How I Say Goodnight to Insomnia

Summary: Go-to insomnia remedies, such as creative visualization, insight meditation and tapping, encourage saying goodnight to insomnia.

depiction of insomnia; created Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2008, via Software -- Adobe Photoshop CS2 Macintosh: Jem Yoshioka (Jem Yoshioka), CC BY SA 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

Sleep disorders assume different forms. They involve sleeping too little or too much. They involve not sleeping nights, sleeping days or sleeping nights and days. Insomnia is my experience with sleep disorders.

Generally, I do not need eight hours of sleep. As a student, I loved subsisting on four hours of sleep per night since the deep sleep that I enjoy from time to time usually guarantees me an unbroken quartet of shut-eye. At yearly check-ups, doctors initially were concerned about the perpetually dark shadows under my eyes. The shadows were not an issue once physicians found healthy vitals and learned that the shadows are an inheritance from my beloved paternal grandmother.

With graduation, things began to change. Juggling demanding professional and full personal lives made me realize that I needed more sleep. My body needed six hours each night. The dilated blood vessels under my eyes always served as reality checks: darker with too little sleep, lighter with the proper amount.

My family's doctors saw insomnia as something that could be treated in my case without sleep lab appointments and analyses. They also tended to back off from medication. They were enthusiastic about naturopathically finding those two missing hours of nightly sleep.

The biggest sleep-related struggles are moving from worrying over problems to being receptive to solutions. Thanks to my doctors' and family's holistic preferences, I know how to back off from stress and bring on relaxation. The answer lies in meditating, napping, tapping and yoga.

I embrace two kinds of meditation. One is creatively envisioning how I feel and look sleeping six hours. The other is insightfully contemplating how my thoughts merge with blood flowing through my veins and air moving in and out of my nostrils. Focusing on the breath optimally oxygenates my blood, respirations and sleep.

It also is through napping, tapping and yoga that I fight sleeplessness. Every day, I lie down in a darkened room and close my eyes for 15 to 20 minutes. I also practice yoga every morning for 15 to 20 minutes. I thereby switch off the daily stresses that encourage sleepless nights.

In many ways, I favor tapping above all other approaches. It involves lightly drumming on different parts of the body. At the same time, I say, "I always get a good night's sleep."

These approaches are enjoyably effective alone or with other options. Their effectiveness can depend upon the environmental, physical and psychological triggers to sleeplessness. It works 100 percent for me: I fall asleep counting fireflies or hearing Mozart when I choose to, not because I have to!

"Stickney Brook Yoga 162," restfulness of shavasana, yoga’s “corpse” pose; Stickney Brook waterfall, West Dummerston, Windham County, southeastern Vermont; Saturday, Aug. 13, 2011, 13:37:01: Matthew Ragan (raganmd), CC BY SA 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

depiction of insomnia; created Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2008, via Software -- Adobe Photoshop CS2 Macintosh: Jem Yoshioka (Jem Yoshioka), CC BY SA 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/82836677@N00/3057829815/

"Stickney Brook Yoga 162," restfulness of shavasana, yoga’s “corpse” pose; Stickney Brook waterfall, West Dummerston, Windham County, southeastern Vermont; Saturday, Aug. 13, 2011, 13:37:01: Matthew Ragan (raganmd), CC BY SA 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewragan/6089542303

For further information:

Ortner, Nick. 2013. The Tapping Solution: A Revolutionary System for Stress-Free Living. Carlsbad CA: Hay House.

The Tapping Solution (EFT).
Available @ http://www.thetappingsolution.com/