sleep and insomnia - salubrity seminarsstress management series (16) sleep and insomnia about an...

Post on 09-Jul-2020

3 Views

Category:

Documents

0 Downloads

Preview:

Click to see full reader

TRANSCRIPT

Sleep and Insomnia

Condensed from a seminar& workshop of the same title

Lionel Hartley

Thank God for sleep!

And, when you cannot sleep,

Still thank him that you live

To lie awake.

– John Oxenham (1861-1941)

Stress Manangement Series:

Sleep andInsomnia

By Lionel Hartley

L&R Hartley ©2000

Title Page

Sleep and Insomniaby Lionel D C HartleyPart of the Stress Management SeriesCondensed from a seminar & workshop of the sametitle, written, presented and illustrated by Lionel HartleyIllustrated by Lionel Hartley© 2000This book is copyright ©2000. Apart from any fair deal-ing for the purpose of private study, research, criticismor review as permitted under the Copyright Act, no partof this book may be reproduced by any process withoutthe written permission of the publisher.Published in Australia by L&R HartleyP O Box 1471 Murwillumbah NSW 2484eMail: hartley@telstra.easymail.com.auWebsite: http://www.users.bigpond.com/lionelhartley/Catalogue Reference: First Print Edition S&I-B01

Re-printCopyright renewed ©2020www.lrhartley.com/sleepadmin@lrhartley.com

Contents

Title Page...................................................... 3How do we know about sleep behaviour? ..... 71. Monitor Your Sleeping............................ 152. Make up a Contract with Yourself. ......... 21My Sleep Contract ...................................... 243. Learn To Relax........................................ 254. Use Sensible Self-Talk. ........................... 295. Try Non-Expectational Sex ..................... 336. Establishing Good Sleeping Habits. ........ 357. Manage Daytime Feelings and Activities. 418. Wean Yourself Off Drugs Slowly. .......... 45A final word ................................................ 49A selection of slides from the seminar*....... 51

This page isintentionally blank

Stress Management Series (7) Sleep and Insomnia

There is seldom a sleeper so sound thathe fails, when one position tires him, toassume another. Moreover, he guards

each movement so that he will not fall out ofbed. If he grows hot, he throws off the covers;if he grows cold, he draws them tighter, butalways leaves cunning passages betweencovers and the bed for ventilation. These areintelligent responses and choices, and yet wemake them while we sleep!

How do we know about sleep behaviour?In 1927 Zalmon G. Simmons, a mattress makerwho suffered from insomnia, began toseriously investigate how people normallyslept. He inspired Dr. Harry M. Johnson ofOhio State University to assist him in hissearch for the kind of mattresses to be

How do we know about sleep behaviour?

Stress Management Series (8) Sleep and Insomnia

designed for sound sleep. Studies by Dr. ErichGuttmann provided much of the understandingof sleep of that time. Guttmann was studying agroup of manic-depressive patients and foundthat they constantly tossed and turned in theirsleep. When I studied psychiatric nursing in the1970s we were required to study his classicarticle describing the tortured sleep of theinsane. Men of good conscience and soundmind, he assumed, slept as motionless as logs,and so still thought many in the medicalprofession even at that time.

In Dr. Harry M. Johnson’s classicexperiments in sleep motility, Johnson riggedup a bed with an automatic recording machinemechanically connected with the springs tochart every move the sleeper made in a night’srest. A concealed motion-picture camera, alsowired to the springs, photographed the sleeperin each of his changing positions. Theexperiments lasted six years, and gave Dr.Johnson some 2,500,000 measurements of the

Stress Management Series (9) Sleep and Insomnia

movements of his one hundred and sixtysubjects and about 20,000 photographs of thestrange postures they assumed in their sleep. Anormal sleeper, as Dr. Johnson had suspected,never slept long in the same position. Duringan eight-hour night, the average sleeperchanged his posture 35 times, rarely held onepose longer than five or ten minutes.

This nocturnal activity Dr. Johnson named“motility,” and he found that it alwaysaccompanied healthy sleep. The reason, hehypothesised, is that the muscular arrangementof the human body is so complex that thesleeper rarely succeeds in resting all hismuscles at once. As the muscles in oneposition grow tired, the sleeper moves, andallows these muscles their turn to relax.Complete relaxation, with the body limp allover as in a swoon, was so rare that Dr.Johnson found hardly a single instance of it.

