How to Stop Waking Up in the Middle of the Night- 6 Ways to Beat Insomnia Without Medication

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFVKPcdortE
Terminal insomnia, also known as sleep  maintenance insomnia, aka early morning waking,   aka “I wake up at 3 a.m and I can’t get back to  sleep and it’s driving me crazy!” This is a pretty   common experience for many people. Now, first  off, it is called terminal insomnia not because   it causes you to die but because it happens at the  end of your night. So many people experience this.   Maybe your mind starts racing; maybe you worry  about everything you need to do, or not; or maybe   you just can’t fall back to sleep – at least not  until it’s almost time to get up, and then you’re   tired and cranky and you don’t function as well  as you’d like. But then the real problem with   this terminal insomnia is that the next night when  it starts happening over and over and over again,   and then you’re just so tired, and then you start  to get stressed out and angry about your inability   to sleep, and that makes things worse because  when you wake up and you see that it’s 3am,   you get mad, and that makes it even harder to  sleep. As the researchers say, this is common but   aggravating. Dude, it is the worst. So if you’re  here, you’re probably desperate for sleep,   you haven’t slept well for a long time,  you’re cranky, irritable, depressed.   I feel you. I have struggled with insomnia off  and on. And I come by it honestly: my dad is   almost always up from 2-4 am, and so is one of  my babies. There is a genetic aspect to this.   And this early morning waking is also closely  linked to depression, both as a cause of   depression and as a symptom of depression.  But don’t worry your little head; there’s   also a lot you can do about it. In this video I’m  going to share with you my bag of tricks – six   non-medication strategies you can use to get  better at sleeping through the night. And at   the end of the video I’ll tell you about a great  YouTube video that helps me fall back asleep.
00:02:02
Hey everyone, don’t forget, we’re doing a  giveaway of three therapy lamps from Carex. Now,   each of these is worth about $150. And research  shows that light therapy is very effective   at treating seasonal affective disorder and  regular non-seasonal depression. So check out   my Instagram page to learn more. Oh, by the way, I  do have an Instagram page. Right. I put up quotes,   polls, video summaries, and the occasional dancing  baby. So go follow me there too. Okay. Back to   the video. Okay. Let’s talk about six causes of  maintenance insomnia and what you can do about   it. But first, let’s do a quick overview of the  sleep cycle. The average adult needs between seven   and nine hours of sleep, and your sleep rotates  through a couple of different cycles: light sleep,   deep sleep, and REM sleep (when you dream).  Now, most of your deep sleep happens early in   the night, and your lighter sleep and REM sleep  happens closer to morning. So this means that   little things will be more likely to wake you up  and keep you up. So the first thing that can cause   early morning insomnia is biological factors. So  these include genes, gender, aging, and hormones.   So genetically some people are lighter sleepers,  and genetically some people are more likely to   wake up early. I got both of these genes. I  already knew this about myself, but my 23andme   report verified it. Some people are night owls  and sleep much better towards the morning. This   is called your chronotype. And while you can’t  change your genes, learning about your chronotype   can help you accept it. I think it’s helpful to  imagine our ancestors living in a small village,   and let’s imagine the village needed some people  to be on watch all night. So some people would be   on watch at 9 pm, some at midnight, and I’d be the  4am crew, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed – but no   way would I fall asleep on watch. I am literally  no fun after 9pm, and I can do just about anything   at 5am. It’s a blessing and a curse. So I go  to bed early, and that’s just how I work. Now,   the second factor of biology is age. As you  age, it’s more difficult to sleep as well.   You get tired earlier in the evening, and you  sleep more lightly than when you were young.   Some things that help are staying active during  the day, getting exercise, and delaying going to   bed can all help with terminal insomnia. Now,  sleep maintenance insomnia is much more common   for women than for men, especially women nearing  midlife. Hormones impact your ability to sleep   as you age. Even when you’re pre-menopausal, you  have a slow decline in estrogen and progesterone   as you age. Hot flashes, periods, night sweats,  peeing a lot – yeah, it’s fun. You can work with   your doctor if you want to try and manage that.  Also, your body doesn’t use melatonin as well   as you age. You can use a prolonged-release  melatonin supplement to help with that. And   melatonin really is more of a time regulator than  a sleep regulator. It helps to reset your body   clock to know when you should be asleep. Now, when  I was writing the How to Process Emotions course,   I was really struggling with stress and sleep,  so I worked on both. But I did start to use   some slow-release melatonin, and it worked for  me. I used it about seven times over two weeks,   and I was doing a lot better. But there’s a lot  of factors, right? So this improvement in my   insomnia could also have been in part because of  a decrease in stress, but this all could have been   in part because of the change in seasons too. But  more on that later. Okay. The second big factor   with insomnia is conditioning. So conditioning  means that because sleep is something that your   brain associates with a routine or an environment,  we can accidentally train our brain to sleep   poorly by having bad habits. The antidote to this  is sleep hygiene. I made a full video about this,   but basically you go to sleep at the same  time each night, you don’t use your bed for   anything other than sleep and sex, don’t watch  screens in bed, you know, read a book instead.   Basically, your goal is to associate sleepy time  with your bed and not wakey time with your bed.   