sleepless people
photo by @simonwijers
For some reason I’m not sleeping. That is, I am sleeping but in only 1-2 hour increments. I’ve tried melatonin, virgin hot toddies, sleep meditations, 1.5Hz binaural beats specifically for sleep. Still every hour or so I’m up, wide awake.
I’ve tried relaxing all the parts of my body, one by one, placing a heated heavy rice bag on my chest, no screen time for a half hour before I go to sleep. I’ve darkened, cooled, and silenced the bedroom, made sure I do vigorous exercise during the day, read until my eyes have crossed, gotten up and written in my journal at 3 am, and tried different sleeping positions. Still I’m wide awake an hour or so after I go to bed at night.
I looked in the mirror today and I have huge dark circles under my eyes and my face looks like I powdered it with all-purpose flour. Something is going to change this evening, let me tell you.
Here are the things I’ve learned about sleeplessness:
- Everyone has ideas they want to share with you about getting good sleep. They also want to tell you how dangerous it is not to get sleep. Yeah, thanks. If I wasn’t before, now that you’ve told me I also have #2 below.
- Stress is the #1 reason people can’t sleep. Hum. I’m not more stressed than I was a month ago. I’m less stressed and dare I say hopeful?
- Depression is the #2 reason for sleeplessness. I’m not depressed any more than anyone else during this pandemic from hell. Plus, I always thought depression made you sleep more. See what you can learn from Uncle Google?
- Sleep is a learned behavior. Maybe I have memory loss. That’s comforting. Not.
- Bad diet, caffeine, alcohol and eating too late at night can cause sleeplessness and weight gain. My diet is excellent right now (I track it) and I’ve actually lost 5 lbs. which I didn’t need to lose, especially from the place I lost it, damn it.
- Apparently as we age our circadian rhythms change and things like arthritis, chronic pain and a whole host of medical symptoms can make you sleepless. Another joyful reminder that the great beyond is inching closer.
- Hormonal changes. That ship sailed years ago. I’m checking this one off the list.
One of the reasons I try not to read stuff about my health on-line is that I always go for the worst case scenario. Sleepless? Could it be high blood pressure, heart disease, kidney failure and/or the big C?
Here was my most recent remedy. To combat stress, depression, the reminder of my age, I made chocolate chip cookies. I ate them while I settled down on the couch with a beer, and watched Bosch. I fell asleep in there somewhere and I’m happy to report, I slept for hours.
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Who am I and what do I do? I work with women and help them move toward the life they know they want. You can check out more about me if you click this button: About Me or you can check out my offerings by heading over here Work With Me
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