don’t just view this as things to do to avoid suffering. It is that but also more. It’s about healing yourself. DO NOT BE NEGATIVELY MOTIVATED. Try to be actually excited about this. You don’t know where it will lead you, what changes might happen. You really don’t, even if you think you do. This is positive and exciting, not negative at all. Insomnia was the best thing to happen to me. I hope you will be able to say that about yours too.

UNCONVENTIONAL TIPS

• Before you stack up on melatonin pills, try pistachios. There  is evidence that just two pistachios contain enough melatonin to boost the hormone above physiological levels.
• Sleep hygiene is more complicated than the simple don't do anything in bed formula we constantly read about, if you do relaxing activities in bed like reading that can actually be helpful to associate bedtime with relax time.
• Insomnia causes  depression and makes your mood abysmal. Therefore, most insomniacs you engage with in this subreddit are trapped in this mindset, so that's why this isn't a very helpful subreddit to gain optimism from, and that’s totally understandable. But just keep that in mind the next time someone slams exercising for  not working or that diets have nothing to do with insomnia.
• Diet does absolutely matter, and diet is much more complicated than trying gluten free or keto or vegan. The raw material for neurotransmitter synthesis in your brain is derived from diet, it most certainly can impact your sleep cycles. The microbes in your gut produce 95% of the serotonin in your body (most of it won't pass the blood brain barrier, luckily your brain doesn't need much). & These microbes thrive when you eat healthy food, especially fiber. Getting your diet on check will require many years of careful rigorous experimenting, researching, not falling to delusional diets and most importantly not giving up. It takes a while for you to learn anything important, health should be your top priority no matter if  you think your insomnia is genetic or not, diet will lessen the blows if anything.
• Getting morning sunlight does actually work for some but not others, give it a try and try to make it consistent.
• Coffee in the morning can actually up regulate GABA receptors, so it might actually help some sleep in some people (theoretically).
• Insomnia can be psychosomatic in some people, not necessarily completely but maybe a bit. If you sleep with the expectation that you'll wake up early, that will most likely happen. That's why if you're worried about an exam and sleep you'll wake up an hour before your alarm clock. How do you stop this? It's complicated, but just keep it in mind. Some people sleep way better when the accidentally fall asleep, because there is no expectation.
• Glycine is a non essential amino acid, some people report to increase sleep quality when supplementing with glycine.

[Twega]

NON-INSOMNIACS who wish to optimize their sleep: Andrew Huberman is a neuroscientist in Stanford University who has a podcast on using science-based tools for health. He has 3 series on sleep:

 

 

[Preety_India]

@Twega thank you so much for the post. I struggle a lot as well where my brain is slowly degrading. 

I used to sleep very good but my last relationship caused me trauma while I was in it and all the arguments and his cheating behavior made me lose sleep and it was never normal after that. 

Hopefully I will handle it properly. I'm young so I think it's possible. 

A tip I found useful - walnuts. Huge difference. 

 

[Preety_India]

@Twega would you mind if I quote your post in my journal please. 

 

[Twega]

15 minutes ago, Preety_India said:

would you mind if I quote your post in my journal please. 

@Preety_India ,

Yes of course! I didn't know you struggled with sleep. I have nothing but the utmost compassion. I've spent YEARS reading on sleep in the scientific literature and I've tried many unconventional methods to optimize sleep, I'd be more than happy to send you some or all of them if you wish. Sweet dreams

[Preety_India]

@Twega thank you so much for your kindness and help. 

[ertopolice]

Hi

Many thanks for opening this thread and posting the video. I'll definitely give it a watch.

 

Yesterday i ordered my first melatonin pills. I've been struggling with constant interruptions in my sleeps for years about 3-4 times during the night. 

Now that i do not work nightshifts i feel better in spite of those interruptions, but still. it is not normal to have SO MANY.

I tried reading and working out. I fall asleep right ways when i got to bed but it gets interrupted about 3-4 times

any advice @Twega?? thank  u

[BlackMaze]

Thank you for the post. Insomnia sucks. It doesn't happen too often but when it does it affects everything. Nothing seems to work but i will just keep trying things out. I really don't want to take any pills but i'm getting really tired of this. 

[ertopolice]

I am of the thought of not taking any stuff to balance my sleep. After listening to him i've not tried with the melatonin pills i ordered.

 

[LukeChester]

Interesting post, thanks.  While we are trying to fall asleep, all sorts of thoughts start bombarding us. We scroll all the past day... I found the best method to avoid it for me - to relax my mind and body. A very effective way is autogenic training by Schultz - it usually takes 5-10 minutes and my sleep gets better.

[Twega]

@ertopolice

On 10/02/2021 at 8:24 PM, ertopolice said:

Hi

Many thanks for opening this thread and posting the video. I'll definitely give it a watch.

 

Yesterday i ordered my first melatonin pills. I've been struggling with constant interruptions in my sleeps for years about 3-4 times during the night. 

Now that i do not work nightshifts i feel better in spite of those interruptions, but still. it is not normal to have SO MANY.

I tried reading and working out. I fall asleep right ways when i got to bed but it gets interrupted about 3-4 times

any advice @Twega?? thank  u

Waking up after a couple of hours is totally fine. In fact, sleep scientists and neuroscientists have shown that people wake up usually after each sleep cycle (1-1.5 hours) and there are six cycle, so you wake up probably 6 times in your sleep but you do not remember anything.

 

Waking up in the middle of the night is the norm not the exception. The key thing is to get back to sleep, if you wake up you need to find ways to help you relax, of you stress about waking up you won't sleep.

 

Perhaps try using L theanine or Kava Kava for relaxation

do something relaxing (listen to an audiobook)

AVOID LIGHT, do not look at screens or turn on your lights.  Close curtains. (Candle light is fine)

As I said, make sure your diet is in check and your macronutrients are all-sufficient, especially zinc, magnesium, as well as Vit D , and potassium. 91% of Americans are deficient in potassium, no one talks about this. Most of the body’s potassium is located inside the cells. Potassium is necessary for the normal functioning of cells, nerves, and muscles.