Now, when it’s hard to stay asleep, it’s important  that you do not associate early morning time with   wakey time. So if you’re awake too early, don’t do  anything too exciting or stressful or stimulating   because that’s going to send the message to your  brain that it’s supposed to be awake at that time   of night. Now, I’ve set some rules for myself on  this. If I’m up before five, I can read a book,   I can write on paper, I can do scripture study,  but I can’t work on anything too stimulating   before 5 am because that basically just trains  my brain to be more awake the next night at that   time. So basically you want to train your brain  that the bed is for sleeping and early mornings   are for sleeping too. Make your bedroom a calming  place. Don’t work in your bed or your bedroom. And   all of these things can help condition your brain  to sleep better. Okay. Number three. Let’s talk   about behaviors that mess up your sleep. So as you  age, you get less active during the day, and that   includes social and physical activity. But a lot  of us young folks are lazy Netflix watchers too,   so it’s important to try to get in more  physical activity, especially in the morning,   and then to do other active things throughout  the day. And CBTI is a treatment for insomnia   that research shows to be as effective or more  effective than medications, but it takes some   work. The basic idea is to use good sleep  hygiene and don’t go to bed quite as early,   but then here’s the important part: you don’t stay  in bed awake for more than 10 minutes. So if you   can’t fall asleep, get out of bed and do something  boring like reading a book for 10 minutes,   and then try 10 minutes back in bed. And you  just kind of repeat that cycle until you’re able   to fall asleep. Don’t try too hard to go to sleep,  but in the long run, you can retrain your brain to   know when sleepy time is. And this also prevents  you from accidentally training your brain to think   that the bed is the place where you lay there and  get angry about not being able to go to sleep.   Also, some medications like antidepressants,  beta blockers, corticosteroids, and allergy   medicines like pseudofendrine, and also drugs  like caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine, these all   interfere with the ability to sleep. Also,  eating late at night can interfere with sleep.   Okay, number four: stress. Now, I’m not going  to spend too much time on this one, but you’ll   improve your sleep when you decrease your overall  stress. Exercise helps with this, as does writing   down all your worries at bedtime. You can check  out my video about anxiety and insomnia. Exercise   and gratitude are helpful too. And it can be  really helpful to set better work boundaries. When   I first started working from home, my sleep got  all messed up. But I’ve learned to better separate   work and home life. So take your work email off  your phone, turn on the “do not disturb” mode,   don’t read the comments on your YouTube channel  before you go to bed unless you want to debate an   obscure concept of therapy with a random stranger  in your head all night. Now, I work from home,   so I set the rule for myself that I can’t work  after 7pm or before 5am. Okay, number five:   your environment can impact your sleep. Your brain  is queued to sleep when it’s dark outside, when it   cools off, and when your core temperature drops.  So let’s start with temperature. Set your room to   68 degrees Fahrenheit or lower. You can also use a  cooling pillow or a cooling mat to help cool off.   But also, taking a warm bath opens your  capillaries, and then it triggers your   core temperature to drop when you get out, so that  can also help you get sleepy. Okay. Now let’s talk   about light. The light that enters your eyes tells  your brains whether to be sleepy or energetic.   Daylight freaking savings and working in  artificially lit environments can really mess with   that. So start by making your room a dim or a dark  environment. Limit how much light you are exposed   to in the evening. When I’m trying to get my kids  to bed, I always start turning off the lights in   my house, and that can help kind of remind  them that it’s getting close to sleepy time.   It’s also helpful to get a lot of early morning  light exposure, so try to get outside in the   morning and see the sun. Another thing you can  try is doing light therapy 12 hours opposite to   when you can’t sleep. So if you can’t sleep at 3  am, try light therapy at 3 pm. Okay. And lastly,   sleep oxygen can be an issue, so try not  to sleep on your back. And if you’re really   worried about it, you could get, you know, a sleep  evaluation at a sleep clinic. Okay. Number six:   if your brain is running wild, you can try all  types of sleep meditations. There’s a good one   out there called A Robot Shutting Down. And  when all else fails, my go-to is to listen to an   archaeology lecture. It’s barely interesting, but  still quite boring. Or Baumgartner Restoration. So   I’ll link those below. These are some channels  I watch when I’m really just trying to get   myself bored enough to sleep. If you’re  still having trouble sleeping, check with   your doctor. There are other health conditions  that can cause sleep problems, like sleep apnea,   hypothyroid, enlarged prostate, gastric reflux,  arthritis, restless leg syndrome, neuropathy,   and depression. So as you work to treat those,  you might be able to help improve your sleep.   Okay. I hope this bag of tricks is helpful. And if  not, if you’re up in the middle of the night and   you’re angry about it, know that at least you’re  not alone – I’m probably right there with you.
Source : Youtube

Published by

Leaman Ralph

Really sugar is shaky because it originates from a straight stick see the play is Granny yes Grandma plus new style luv MaryJane so listen (Granny Apple last years blue ribbon production winner AKA) I, I, I ain't on the right side of my house Jane something or the other is in my room: finally after an extermination Grannie speaks once more "let my (old man) Pacman step on it". See it is home on the range so solo as it be truity speaks got a problem it is your own. But alter scenario: Z/n time; narcotics I got that candy s.p.ee..d360 Bar itch its' and Mickey Mouse for the Sultan 7 1 4er well a hem a hem, it went early in the morning like a smack chanting sugar structure 7 -one 1 +eleven and 4 do an ate 'er 8 eight 'er? Well that aint nice. NARCO says do you know them numbers change (response) Yes it is a FiX they are MF's Ope yeah Ope Douglas is it. Surrounded by Alkaloid is both Mary and Grandma in an never ending circle of membership. French mandates declare put up their dukes... ZEN Pepsi can talk half Chocolate and your ole man Pacman down in Cuba posing as the worlds one and only Coffee Wizard "back 1:1" tis Coffee time... ||