Insomnia

Many of us have trouble getting to sleep or staying asleep, some or all of the time. While you may have seen alarming headlines about insomnia and disease, it is not always clear whether the health problems caused the sleep problems, or the sleep problems caused the health problems. Certainly, lying awake worrying about not sleeping does not help you get back to sleep!

Blue light

Blue light from computer screens or lighting can lead to insomnia for some patients. In a 2018 study, patients with insomnia who wore glasses that blocked blue light for two hours prior to bed for a week reported improvement. Lowbluelights is one source for such glasses, as well as for light bulbs and night lights that do not emit blue light. A free program for computer screens called f.lux will adjust the color of computer screens at night. This can be helpful, but if you are sensitive to blue light, you would do best to shut the computer down altogether in the evenings.

Cognitive behavioral therapy

Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is a proven way to help people with sleep disorders. This form of treatment helps people address the racing mind and worry that often accompany and exacerbate insomnia. Unfortunately, there are very few practitioners of this form of therapy, and many people who need help.

There are various programs online whose methods are based on CBT-I. Somryst involves six strategy and learning sessions, personalized to your sleep patterns. It has been shown to be helpful in multiple research studies.

Supplements

My recommendations will be different for different people, so if you are my patient, talk to me about it! Having said that, here is a product you can try, Traditional Medicinals Organic Nighty Night Extra Tea.

Helpful websites

The website Insomnia-Free.com has an extensive set of recommendations put together by a former insomniac. It is free.

An article on the website Fast Company described a relaxation and visualization technique supposedly recommended by the U.S. Army to help soldiers get to sleep.

Finally, some research suggests that our pre-industrial age ancestors did not sleep straight through the night, and that a more interrupted pattern may be normal.