There is a normal motility curve for eachsleeper, varying with the individual; some stir

Stress Management Series (10) Sleep and Insomnia

only 20 times a night, some as many as 60times. If the sleeper turns more than hisallotted number of times in a night (from pain,excitement, fever, constipation, hunger, orsurfeit in eating or drinking,) he getsinsufficient rest. But if he turns too seldom(from weariness, stupor, or maladjusted bedsand covers) he gets only partial rest and islikely to wake stiff and sore.

The sleep of children is violent and oftendisturbed; old people sleep more quietly thanchildren, though with frequent interruptions.Manual labourers rest for longer intervals thanbrain workers; women rest 30 per cent longerthan men.

Dr. Johnson also found that narrow bedsinterfered with the sleeper’s freedom ofmovement; that people who slept together indouble beds sometimes interfere with eachother’s movements. Linda Beck tells thisanecdote: “The bedtime rituals had extendedlonger than the allotted time, and three-year-

Stress Management Series (11) Sleep and Insomnia

old Kevin’s requests had gone beyond thesecond drink of water and more stories. Butmy husband and I were soon caught off guardwhen Kevin yelled from his room, “Can threepeople fit in a big bed?” When I answered yes,he said, “Okay, I’ll be right over.”

Dr. Johnson also found that for good sleepa bed should be neither too soft nor too hard.

An American physician, Dr. GlenvilleGiddings, carried on where Dr. Johnson leftoff. In the mountains near Atlanta, Georgia, atthe side of the Tallulah Falls Industrial School,he began to study the sleep of children. Twelvegirls and twelve boys, under the care of twonurses slept nightly for Dr. Giddings for anextended research period.

From 170,000 hours of spying on theirsleep, Dr. Giddings concluded that the mostpopular notions of the effects of various habitsand therapies on sleep are pure superstition.

Stress Management Series (12) Sleep and Insomnia

The things, he found, that make childrenmore restless at night are hot weather, heavymeals before bedtime, emotional disturbances(including toys at Christmas), and physicalpain. The things that have little or no effect onmotility are hard exercise before retiring,warm baths, cold baths, intensive study in theevening, almost all hot and cold beverages.

One thing that seemed to quiet the childrenand improve their rest, and that was warm milk(I suggest a reason for this later in thispublication). Dr. Giddings also made theinteresting discovery that, during an epidemic,he could predict the onset of disease severaldays in advance by the increased restlessness ofhis children.

To help in our understanding of sleep,many studies have shown that when you fallasleep certain specific things happen. You fallinto a state of comparative unconsciousness.Your eyeballs roll upward and out-ward; thepupils contract. Your reflex muscular

Stress Management Series (13) Sleep and Insomnia

responses (such as the famous knee jerk)diminish or disappear. You breathe more inyour chest (thoracic breathing) and less in yourbelly (abdominal breathing). Your bloodpressure falls, your heart beats more slowly.Some of your bodily secretions diminish, suchas the urine, and mucus from the glands of thenose. Your blood becomes less alkaline.

These, I would suggest, are the phenomenathat accompany the process of building uptissue; they are the charging of the battery ofthe human vehicle, so that it may once moredischarge.

Sleep is God’s natural gift for thereplenishment of our body, and using thisinformation we can now develop a régime forsleeping better.

Stress Management Series (14) Sleep and Insomnia

This page isintentionally blank

Stress Management Series (15) Sleep and Insomnia

1. Monitor Your Sleeping.

Men cannot do without sleep. Thelongest period of authenticwakefulness on record is 231 hours

(not quite 10 days) achieved under laboratoryconditions. So start to record in a journal adiary of your sleeping habits and patterns andnote any difficulties you may have in going toor staying asleep. Ask your spouse tocontribute with observations that he or she hasmade.

Karen Wingate in the Coldwater (Kansas)Christian Reader said, “I was having asleepless night - an evening cup of coffee, myhusband’s abnormally loud snoring, and details

Stress Management Series (16) Sleep and Insomnia

about an upcoming trip were keeping mehopelessly awake. Even after I slipped into theguest bedroom, I still had trouble. Finally, at3:15 a.m., I crawled back into my own bed,next to a now half-awake husband. ‘Honey, Ican’t sleep,’ I whispered. ‘I start to drift off andeven dream, but then I wake up with a jerk.’‘Wait a minute,’ my husband said, now fullyawake. ‘I am not a jerk!’)

