Chronic insomnia begins innocently enough–a few restless nights are usually enough to get it started. The trigger can be a temporary life crisis, an emotional or stressful period, or a change in schedule or routine. Traveling or moving to a new location can also be a cause.

A few nights of sleeping poorly is usually not a big deal. But for some reason, this time, you can’t seem to settle down for a good night’s sleep. It seems like you’ve lost your ability to relax and drift off. Or, if you can manage to fall asleep, you can’t stay asleep. Something always seems to startle you awake. After a while, you start feeling a little anxious about your sleeplessness. You notice you’re feeling tired and more irritable during the day. You can’t seem to shake that foggy feeling no matter how much coffee or cola you drink to dry to get rid of it.

In an effort to feel better, you start taking naps whenever you can. On weekends, you get up later to try to get more sleep. In the afternoon you drink more caffeine or eat sugary snacks to keep you going. All of these activities, while understandable, just make things worse. They are disrupting your circadian rhythms, destabilizing your blood sugar, giving you artificial energy boosts that end in a dismal crash, and possibly causing you to gain weight. This is a sure path to chronic insomnia.

The Biggest Problem With Chronic Insomnia

When you have chronic insomnia, your whole life feels out of whack, so you try desperately to get things back to normal. Unfortunately, as we have seen, the very things you do to try to "make up" for your lack of sleep will cause even more of it. This is true on the emotional level as well as on the physical level.

It is quite normal to feel frustrated and anxious when you have chronic insomnia. Because you think you "have to" get some sleep in order to feel better, you feel pressured and stressed out. When was the last time you slept soundly and peacefully while feeling totally stressed out? It’s almost impossible, even for people who don’t have chronic insomnia. It’s even worse for you.

Some Answers

If you want to get over chronic insomnia, you may have to start doing the opposite of what comes naturally. You will have to make some conscious decisions to change some of your thinking and behavior patterns. Here are 7 good tips to start your journey:

1) Keep a strict sleep schedule. That means you go to bed and get up at the same time every day. That also means that no matter how little sleep you got during the night, you cannot stay in bed, even on a Sunday, to try to "catch up" on your shuteye.

2) Stop taking naps. Naps may feel good, and ironically may offer you the best sleep you’re able to get right now. Sorry. It’s really important to give up naps for a while. Long naps late in the day can seriously disrupt your internal clock, which is already off schedule because of your chronic insomnia.

3) Give up caffeine. You might get a temporary buzz from that latte or energy drink, but caffeine is one of the worst remedies for chronic insomnia. Now, you may be addicted to caffeine, which means you’ll experience headaches and other withdrawal symptoms if you give it up cold turkey. If that’s the case, taper off slowly, and only drink before noon.

4) Give up alcohol if possible. It may give you a relaxed feeling before bedtime, but it doesn’t allow you to sleep soundly. If you must drink, at least abstain after 5:00 PM.

5) Quit the sugary snacks. They are simply causing more disruptions to your body’s systems. What you are aiming for is stability in blood sugar, which is most conducive to the relaxation that leads to peaceful sleep.

6) Get some moderate exercise. I’m sure you feel too tired to move around much, but moderate exercise has been shown to help chronic insomnia sufferers feel better and get more sleep.

7) Finally, stop worrying obsessing about your chronic insomnia. This may be the most difficult part of all, because it’s human nature to worry when things go wrong. The problem is, worry has never helped, nor ever will help, a case of chronic insomnia to clear up. That’s right–never. However, worrying over your insomnia is so common it has a name all it’s own: sleep anxiety.

Of course, it’s very easy to say "stop worrying." In reality, it’s nearly impossible to force yourself to stop worrying. Instead, you must be kind and gentle with yourself, offering yourself lots of encouragement and support. Sleep anxiety is a major cause of chronic insomnia, but you can get rid of it by using effective self-help methods.

Author: Marcia Weissman

Marcia Weissman suffered from chronic insomnia for years before she formulated a self-help program that eventually cured it. Learn more details about this common but distressing condition at http://www.insomnia-free.com and follow the free 10-day self-help tutorial

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Marcia_Weissman

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