Sleep, where art thou?!

How I cured my insomnia naturally and reduced stress

5 min read if you are a quick reader :)

Are you struggling with stress, anxiety, feeling overwhelmed and poor sleep as a result? If yes, please read on.

Level of uncertainty, stress and anxiety that Covid-19 created in the world is the perfect formula for developing insomnia. Yes, in a weird twisted way your brain is actually helping (NOT HELPING!) you to stay alert to this threat. Thank you brain, you are the best!

I am going to cut to the happy ending immediately (YAY!) so you know there are ways to overcome it. I hope my personal experience and all the methods I tried and tested can be helpful right now.

This is my second time in 3 years developing one (last time when my mum was ill and we went through a lot of investigative steps to a diagnosis and worrying about her — all ok now, phew! LOVE you mum!) and both times I did try a lot of methods and read a lot of literature on the subject. My 7 steps to insomnia relief.

1. NOTHING: Last time I had it I did take sleeping pills for a period but in the end you have to address the route cause of the issue, not just turn yourself off every night with chemicals (if that helps you right now, of course do what you have to do!). At first I was totally zen and did nothing. Hey, I am so aware of my experience second time round, I will just observe it without judgement and I am sure my body will reset. Yeah, that happened (never!). My body and brain were testing all my levels of patience and awareness, so after 6 days of little sleep, the time for zen for over. Bring out the big “still lazy” guns — Melatonin.
2. MELATONIN: I had melatonin left over from my last US trip and whilst it helps with the jet-lag the evidence is mixed on insomnia. It gave me horrible night terrors. There is a lot of anecdotal evidence online that it is the same for others, so additional minimal sleeping time wasn’t worth the waking up screaming “MUM” (her again haha) in the middle of the night. I suffered with nightmares since I was a kid, but melatonin takes them up to levels that Stephen King would be proud to write.
3. JOURNALING: At this point I was 9 days into it and feeling a bit sensitive, to put it mildly, so it was time to put some effort into the recovery. I decided to write a sleep diary (journaling is a proven method to reduce anxiety). It began as incoherent ramblings to start with and written with what I can only describe as a “claw”. Has anyone noticed that after years of typing, writing seems like such an alien task? My hands were behaving like they were drunk and my brain was refusing to form words……and it was oh so uncomfortable. After a few days it did become easier and I am now 6 weeks into the diary. Wow. I threw in gratitude section at no extra cost and it has really HELPED. Point 1 scored against insomnia. Go me! Also maintain regular sleep / wake cycle. I was in bed by 11pm and up 7am.
4. NO NEWS: Second most helpful thing I did was to stop watching and following the news. “You don’t watch the news, you are uninformed, if you watch the news you are misinformed” — Mark Twain quote adjusted for modern times. After noticing just how much anxiety it was adding to my day and night it was time to let them just get on with it. There was nothing I could do about lifting the lockdown / curing the virus, so I decided to just “be”. Within few days I noticed less stress and tension. It is now my rule, apart from significant government updates. DO IT!
5. PHONE OFF AT NIGHT: Biggest help and also the biggest challenge was switching my phone off after 8.30pm at night. I haven’t EVER done that before. EVER! Bad, I know. Don’t do as I do kids, it’s bad for your health. I went cold turkey which is ironic really, as turkey is a great food to aid sleep as it is full of tryptophan (essential amino-acid that helps regulate sleep). It took me a few days to get used to it, still kind of struggling now but sticking to it, but believe me nothing is ever so urgent that can’t wait till the morning. We have a Russian saying back home: morning is always wiser than the night. Thank you folklore Motherland wisdom.
6. SUN, DIET, NATURE: The magic trio. Get out for a walk every day (we were allowed). I stopped listening to music and started appreciating things around me instead. Also one of the positives to come out of this pandemic. There is actually the whole world out there to look at, who knew?!? Flowers, birds, bugs, I can go on (my bumblebee picture was taken on one of my walks and is a metaphor for the elusiveness of sleep)…. Sunshine every day. I appreciate UK is average at best for that but we were blessed with great weather so I took full advantage to top up my vitamin D levels. I know it’s easy to just eat junk food to make yourself better — yes, I went through few tubs of ice cream. Sorry, not sorry. But 80/20 rule applies. Cook, explore new flavours, eat as close to nature as you can. I also take magnesium, Omega3 and Q10 supplements as well as Vitamin D when I can’t get the sun (that would be a LOT of the time).
7. BOX BREATHING: Finally, box breathing. If it’s good enough for Special Forces……!!!! If you are feeling stressed, anxious or overwhelmed, it is a very simple technique. Breathe in for 4 secs (btw, a lot of us are breathing into our chest which is inefficient, not diaphragm, so be aware that you need to breathe into your belly), hold for 4 secs, breathe out for 4 secs and hold for 4 secs. Repeat till you feel calmer…..see you later, stress!

After 3 weeks of following all of the above I am sleeping better and almost back to pre-virus level of calm and zen. I do still have an occasional bad night but try to stay positive and stick to the routine. I hope this helped and please contact me with your tips too (I plan to write about meditation next as a separate article). Would love to hear them. Happy dreaming! :) Jules