Then using this information, try to workout possible reasons for your sleepingdifficulty - reading through this wholemanuscript may give you information aboutpossible bad bedtime habits. Is it possible thatyour sleep could be disturbed by a physicalproblem, like sleep apnea (difficulty breathingand sleeping at the same time), narcolepsy(excessive daytime sleepiness), musculartwitching, or pain that may need some form ofmedical attention?

Is snoring keeping you awake or does yourpartner exclaim, “Pardon me, but your sleep is

Stress Management Series (17) Sleep and Insomnia

showing.”? Anthony Burgess in Inside MrEnderby, said, “Laugh and the world laughswith you, snore and you sleep alone.”

Shakespeare said in Hamlet, “Thou dostsnore distinctly. There’s meaning in thysnores.”

And Mark Twain in Tom Sawyer Abroadwrote, “There ain’t no way to find out why asnorer can’t hear himself snore.”

If you or your partner snores, seek medicaladvice. Snoring may be related to obesity,allergies, bad sleeping habits, poor muscletone or a myriad of other reasons.

It may be interesting to ponder uponMelvin Switzer, an overweight British dock-worker who trumpeted his way into theGuinness Book of World Records with a snorewhich registered at eighty-eight decibels andcause his wife to become deaf in one ear.(That’s as loud as a motorcycle revving at full

Stress Management Series (18) Sleep and Insomnia

throttle!)

Have you got into lazy or inappropriatesleeping habits, like irregular hours, or usingyour bed while you watch TV (Richard Fostersaid, “Too many of us allow the late news todictate what we think about when we go tobed” - Leadership, Vol. 3, no. 1).

Or maybe using your bed as somewhere todo tomorrow’s planning or to do yourworrying? Chronic worriers don’t have moreserious problems than other people - they justthink that they do and then fret about it.

Dale Carnegie (1888-1955) said, “It’s theworry that gets you, not the loss of sleep”

Many worriers try to cope by trying not tothink about their problems, but this just makesthings worse.

Chronic worriers feel less anxious if theyactually budget for and spend an half-hour a

Stress Management Series (19) Sleep and Insomnia

day each morning thinking specifically abouttheir problems. Albius Tibullus (C. 55-C. 19B.C.) saw the relationship between worry andinsomnia when he said, “Sleep vanishes beforethe house of care”.

An old saying I learnt as a child reminds usthat “Night is the mother of thoughts, yet hethat contemplates on his bed has a day withouta night.”

Are you consuming too much caffeine oralcohol during the day, especially close tobedtime? What about your intake of sugar,spices, and salt? Large meals are better takenearlier in the day - someone has well said, eatbreakfast like a king, lunch like a prince anddinner like a pauper.

By identifying the nature and possiblecauses of your sleeping problem, you will havethe tools to help you to choose which of thefollowing other seven suggestions may be ofhelp to you.

Stress Management Series (20) Sleep and Insomnia

This page isintentionally blank

Stress Management Series (21) Sleep and Insomnia

2. Make up a Contractwith Yourself.

Sticking to a good sleep régime is noteasy. You may find it helpful to writeyourself a contract as a motivator. Our

patterns of sleeping become a habit. Let’s lookat that word HABIT for a moment. HABIT ismade up of five letters. H, A, B, I, and T. If wetake the H away, we still have a bit left (ABIT).If we take the A away we still have a BIT left.And even if we take the B out of our HABIT,we still have IT left. You see, IT is still there!

Even after all our attempts to eat it away.Habits take more than willpower to change.They require a choice to change, a plan to

Stress Management Series (22) Sleep and Insomnia

effect the change, and then the determinationto stick to the plan.

It is not our purpose to fight the habit. If we trythat we will become disheartened and possiblygive up. It is our purpose to simply replace thebad habits with good ones.

And when we are giving up some things wehave enjoyed, we need to be clear what wehave to gain. Setting a contract can help usclarify the gain and motivate us to worktoward it.

Montgomery & Evans in You and Stress,suggest the following standard contract. Fill inthe blank spaces to suit yourself: your rewardsand penalties should be big enough to be a realincentive, but not so big that it isn’t practicalto enforce your contract on yourself. It can behelpful to write the contract out and put it upon a wall, say in your bedroom, as a reminderof what you are going to do to solve yoursleeping problem.

Stress Management Series (23) Sleep and Insomnia

My Sleep Contract

I (your name) promise myself that, foreach week that I stick to my good sleepingrégime, I will reward myself with (fill in youridea of a suitable reward, such as a record, orsmall piece of clothing, or cash towards alarge reward later).

