Insomnia can be a horrible thing with which to deal, especially when it continues for a long period of time and when its cause is unknown. There are things that I was able to do to improve my sleep and cope with the insomnia, and I hope that others will find these things helpful as well.
Before I went gluten-free, I dealt with chronic insomnia. When I went to the doctor for my annual physical back in 2012, she found out through blood work that my eosinophils were extremely high. She suspected an allergic reaction to something and asked that I cut out everything I’d introduced since the last year, when my results were normal. I cut out all the vitamins and other supplements I’d started using to see if they would clear my skin. It was after doing this that I began to notice problems sleeping. Even after I cut out flaxseed and knew that it was most likely the cause of my elevated eosinophils, I continued to stay off everything else because I didn’t want anything to interfere with the follow-up blood work that I was to have in the next few months. However, I became desperate, so I decided to try the supplements again. One of the supplements I’d been taking was a triple omega supplement, and it had flax oil in it. I had to find something that didn’t have flax oil, and all I could find was a regular fish oil supplement. I decided to take it along with my other supplements. I already knew that flaxseed caused symptoms when I reintroduced it, and I didn’t feel any of those symptoms with my supplements. However, the insomnia persisted. I really didn’t know what was causing it, and I was scared. Things got to the point where I would stay up the entire night one night because of the fear, and the next night, I’d be so exhausted that I’d sleep right through the night. However, the anxiety would return the following night, and I’d be up again. I finally went to the doctor, who prescribed sleeping pills. I took Ambien CR at first and then switched to Restoril, a benzodiazepine, when the Ambien didn’t seem to be helping very well. The Restoril was a great help, but my doctor didn’t want me to continue on it. She had me begin weaning off it by alternating the Restoril with melatonin. The first night that I took the melatonin didn’t go well at all. It was a relatively low dose, 1 mg, but it managed to keep me up all night. My body felt like a lead weight in bed, and my breathing felt labored. I definitely wasn’t going to take that again! I can’t remember what led up to the decision, but I just decided to quit the Restoril cold turkey. (Note: Please keep your own situation in mind and speak to your doctor before quitting your sleeping medication!) The first few nights were okay, but over time, I began to have a harder time sleeping. I even went to the store and bought a bottle of 300 mcg melatonin tablets, but I could not tell any effect with them. However, there were things that I was able to do to help me get back to sleeping well again without oral sleep aids.
I began working on my fear concerning sleeping. I realized by thinking over past times when I had not slept well that I could still do my daily activities if I worked and concentrated hard enough. It was better for me to carry on as normal rather than feel I had to stay home to try to make up for the lost sleep and rest. That way, I didn’t have to be afraid of things that would not get done or lost time due to not sleeping. Of course, I didn’t do anything that would put myself or others in danger. I exercised good judgment as well. Another thing that really helped me was realizing that my body doesn’t shut down when I sleep. My body is actually in a very active state, doing things that it can’t do while I’m awake. Knowing and realizing this fact helped me to be less anxious about falling asleep at night.
I would move to another area and stretch out if I felt I could not get back to sleep. I’m not sure if many doctors or sleep specialists would agree that this is a good idea, but it helped me. I would get up and go into my guest bedroom, which has a futon in it. I would wear a sleep mask over my eyes and stretch out in there to try to get back to sleep. I’m not sure why it helped, if it was the act of getting up and moving elsewhere or something else, but I’m glad I had it as an option, and it helped me way more often than it didn’t. It got me through many rough nights.
I listened to certain types of music throughout the night. I downloaded appropriate tracks to an MP3 player. Many of the tracks I found for free online by searching for “sleepy” or “relaxing” music. Amazon also has many inexpensive tracks. I also ripped tracks from some CDs I owned. I plugged the player into a speaker on a bookshelf near the foot of my bed and had the volume turned up just enough where I could hear it at a soft level. When I ventured to the guest room to stretch out on the futon, I would use the computer in my office to play music. My office is across from the guest room, and I would turn on the computer in there and have it play music, having the volume low enough where I could hear the music at a soft level from the guest room. The stations I play on my computer are SomaFM’s Drone Zone and Sleepbot Environmental Broadcast.
