Insomnia, By Jon Neiss

I have had insomnia for many years. While I haven't successfully stopped it, I have had a great deal of reduction of symptoms.

I have tried supplementation. All the supplementation that I have done has helped some. Sometimes it has helped more than others.

Herbs/ Supplements:

melatonin
turkey (good source of the amino acid L-Tryptophan)

tired, sick, insomnia, etc. etc. etc.

Lagging Nagging Now
Oh No The Again Again
Laughing Dancing Bones

Jon Neiss

For apnea (which interrupts sleep) I have taken liquid O2 supplements and a ceiling fan and good ventilation helps.

Temperature Regulation:

I have poor circulation. If I don't cover my arms and feet when I go to bed, I wake up in the middle of the night. I also seem to need a high temperature (at least 72 degrees) to fall asleep.

Light Regulation:

Suggestions are to keep the light level lower at least one hour before bed. This is supposed to help the natural sleep cycle.

Routine:

Regularity seems to help. Trying to sleep at the same time every night seems to help. When I get the first "wave" of feeling tired, I try to ride that to sleep. When I fight off that first wave of sleep (because I want to finish watching some dumb TV show, no doubt), then I find it harder to get back into sleep.

Sound:

I find restful music very helpful. I found a cheap CD player that has a function which will play an album over and over all night long.

My girlfriend uses a sound machine. It produces some "white noise" that drowns out other noises. We originally got that because we had a neighbor upstairs whose baby would cry all
night long. The machine only cost $30.

There are also tapes of things like "electric fan noise," "air conditioner noise" and other such things.

Boring the Mind into Sleep:

(I've actually read this one in sleep disorder literature and it has worked for me.)

I like history and so I have a bunch of college history lectures on tape. Sometimes when my mind is over-active, I will play a particularly boring one. Sometimes, it really works to put me
to sleep. (I get my college lecture tapes through The Teaching Company - great lectures generally, but if you have heard how Caesar was assassinated 79 different times, it can still bore you into sleep).

Diverting the Mind:

When my mind is particularly disobedient, I will actually try to play two or three different things at once - maybe the college lectures and the radio, maybe some talk radio and the TV...the combination of confusing stimuli does seem to tire out my over-eager brain. Then, it seems to quit and fall asleep.

I have also found that any problem that is boring and you don't want to resolve helps. So, if I am stuck in a short story and can't find an ending, I will run that through my mind until it
bores me into sleep.

Affirmation:

I have found that my mind can become "convinced" that I cannot fall asleep. I have been able to successfully counteract this ( to some degree) with affirmations that I can and I will fall
asleep. I just repeat to myself, with will, force and conviction, that I am more powerful than the insomnia, that I can and will conquer it and that I can and will fall asleep. For some reason it does seem to keep the "disobedient" mind in check.

Jon Neiss is a stand-up comic, activist, poet and writer who copes with insomnia, MCS, in his daily life.