Tricks To Getting A Good Nights Sleep (& My Insomnia Story)

If you had asked me a year ago how my sleep pattens were i would probably of just cried. Sleep is  important, we need it to stay healthy and its often referred as "sleep hygiene".

Six to eight hours sleep a night is the recommended amount of sleep for adults and too little or even too much can have serious effects on our health. I'm not here to scare you in any way with this blog post but to simply tell you how i managed to overcome (for now, let's not jinx it!) my terrible insomnia.

Sleep deprivation is one of the worst things I have ever experienced and I have suffered with ME for 5 years! It's not uncommon to suffer with insomnia or painsomnia when you have a chronic illness, in fact it's probably something that goes with the territory unfortantly but it can have such an impact on the way you live day to day. 

Impaired sleep can weaken the immune system, cause you to feel hungry when your not - which can lead to weight gain - impaired memory and can even lead to stress related disorders like stomach ulcers and depression. 

I suffered with severe insomnia for about four/ five months last year (and that is not a lot compared to some!!). I was lucky if I slept an hour or two a night and sometimes not even that. Imagine being awake all day and then all night for what was sometimes days on end. It was possibly one of the worst and scariest times of my life. I couldn't function at all during the day which lead to spending most of my days in bed for months on end, with only an occasional trip out at the weekend, which was unpleasant but much needed to get fresh air and my sanity.

I went to bed every night worrying I wouldn't sleep which in turn meant I wouldn't as my brain would keep me awake or I would clock watch and get stressed when I realised I couldn't drop off. 

This was the cycle for a good few months, my anxiety levels were sky high,  I hated being on my own as I felt so unwell and begged people not to go to work (yes it was that bad) I would count down the hours until someone would come home and distract my brain by watching non stop Netflix or YouTube. As you can probably guess not only was this making me mentally unwell but it began to make me physically unwell and I started to get bad digestion problems and gnawing pain constantly from the stress I was causing my body, this led to me eating more to stop the gnawing as it was the only thing that helped, not great as I ending up gaining some weight due to my completely inactive lifestyle at the time. 

One of the scariest things I experienced during insomnia was sleep paralysis.

Sleep paralysis is a temporary inability to move or speak that can happen either when you are waking up or falling asleep. As if that is not scary enough but during this time of paralysis I was getting hallucinations that someone was in the house and I could hear them moving around or talking to me. This used to scare the hell out of me! At first I thought I was crazy, but turns out it's very much a real thing and happens when your suffering with extreme stress or anxiety! This would only happen if I fell asleep during the day briefly and no one was in, thankfully this has stopped!!

So enough about my awful months of insomnia although that's probably just touching the base of it, I caused a lot of upset with my family as they were unsure what they could do and I would constantly cry with frustration! 

Today, I am sleeping alot better! Phew. I still wake up in the night but most people do even with good sleep hygiene the difference is, is that I can go back to sleep relatively quickly. I don't wake up "refreshed" in the morning but all the while I have ME I won't and at least my brain is functioning alot better now and I am not living in my PJs anymore!! 

Here's what I do to ensure I get a good nights sleep:



1 - I spray my bedding and room with This Works deep sleep pillow spray, I've used other lavender sprays but always go back to This Works but it really does!! If your suffering with severe insomnia then this may help you drift off but it won't be a miracle cure you need to fix the issue causing you not to sleep.

2 - I also use Badger Balm sleep balm every night too on my pulse points on my wrist and on my temples. It's such a soothing smell of lavender, ginger, rosemary and bergamot and helps to relax you. 

3 - Move any clocks or phones away from your bed! I was a constant clock watcher and recommend if you wake up don't check the time.

4 - Don't watch TV in your bed before you go to sleep and never do any work in bed! I do however
recommend if your not sleeping to read for a little while in dim lighting, this can help you drift off.

 5 - Keep your window open at night. Even in the freezing cold winter I open my window slightly because if I get hot at night it wakes me up so best to keep your room well ventilated.

 6 - Bedtime routine! So important, go to bed around same time each night and maybe do some mediation or deep breathing. I like to use the pillow spray, pop my eye mask on and read for a while. 

7 - Drink a hot milk or herbal tea. NO caffeine. Horlicks is a good drink before bed or a herbal tea that has camomile in can make you feel sleepy and relaxed. Although don't drink it to late or your wake up needing to go the bathroom!


(Bluebird teas are amazing, blog post on them soon!! Dozy Girl is lovely and soothing)

8 - Eat a high protein snack about an hour before bed. This may seem weird as your always told not to eat to close to bed as you won't be able to sleep. A high protein snack contains "L-tryptophan" which creates melatonin and serotonin which are ESSENTIAL to sleeping. I like a eat an Oatibix with bit a of milk in the evening instead of dessert or sometimes a slice of wholemeal bread with peanut butter. Don't eat sugar before bed as it will cause your blood sugars to drop during the night, wake you up and you won't be able to go back to sleep without eating something (not ideal at 3am!)

9 - Nice warm bath before bed, get your favourite Lush bath bomb and soak your worries away.

10 - Write a list of things you need to do tomorrow and any worries you have. This is to clear your mind so you have nothing to think about until you wake up tomorrow. Any thoughts you might have just jot them down. If it happens in the middle of the night just get up and do this. 

11 - Last but not least, there's a great app from Andrew Johnson in the App Store called "Relax +" he does a lot of mindful mediation and self help tracks that you can listen to at any time of the day that really can help you relax and have a different prospective on your problems. He does one called "deep sleep" that really helps!!

Now this isn't to say that I don't still get bouts of insomnia, when I feel worried about something that is happening soon or I go to bed feeling upset about something I may not sleep great but it's not been like the days of one/two hour sleeps! Just relax and tell yourself if you sleep then that's great but if you don't, that's ok too! Sleep will come to you soon.

Until next time xo 

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