I am an insomniac. Because most nights I never feel sleepy, which made me couldn't sleep. It feels like my brain, body and soul refuse to sleep. Overthinking, anxiety and stuff hehehe
As I got older, I realized I just couldn’t keep this cycle. And this really frightened me. About the consequences of lack of sleep and things. I need sleep after all. My body needs sleep. My sanity too. So I need to push myself to sleep. However it takes.
For that, I read a lot of articles about "How to sleep bla-bla-bla..." to defeat my ruined sleep cycle. Then I found some common ground and I follow some that works for me after trials & errors. Here are some tips and tricks from mine.
First of all, sleep and wake around the same time, everyday, even on weekends.
You can have at least plus/minus one hour to procrast your sleep/wake, I usually use this on the weekends. This is to make your body get used to being sleepy at the same time.
One thing that I did to keep up with this sleep schedule was to make an alarm. This is to give yourself some wind-down time before you sleep. Wind-down time should begin 1-2 hours before you plan to fall asleep.
I never knew about the wind-down time before. And just wished I could sleep as soon as I lay my head on the pillow, which obviously never happens. But then I realized I need to let myself just lay down, prepare my body to fall asleep. As for me it took 2 hours to wind-down.
I used to make a sleep alarm around 10 pm. But now I just made a mental note that I should lay down around 10 pm, because I need my wind-down time around 2 hours, so I can sleep at 12 am. If I start to lay down long after 10 pm, it immediately changes my sleep time.
Sleep at 12 am is early in my dictionary. Because I used to sleep around 2 or after subuh. And I couldn’t change my sleep time too drastically around 9 or 10 pm, which is recommended, so I just compromised around 12 am. At least the day has changed yet hehehe
And to wake, I make an alarm at least 30 minutes before the initial time to wake. So I let myself snooze at least 3 times, with an interval of 10 min every snooze. To prepare myself to wake up, since it really chores for me. I used to have some mental motivation like “You can nap again later”, which is the biggest lie I told myself, but somehow it works hahaha
Then, put the room in the dark and cool, if you used AC.
It's also about circadian rhythm. Where in the morning you need sunlight so your body wakes and in the night put your room as dark as possible to make your body realize it's time to rest.
At night, I just turn off the lamp and turn on the AC as soon as I want to lay down. The dark room could help the body to release melatonin to sleep-promoting actions. And the cool room could help your body to relax.
I put my bed facing the window, so when I wake up I could open the curtain and let the natural light come through. It helps to wake and let the body get the sunlight that is needed. Also turn off the AC as soon as you wake up and let the body get the heat from the sun in the morning.
But it is just a disaster if the day starts with cloudy weather. It put my body not energize, but my mood just love it hahaha
Don't eat near your bed time and eat light.
Give a minimum 3 hour for the last thing you eat. So your body has already finished digesting that food. And light food could digest faster.
Because I want to lay down around 10 pm, so I usually eat before 7 pm. Light food here is about the calories and the amount. Don’t put yourself too full while eating dinner and eat the least calories for the meal of the day at night. Maybe I would write about the calories proportion for meal later on if my mood struck in hahaha
Don't drink coffee or anything with caffeine either. But chamomile tea might help.
I tried chamomile tea before, but I didn't feel any different if I drank it before sleep or in the morning. So I just pick chamomile tea as an alternative if I want to drink something at night or just drink it in the morning to have a calming day.
And for coffee or caffeinated tea like black or green tea, I just drink in the morning. Since sometimes I still find it hard to wake up. Not drink it in the afternoon or night, or it will be another disaster, since my body is too sensitive to caffeine.
Put away the phone. And read a book instead.
But honestly I still found it difficult to put away my phone since I like to read eBooks on my phone. So I just put on some reading lamp near my pillow and read for about 2 hours in my wind-down time then put the phone on charge before sleep.
Even though it sometimes fired back at me and made me read more than 2 hours, I still did it hahaha Read sufficiently peps!
If you want to get sleepy faster, then try to read something "hard" like nonfiction or self help books. Or read academic journal, it really do wonder hehehe
I really do not recommend watching something before sleep. Don’t kid yourself about it. I never do that again either. The “next episode” button on Netflix and YouTube “recommended videos” just enemies to insomniac hahaha
Have some routine before sleep.
Last month I tried another trick to repair my sleep cycle, and that is taking a bath before sleep. Somehow it made me feel “clean” before I lay down on my bed. Some warm bath could help they said, but I just took cold bath instead since I just too lazy to have warm water hahaha
Some also said, meditation or yoga could help the body to get relaxed before sleep. But I also didn't do this because I was just too lazy. The routine exercise could also help the body repair the circadian rhythm and sleep cycle. But it’s just another thing that I need to repair, get my body to move hahaha
So, my night routine is to clean up, then take a bath, pray, night skincare, turn off the lamp, journal, read a little, then sleep.
But don't think that I follow that routine everyday though hahaha
There's still sometimes that I sleep at subuh because I go out at night and turn down later. And mostly my will to follow the schedule and routine weaken on the weekend hahaha
The routine really did wonders for my sleep cycle last month. I also put a mi-band on while sleeping to track my sleep. I sleep and wake mostly at the same time. Have around 6-7 hours sleep. Have more deep sleep.
One thing I never expected was to lose 2 kilos of my weight. But when I ruined it again on the weekend, then my weight just jump back and forth hahaha
But above all the tips and tricks, the most important thing is the mindset.
After thousands of sleepless nights, I realized I couldn't just turn off my brain at night to sleep that easily. And I was not the kind of person who can fall asleep while watching something. It takes time for me to realize I need to command my body to rest. I couldn't just wait for my body to get tired then sleep itself. So, “the will to sleep” is really needed for me.
I have mantras to remind me to sleep. I did not command my body like "You should sleep now". It just didn't work for me. So my mantra would be like "You may sleep, you may..."
It’s like I give myself permission to sleep, to rest, to turn down my busy brain. It works. Sometimes hahaha
This journey is still going on. I still tweak my routine here and there to make me sleep. But at least I won't stop trying. Because now I realized I need sleep.
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