I moved electronics away from my bed. I had a cordless phone, lamp, and alarm clock on the shelf, which was at the top of my bed, all right near my head. I replaced that phone with a corded phone and moved the alarm clock and lamp to the top of a chest of drawers at the other side of the room. The only thing plugged into an electrical outlet near my head now is my waterbed heater. I’ve never noticed issues with it. The room with the futon also no longer has a cordless phone.
I turn off my wifi at night. Wifi definitely affected my sleep back in the days when my insomnia was worse and in the early months of going gluten free. Just one night of leaving it on or being in an area where it was on during the night would make me feel horrible. However, as I began dealing with my dietary issues, these effects started to lessen. I could handle going on vacation and staying in a home or hotel room that had wifi on at all times. At one point, I thought it no longer affected me. When I upgraded my broadband internet, I was given a new modem that had no way to shut off the wifi on the device itself. I’m not sure if there was even an option to turn it off from the web interface. I decided just to leave it on and not worry about it. However, over the next few months, I started having more trouble, and one night, I even woke up about an hour or so after falling asleep and could not get back to sleep. I decided to put the modem in bridge mode and connect it to an old wifi router that does have a button to turn off the wifi. I began turning off my wifi at night again. I haven’t had an issue at night like that one since. I’ve never had to buy any products that block electromagnetic fields or anything like that. I seem to be just fine during the day and with short-term exposure to wifi throughout the night. Sometimes I forget to shut off the wifi at night, and it’s fine. I just can’t continue to leave it on long-term. Also, I have networking equipment in my house that allows me to use wired connections for internet access, and I ordered the equipment from Netsys. I use the ethernet over coax extenders. That way, devices that can use a wired connection have internet access while the wifi is turned off. I’ve actually always used a wired setup, but it definitely helps for using my PC at night such as when I get a work call and need to check something during the night or when I need to use my office PC to play sleepy music during the night.
I dealt with health issues that were affecting my sleep. The fish oil that I previously mentioned, what I tried after having to give up the triple omega supplement with flax oil, was actually a contributor to my insomnia. I believe it’s because I need a balance of the omegas, and the supplement I was using was primarily, if not completely, an omega-3 supplement. When I switched to a balanced omega supplement, it helped. I was happy to find that ones without flax oil do exist. Cutting out reactive foods, like wheat, really helped improve my sleep. Dealing with nutritional deficiencies and imbalances, like the copper and zinc imbalance, also helped with sleep. Keeping my body healthy and in the best shape that I can has been very helpful for sleep.
I stopped fighting with myself. Whatever thoughts that would come into my head, positive or negative, if they were about a show or movie I’d seen or even if it was a song playing on repeat in my mind, I wouldn’t fight them. I realized that fighting to stop the thoughts or even trying to change what I was visualizing or thinking was causing more stress, which worked to keep me awake. I decided just to let whatever wanted to come to come, to let any thoughts just flow. Even if the thoughts were negative, I found this method to be a lot less stressful, and sleep would eventually come. Besides, acknowledging my negative thoughts and emotions and realizing they’re a part of who I am rather than trying to ignore or change them has been a lot less stressful for me anyway, whether or not I was trying to sleep. If anything comes to mind concerning something I need to do and if I can’t take care of it before going to sleep, I’ll make a note of it by writing it down on a piece of paper and putting the paper in a prominent spot so I’ll see it the next morning and remember.
It can be very difficult to handle chronic insomnia, especially if one hasn’t found ways to cope or ways to improve sleep. I hope that the things that I’ve found helpful for sleeping better will help others as well. If you try (or have tried) any of the things I listed above, please let me know whether or not they were helpful. Pleasant dreams, and sleep well!
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