Today I sleep well, like a baby. I feel good in bed and I used to run away from it. I was just looking at the clock and I’m getting more and more fussy as the night approaches. I didn’t have pure insomnia, but some other symptoms of a sleep disorder. The feeling is so disgusting that I will never forget it. There are no words that can describe it. It was very difficult for me that I kept waking up, I couldn’t fall asleep… When I see that it is already 8 pm, my tension slowly starts to rise, it grows and grows, and it culminates around 11pm. My eyes are like an owl’s, I hear everything and everything bothers me. The smallest sounds seem to me like bombs going off. I became hypersensitive during that period, which led to various sensations. Everything made me wince. This went on for months, I thought it would never end. I started to accept it, I decided to sleep during the day and be awake at night. I deliberately stayed awake until morning, when my brain got tired and couldn’t do it anymore. When it dawns, I noticed that then I would give in and no longer have control over myself.
Fear was the cause of my insomnia. When you are afraid, you are more cautious and have a need to control things. I was afraid to fall asleep because then I would lose control. I could only fall asleep when I was mentally tired from the intense control. Only before dawn do I feel the release of the charge and then I fall asleep. The very moment when you fall asleep was a feeling of collapse. I just fall asleep and wake up. After six contractions, I get tired and give up on sleeping. I’ve never had nightmares, but there are people who wake up every night sweating, panting, scared and unable to function because of it. Just knowing that I would struggle if I went to sleep made me even more tense.
The main thing in all sleep disorders is accumulated chronic stress. Teeth grinding is a typical symptom of tension and stress. The jaw is locked at night and people rub their teeth against teeth, and the grinding of their teeth can be heard. People also know how to rub leg against leg. I also grinded my teeth, and to this day I rub my leg against my leg, which I enjoy. I don’t think it’s a problem now, I see it as a fetish. One of the most disgusting sleep disorders is sleep paralysis. It occurs most often at the moment of falling asleep or at the moment of waking up. It is the REM stage of sleep. Scientists say it is not a dangerous condition. It can be associated with narcolepsy (feeling instantly sleepy during the day). They say that sleep paralysis is our body’s defense mechanism that prevents us from suddenly getting up in the middle of the night. Every man goes through paralysis, but he is not aware of it because he is still asleep. Some people wake up in that phase, they are awake before they are still awake. The brain is awake, but you cannot react in any way. You can’t move and you’re scared. You want to scream and jump, but you can’t. Thank God I didn’t experience that. With this paralysis, it can happen that if you are dreaming something at that moment, you can see what you are dreaming of passing through your room. There is a disconnection and a great fear comes over you because you are aware, and you saw Pera the woodpecker pass through your room, for example. This is all normal and should not worry you.
There are several types of insomnia. It might happen that you have difficulty falling asleep, you can fall asleep easily but wake up in several hours, wake up too early, have a feeling of collapsing when you fall asleep, because of which you can have a panic attack. In case of excessive fatigue, muscle twitching may occur during sleep. I’ve been struggling with all of this for months and could not figure out what not to do. I couldn’t allow myself to think about insomnia. I’m worried, I don’t know where I’m going and what I’m going to do. How will I get up in the morning if I don’t sleep? I get up, go to the fridge, eat, come back… We can’t control the fear of going to bed, but you can do something if you don’t feel sleepy. Thoughts swarmed and created the belief that you could not fall asleep. Another thing is that you must not do is eat at least two hours before going to bed. If you get really hungry, drink some tea. Undigested food will not put you to sleep.
Also, physical activity is not allowed two hours before bedtime because there is no need to raise your adrenaline. During this period I cut out coffee and soda, which turned out to be a very good thing because coffee hit me like a drug. I remember that before, when I was 17, 18 years old, I could sleep like a baby when I drank coffee. Now I can only drink coffee in the morning. Coffee and soda raise adrenaline and blood pressure. During sleep, the blood pressure drops and is at the same level as when you are under anesthesia. During the day, you should do exercises to use up stress hormones and get rid of discomfort. These are cardio exercises that would wear you out because you sweat and expel negative energy. If you don’t feel like sleeping, don’t try to force yourself to sleep because you can only create more and more tension. Taking a hot shower before bed helped me a lot.
The moment of going to sleep is preceded by a drop in body temperature. When the brain senses a sudden change in temperature from warm to cold, a signal is sent to the brain to fall asleep. Hot water warms the body, and just before going to bed, drink warm tea. In this way, you have created an increase in the temperature of the whole body, both outside and inside. While lying in bed, your body temperature suddenly starts to drop, and because of this, the brain receives the message that it is sleepy. The sleep hormone begins to be secreted. Make your own combination of bedtime teas, make it your evening ritual. You yourself know how beneficial rituals affect us. You can use magnesium and vitamin B during the day, this combination calms the nerves and improves sleep. If these options do not help you, the last option is to do something, go outside and take a walk, play a movie, read. Do not stare at your phone or keep it next to your bed, as the radiation adversely affects sleep.
It’s not the end of the world if you can’t sleep. Meditate, find Jason Stevenson, the man who records sleep meditations, on YouTube. You won’t believe what kind of voice the man has, that peace and relaxation is something impeccable. He works with quality technology and top music in the background. I slept with the sound of the rain or the washing machine. The constantly repeating rhythm puts you to sleep. It is not said for nothing that one should count sheep. You can also put one hand on the subjects and the other where you feel tension, let’s say on your stomach. Pat yourself a little with one hand, a little with the other. It has a very good effect, the vibration spreads and you put yourself to sleep. Along the way, you can tell yourself that everything is fine and that you don’t need to worry. A good thing is the relaxation of the diaphragm, which, when in spasm, will not let you sleep. It is in charge of releasing emotions. An exercise for the diaphragm is to say the sound “i” before going to bed, but by placing your hands on your sides just below the ribs. As you pronounce, the diaphragm muscle contracts and it relaxes. In combination, you can also pronounce “m”. Six times “i” and three times “m”. The faster you speed up, the faster the diaphragm relaxes. This is the “m” pronounced by Tibetans in “om”.
Another Indian exercise is inhalation, retention and exhalation. We breathe in for four seconds, hold our breath for six seconds and slowly exhale for eight seconds. This calms the heart and lowers blood pressure. When you combine this with saying “i”, showering, hot tea and Jason Stevenson meditation, your brain automatically tricks itself into sleep. The ideal time to sleep is 10 pm. Scientists say that you should go to bed at 7 p.m. and that it is enough for the body to sleep until midnight.
Turn off all appliances, lower the blinds, and you can have some soft light in the room. I almost started applying lavender oil foot massage. It smells beautiful. Do everything to feel better and the results will be visible very quickly.
Good night.
