365 Places: Insomnia
Day 76: Insomnia, All the time, Everywhere
This post is about a place where I seem to spend more and more time – insomnia. When I was younger, sleep always came easily, I could drink coffee all day and then get a good 8-9 hours. However, in the last 5 years, something has changed.
Now if I go to bed before 11pm, I will wake around 3am. If I drink coffee in the afternoon, it is likely I will be wide awake at midnight, thinking of what I can do to try to sleep.
Image Credit: http://delgadomd.com/insomnia/
At the moment, I am listening to my meditation music which usually helps send me off to the land of nod, but not tonight.
Once upon a time I used to worry about not sleeping but now I embrace insomnia. It gives me a chance to work on writing, to read and sometimes to make art. I just try to keep busy until my brain finally says “that is enough”. By distracting myself with other things, I can usually escape the worrisome thoughts that jolt me into early morning wakefulness or resist my efforts for an early night.
I did find some tips for managing insomnia which I might try. Some are also familiar remedies – I used to use Lavender oil on my sons pillow when he was little and couldn’t sleep and it seemed to help him – maybe I could try that…
What do other people do to manage insomnia – I would love to know!