Health and Wellness: Is This the "Age of not Sleeping Well?"

Here I sit at 1:30 in the morning trying to write a blog post.

Whereas lots of people suffer from insomnia, I typically haven't been one of them. That said, in the course of the past year or so it seems like I have been having more difficulty going to sleep.

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People have trouble sleeping for a number of reasons. Some are bothered by physical pain, some simply don't get sleepy, some have issues with anxieties, and some — like myself — have trouble falling asleep because we can't stop the racing thoughts inside our heads.

Most of the time, those thoughts are actually pretty irrational... but even so, that doesn't stop them from coming up!

From what I’ve read on various health websites, as much as 75% of the population might have issues with insomnia at least now and then. For me, it's somewhat of a new experience. Historically I have always been "that person" who would get comfortable in any kind of horizontal position and 30 seconds seconds later I'd be fast asleep!

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Of course doctors and mental health professionals believe that the Covid-19 pandemic and other situations in the world hasn't made sleeping any easier for people, this past year. I say that because both my therapist and my doctor asked me several times about my sleeping patterns last time I saw them. And they explained — at separate times — that ”stress induced insomnia” is a very real thing.

But the thing is, I have pretty much always had racing thoughts, particularly at night when everything is quiet and I am hearing pretty much nothing other than what's going on inside my head. I guess what's making it different these days is it aforesaid racing thoughts or less centered on processing my own day in my own issues and then being concerned about what's going on around me.

And looking back, I was never what you'd call a ”good” sleeper. My mother used to say that when I was little she would try to put me down for a nap and she could just never get me to go to sleep. From college through my late 30s I rarely slept more than about 6:00 or 6 1/2 hours a night. It was pretty good sleep just not very much of it.

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Thankfully, my sleeping issues remain pretty sporadic. It has certainly never been serious enough for me to start looking for medications or anything like that.

Typically, my coping mechanism has been pretty much exactly what I'm doing right now. Rather than lie in bed and fight going to sleep, I get up and usually try to do something — in most cases I write in my journal, or do what I'm doing now: I write a blog post. Ironically, these things typically make me sleepy and there are many times when I only get halfway through what I intended to write before I reach a point where I can't keep my eyes open!

The human psyche sure is a weird thing!

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In retrospect, I expect that any “stress induced insomnia” I may or may not be experiencing is less due to Covid than it due to the fact that our deteriorated financial situation means that I haven't had as much time as I usually have for things like meditation, working on my art and general relaxation. I suppose we could indirectly blame Covid for that but I'm really not sitting here writing these words as an exercise in where to place blame, but in the hopes that I can put together something semi cohesive and by the time I'm done I will be sleepy enough to snooze till 9:00 o'clock tomorrow morning!

I hope it works!

Thanks for reading and have a great Sunday, wherever you may be!

How about YOU? Have you ever suffered with insomnia? If yes, was it a pervasive problem or just something that happened now and then? What have you typically done to get through it? Did you have to take medication, or did you use natural methods? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

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Created at 20210418 02:04 PDT

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16 comments
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You sit infront of those colorful leaves ????!!!!
If that is a total YES, then you should be super duper blessed to have that around you.
And I'm truly jealous.

I hope you won't mind my suggestion, however, I beleive that anyone should pray for better health.
This includes praying for a good lifestyle first and so that it will lead to better sleeping patterns and then it will also lead to a goodnight rest.

Also, I agree with you that these times have made people more worried, and busy in their mind thinking of so many different things and it has made us restless.

However, again, its a choice and there's always a process that needs to be improved or changed so that we can get things done better, faster, effective and beneficial to us.

I hope you won't reach a point where it's just too difficult to sleep and than you need sleeping pills to help you out.

There's always exercise, jogging, walking and better eating habits. You'll just have to accept some changes too rather than taking meds, if you're not like others who really dont go sweat it out or prepare food meticulously.

