The Struggle With Sleep: Expert Tips For Battling Insomnia

For as far back as I can remember, I had trouble sleeping. I’m not sure my exact age, but let’s say 4 years old. I can’t remember why sleep was an issue in early adolescence, but I know a lot of it was around anxiety and fear of things, or people, lurking in my closet. As I got older and was in High School, it didn’t get any easier. I no longer was afraid of the dark, but I just couldn’t fall asleep as easily as everyone else. I’d wake up groggy and grumpy. When I became an adult at 18 years old, my sleep was still an issue.

After college, as I became more of a functioning adult who needed to wake up and go through a workday with energy, sleep became more of a looming issue. I turned to prescription medicine. My doctor prescribed me Ambien. I grew up with Western Medicine and regularly relied on other drugs such as Tylenol and Motrin for pain relief, so I had no issues with something that would help me get a good night’s rest.

At first, I loved Ambien. As I drifted off to sleep, it gave me this angelic high. Almost like smoking a joint, getting the initial high, and then falling asleep with a smile. For a while, it worked. The more I took Ambien, though, the more my body needed it. Soon, I was taking it and still not sleeping well. I would fall asleep, but wake up three to five hours later, leaving me sleep-deprived and groggy the next day. I tried to stop taking the medication a few times, knowing that it wasn’t doing me any good, but it was hard to stop.

Ambien is addictive. I went through years of on and off taking Ambien. Quitting cold turkey and then getting hooked again when I anxiously felt like I needed a good night’s sleep. I was a sleep drug addict, except that I didn’t need an underground market for my drugs, I just needed a doctor and doctors were easy to find. They handed it out like candy on Halloween. Nobody ever tried to address my sleep problem but rather covered it up with medication.

Then I found acupuncture. It wasn’t my sleep that brought me to acupuncture, but a physical injury. I got interested and started learning more though. The more I learned, the more I understood that the medicine I was taking, my lifestyle, and my diet, although seemingly very healthy from the outside, was hurting my sleep and my body big time. Simply put, I was out of balance. I needed more Yin energy to help my body relax and sleep.

The concept of Yin and Yang is central to Chinese Medicine and something most of us have heard of at one point, but what does it mean? Yin is night and Yang is daytime. Yin is cold quiet and calm. Yang is hot energetic and lively. You can’t have Yin without Yang and you can’t have Yang without Yin. When we have too much Yang in our lives, we eat up the Yin. Working long hours, exercising until exhaustion, and the constant go-go-go lifestyle that a lot of New Yorkers live — that’s all coming from Yang energy. The more we overuse our Yang energy, the less Yin we have left. Ever felt “wire, but tired?” That comes from the exhaustion of Yin. Our bodies are tired and depleted, but there’s just not enough Yin (rest/calm) to hold the (yang) energy down. A lot of the time when people are having trouble sleeping, they do the opposite of what is needed – they try to tire themselves out. When actually, the process of tiring out is what makes it hard to sleep in the first place.

With herbs, acupuncture, diet, and lifestyle changes I was able to shift my poor sleep and the anxiety I’d created around sleeping. I now will still occasionally have bad nights of sleep, but I know how to deal with it. Often I understand what’s causing it and I address the problem rather than grabbing a band-aid.

How Acupuncture Can Improve Sleep

There are so many ways acupuncture can improve sleep! The simplest way is that it relaxes your nervous system, reduces stress and anxiety, and allows your body to ease into a restful sleep. Acupuncture also works to balance your body and when your body is in balance, it can do what it’s supposed to do (like sleep!). Some people have issues sleeping because of a lack of Yin (like I mentioned above), but some people can’t sleep because their qi is constrained, or they don’t have enough blood (a Yin substance) to allow a restful sleep. An acupuncturist can pinpoint and address these issues.

Sleep And Herbal Remedies

There are a lot of different herbal remedies and formulas for sleep. There’s no one-size-fits-all all because everyone’s sleep patterns are different. There are also different sleep issues: Falling asleep vs. staying asleep vs. not getting restful sleep. For me, when I first was dealing with insomnia, herbs for Yin deficiency (not enough Yin) helped. I was in a constantly wired, but tired state and my body needed that extra Yin energy to calm down. Other times though, I’ve taken herbs for Blood deficiency and Liver stagnation. Herbal remedies help balance your body with what is going on with you at that time.

Tops Tips For Improving Sleep

SUNLIGHT 14-16 HOURS BEFORE BED: Getting sunlight 14 – 16 hrs before your bedtime helps to set your circadian rhythm and prime your body for a good night’s sleep. It’s best to get light outside, not through a window, and without sunglasses. The light doesn’t need to be bright or shine directly on you and it doesn’t need to be long: 5 – 10 minutes does the trick.

DAYTIME SUNSHINE: Aside from being a great mood booster and a wonder for your immune system, getting proper sunlight throughout the day helps set your circadian rhythm. If you’re stuck at a desk, or it’s a very cloudy day, using an LED light is a good second best. The LED lights on writing pads, or Wake Up lights will work.

EXERCISE EARLY: Getting your body moving in the morning, helps set your internal clock for a proper sleep cycle. It doesn’t need to be a lot, just 10 minutes of exercise can make a difference. Even better, do it outside.

CUT CAFFEINE: Caffeine affects different people differently. Some people can have an espresso at 10:00pm and still sleep at night. For others, though, drinking coffee even at 9:00am, can keep you up at 10:00pm. I’m one of those people. As much as I love the taste and smell of coffee, it messes with me. If you’ve been regularly drinking coffee for a while now, you may not even notice how it affects your sleep. Try cutting it out for a week and see how you feel.

RED LIGHT: Red light waves stimulate the production of melatonin which is needed for sleep. Simply a red light bulb won’t do it, though. It needs to be a light that sends red light waves. Joovv and PlatinumLED have some awesome red lights (that are also helpful for a host of other things). You can find more affordable options though, like this on Amazon.

JOURNAL: I see a lot of people in my practice who have trouble sleeping due to anxiety, their minds are running. I’ve been there too. To release your thoughts before bedtime, write them down. Anything that is circling in your head, your to-do list, a big project at work, whatever you’re angry, worried, or excited about – write it down. Write it down and let it go. Release your thoughts to the words on the page.

MEDITATION: Meditation has a whole host of benefits and I won’t get into them all here, but in terms of sleep, it relaxes your mind, and body and releases anxiety. I’m not going to tell you things like not to watch TV at night, because if you’re like me, that’s just not going to happen. I know the TV screen hinders sleep, but it’s also my time to veg out and get lost in a show. Maybe it’s the same for you. After I watch TV, though, and before I go to sleep, I meditate. I lay down in bed and depending on the day, plug in my headphones for a guided meditation, or focus on deep breathing and quieting my mind. Sometimes I meditate on a positive thought or mantra. Whatever your meditation preference, do it. If you need help on where to start, Headspace is a wonderful app with a lot of choices, or Gabby Bernstein has some excellent meditations. If one meditation style doesn’t work for you, try another.

SUPPLEMENTS: Magnesium & L-theanine are both helpful in promoting relaxation and improving sleep quality. There are a lot of different types of magnesium on the market and they have different direct effects. For sleep, magnesium glycinate has been proven to improve sleep quality. For sleep, generally, a dosage of 100mg – 400mg of both magnesium and/or l-theanine is recommended.

Everybody is different and not everything works for everyone, so play around with what works for you. If you find you’re struggling with sleep and would like help or to learn more, contact me.