Sleepless Nights

If you experience frequent sleepless nights, please read on as I will be giving tips and advice on sleep techniques.

Most of us have experienced a sleepless night at least once in our lifetimes. There are many factors that can contribute to a sleepless night; worry, stress and anxiety are common problems. Financial issues, relationships and work can all create unwanted emotions and thoughts that can affect our daily lives as well as sleep.

Stress, anxiety and worry can be caused by minor factors, but yet these can have detrimental effects on our emotional behavior; being stuck in traffic, having a bad day at work, going to an interview, taking a test and something as little as burning toast can build up unwanted stress during the day.

A sleepless night is nothing to get alarmed about. It's often difficult to let go of thoughts at night. Often when we are able to tackle the cause of worry or anxiety we are able to rest at night. It's important that we do tackle the cause of the problem quickly as prolonged experience of sleeplessness may become a learned habit and develop into insomnia.

For the insomniac a sleeplessness is an all too familiar occurrence. Insomnia sufferers usually complain about having disturbed, insufficient and non-restorative sleep, and generally:

  • have difficulty falling asleep.
  • have difficulty staying asleep.
  • have difficulty going back to sleep after waking up at night.
  • feel drowsy or tired on awakening in the morning.
  • feel excessively tired or sleepy during the day

Many people find it difficult to let go of worrying or troubling thoughts at night. If you try not to think of a pink elephant, you'll probably think of one. If you try to get an annoying pop song out of your head, you'll probably fail. And if you have to try and fall asleep, you're probably already suffering from insomnia. Fact is sleep isn't supposed to be forced; it's a natural process which just happens.

Often an insomnia sufferer will try to relax, but slip into the mode of thinking random thoughts involuntarily, only to get frustrated and find that they are even more awake. On other nights they may feel that their mind empties however they struggle to relax physically enough to fall asleep. They may feel tense and irritable.

It's important to realize that the day reflects the night and that the sleep process does not begin as soon as you rest your head on your pillow. It's important to wind down in the evenings and relax during the day.

Factors such as your mood, emotions, diet, the amount of sunlight and exercise you get play an important role in how well you are able to sleep at night.