I on the other hand, only experience a hard time sleeping when my husband has gone out to do something really important like travel and hasn't come home yet. ARgggh!!!
or when i'm excited for something the next day, I can't sleep. hahaha!!!

I hope someday I visit Denmark.

Until here...

Love lots,
@erelasblog

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Switching off at night became problematic in my thirties, hyper active mind swimming through tide of to do, or to get done before finding sleep.

Five to six hours for years eventually got the better of me, relaxant tablets of a herbal nature suggested did not really work.

Now I spend at least twenty minutes outdoors quietly let my mind roam before going to bed, a form of meditation pondering has helped.

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I think part of my problem is that I am just working more (hours) than I used to, to make up for shortfalls in income... meaning that I have no time left over for things like meditation and just "sitting still."

I really need to get back to it, and I hope it becomes part of my routine again in the not too distant future... there just aren't any more things we can just cut out of our budget, financially.

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Finances worrying you out of sleep is not healthy, with the way the finances throughout the world has gone over the last year many are paddling the same boat upstream.

With summer arriving and longer days make sure you claim the extra hour for yourself, one style of relaxing does not suit everyone, find what you enjoy most and give it at least half an hour daily. Take breaks between work hours with short walks of around ten minutes, worry actually gets us nowhere.

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Sort of like you I have experienced periodically not being able to sleep through the night the last year. I’m a bit of a worry wart and if stressed about something I can’t sleep. I will sometimes wake up at 3 A.M. and if I can’t get back to sleep will get up. Usually the next night I will sleep at least 7 hours. I have never been one to take an afternoon nap but I think it would be a healthy thing to do.

I’ve heard drinking a glass of warm milk before bed would help one get more than twenty winks. Counting sheep doesn’t seem to work :)

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For most of my life, I have been a five to six-hour sleeper. I have to say that I walk/run a few times a week and the physical part of it puts me to sleep, no matter what my brain is telling me.

When my head hits the pillow, I am done.

I did have a stretch of a month or so when I didn't sleep as well, but, I had broken a leg bone. For me, my body craves physical exercise, but, of course, everyone is different. On my off days, I like to meditate and although relaxing, I feel like it works in a different way.

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Six hours a night is usually good for me. However, since I have gotten older, I have become a fan of the power nap! It is life changing I tell you :) Heck I even did a video about it a while back...

Now as for an insomnia aid, many people swear by ASMR videos on YouTube. I co founded what has become the largest ASMR community on Farcebook. Kind of ironic. But there are ASMR videos that are geared towards inducing calm, peacefulness. I even have people follow me on YouTube coz they use my vids to fall asleep by. That dings one's confidence at first but now I have to say, I always nod off when editing my vids lol. Who knew being boring was a virtue :)

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I have been one of the lucky ones who has rarely had any issue dropping off to sleep. I tell people that when I close my eyes, my computer shuts down ! ha ... .or sometimes when I think I am being funny, I tell them it is a lack of guilty conscience....LOL !

Of course through my life there has been the very rare night or two when I didn't drop off immediately. A few times it was hormone related. A few other times I wasn't quite sure, but I would force my mind to focus on on word, Jesus, silently saying His name over and over and seeing the spelling of it. The point is though, focusing on one thing, so the other things hush !.... and then I drift right off.

Maybe your blogging & etc is the same, focusing on one thing or subject, while everything else quiets away.

I feel lucky, because it seems as I have gotten older, more people than not are saying they have issues with sleep. I would be SO grumpy if it were an every night thing.

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One of the side effects of Covid-19 is Insomnia as well. Maybe you got Covid-19 and didn't even know. However, GABA supplements are great for insomnia if you ask me. Good luck or rather good night!

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Oh, I've had Covid... possibly twice, but once for sure. The other time I had a "severe flu" at a time when my doctor said there were ZERO reported cases of flu in our region.

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I'm so sad to here that.
I hope that you will be fine.

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Oh, I'm doing fine, thanks... it just comes and goes. Some nights are more troublesome than others.

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