Day 106 of 365 - The Insomnia Diary - Part Two
It seems like a good time to do an update or progress report on the insomnia situation. As I mentioned in the Part One post sometime ago, I have a number of sleep hygiene practices in place. They have given me success in easily falling asleep. My ongoing or chronic issue has become waking too often in the night, having difficulty getting back to sleep or, waking too early in the morning. All of those things result in just not getting in an adequate number of hours of sleep.
I also mentioned in a previous post about the fall time change that, one of the strategies for improving sleep time is to stay up later and then gradually move your bedtime earlier once you have been successful in 'sleeping through' to your normal wake up time. I still have not done this, other than at that time in the fall when I stayed up an hour later than usual to accommodate for the time change.
Given that I've felt quite resistant to that strategy, I'm still undecided whether to trust that it's not the answer for me or whether my stubbornness and mind are just overriding the option.
What I have been doing the last few months is experimenting with supplements to help me sleep longer. The two I have been using are melatonin and 5HTP in a time release formula. I have done some research about these as sleep aids in health related books I own, as well as online. I feel like I am sleeping more deeply.
However, as I mentioned in my first post about insomnia, my very early morning waking seems to be related to pain or bodily discomfort. It does not seem to be waking me as quickly as before but is still a major culprit.
So now, I am leaning towards finding ways to reduce the probable underlying inflammation that may be causing the pain. I have had hip x-rays which do not show any significant arthritis, making it likely to be soft tissue and muscle pain. I've asked my body workers for their assistance with this in my appointments with them. My hope is that with better body alignment and reduction of muscle tension, the discomfort will decrease.
Tracking body symptoms during the day and at night seems tedious, but I hope will result in a longer term solution than just taking a sleeping pill or other kind of sedative might.
I've certainly learned that if I overexert myself in any of my exercise classes, there is a good chance my body will complain about it in the night. I already know as well that what I eat during the day or evening can influence inflammation and pain.
The supplement magnesium, which I've also spoken about before is a helpful one for reducing muscle tension, inflammation and tissue pain. There are others as well which I will be exploring more in terms of dosage and timing.
And who knows, sometime I may also get past my resistance about staying up until midnight to try to sleep through.
Each person needs to figure out and do what works best for them. I'm not promoting my strategies as the best way. Some of them, like the sleep preparation suggestions have been widely recommended. Others, like various supplements are perhaps less commonly accepted.
That's my interim sleep report for now. May I make more progress in the coming weeks and months.
I also mentioned in a previous post about the fall time change that, one of the strategies for improving sleep time is to stay up later and then gradually move your bedtime earlier once you have been successful in 'sleeping through' to your normal wake up time. I still have not done this, other than at that time in the fall when I stayed up an hour later than usual to accommodate for the time change.
Given that I've felt quite resistant to that strategy, I'm still undecided whether to trust that it's not the answer for me or whether my stubbornness and mind are just overriding the option.
What I have been doing the last few months is experimenting with supplements to help me sleep longer. The two I have been using are melatonin and 5HTP in a time release formula. I have done some research about these as sleep aids in health related books I own, as well as online. I feel like I am sleeping more deeply.
However, as I mentioned in my first post about insomnia, my very early morning waking seems to be related to pain or bodily discomfort. It does not seem to be waking me as quickly as before but is still a major culprit.
So now, I am leaning towards finding ways to reduce the probable underlying inflammation that may be causing the pain. I have had hip x-rays which do not show any significant arthritis, making it likely to be soft tissue and muscle pain. I've asked my body workers for their assistance with this in my appointments with them. My hope is that with better body alignment and reduction of muscle tension, the discomfort will decrease.
Tracking body symptoms during the day and at night seems tedious, but I hope will result in a longer term solution than just taking a sleeping pill or other kind of sedative might.
I've certainly learned that if I overexert myself in any of my exercise classes, there is a good chance my body will complain about it in the night. I already know as well that what I eat during the day or evening can influence inflammation and pain.
The supplement magnesium, which I've also spoken about before is a helpful one for reducing muscle tension, inflammation and tissue pain. There are others as well which I will be exploring more in terms of dosage and timing.
And who knows, sometime I may also get past my resistance about staying up until midnight to try to sleep through.
Each person needs to figure out and do what works best for them. I'm not promoting my strategies as the best way. Some of them, like the sleep preparation suggestions have been widely recommended. Others, like various supplements are perhaps less commonly accepted.
That's my interim sleep report for now. May I make more progress in the coming weeks and months.
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