Any week that I don’t stick to my régime,my penalty will be (fill in your idea of asuitable penalty, such as an unpleasant chore,or a cash gift to your least favourite charity).

I recognise that this contract is a way ofhelping myself achieve a goal I have setmyself so, if I break it, only I lose.

Signed, dated, witnessed

(You sign, then it can be supportive to get yourspouse or a friend to hold your contract).

A form for you to use is on the next page.

Stress Management Series (24) Sleep and Insomnia

My Sleep Contract

I ___________________

promise myself that, for each week that Istick to my good sleeping régime, I willreward myself with

__________________________________

Any week that I don’t stick to my régime,my penalty will be

__________________________________

I recognise that this contract is a way ofhelping myself achieve a goal I have setmyself so, if I break it, only I lose.

Signed ___________________

Dated ___________________

Witnessed ___________________

Stress Management Series (25) Sleep and Insomnia

3. Learn To Relax.

We tire ourselves in the pursuit ofrest. Physical relaxation is a usefulcomponent in better sleeping s,

because it helps in the transition fromwakefulness to sleep. It is also a practicalcomponent of sensible strategies in a régimefor coping with not falling asleep readily. Youcan even use a Roads to Relaxation™ videoprior to sleeping to help you to relax. Thesevideos are specifically designed to initiate theRelaxation Response.

Boston cardiologist Dr. Herbert Benson ofthe New England Deaconess Hospital firstcoined the term relaxation response, by which

Stress Management Series (26) Sleep and Insomnia

he meant the physiological change in ourbodies that occurs when we alter the state ofour consciousness through non-drug means.Benson’s original quest, which turned out tobe successful, was to find a way to helpvictims of heart disease without risking sideeffects.

The physical changes that he found duringpatients’ relaxed states included such easilymeasurable parameters as a lowering of heartand breathing rates, a lowering of arterialblood lactate concentration (a measure of theend products of metabolism in the muscles),and even a lowering of blood pressure.Relaxation can help the body’s immunemechanisms improve, with measurablyincreased levels of killer “T” white blood cellsin the bloodstream.

The relaxation response is quite distinctfrom actual sleep, and is best described as awakeful hypometabolic state. The relaxationresponse produces low-end alpha and high

Stress Management Series (27) Sleep and Insomnia

theta waves.

The relaxation response helps elevatecirculating levels of endorphine, making paintolerance much greater. This explains whyheadaches can often be aborted in their earlystages by relaxation techniques.

According to Paul Hanson in Stress forSuccess, the relaxation response demonstratesour physiological power to counteract ourbodies’ negative, inappropriate responses tostress.

This power is so profound that it can offerlifesaving benefits to post-heart-attack victimsand, even more importantly, to pre-heart-attackvictims.

Stress Management Series (28) Sleep and Insomnia

This page isintentionally blank

Stress Management Series (29) Sleep and Insomnia

4. Use Sensible Self-Talk.

What will happen if you start to fillyour mind with upsetting thoughtsabout how bad your sleeping

problem is or how rotten you are going to feelthe next day? You will find yourself lying inbed and not able to go to sleep (or to go backto sleep) as readily as you would like. Here issome sensible self-talk to learn off by heartand then practise in your mind (it comes fromMontgomery & Evans in You and Stress):

‘It is disappointing that I am not easily ableto sleep now, but I can cope with feelingdisappointed. So, I won’t pretend I’m notdisappointed, but I also won’t exaggerate my

Stress Management Series (30) Sleep and Insomnia

disappointment and arouse myself more bydwelling on negative thoughts.

Lying here relaxed is nearly as refreshingas being asleep. So, I will concentrate onrelaxing myself physically, and then I willoccupy my mind with pleasant and restfulthoughts and images.

Repeat this self-talk to yourself when youneed it, and practice relaxing yourself andconcentrating on pleasant and restful thoughts.Life’s Little Instruction Book, Volume II fromthe Rutledge Hill Press suggests, “Make ahabit of reading something inspiring andcheerful just before going to sleep.”

Another sensible type of talking that is notself-talk is prayer. An anonymous writersuggested, “If you can’t sleep, don’t countsheep, talk to the Shepherd.”

Handing the burdens of the day over toGod, talking to Him about the troubles of your

Stress Management Series (31) Sleep and Insomnia

heart, seeking his forgiveness for waywardnessof your life, believing he does forgive and thentaking the time to thank Him for all his giftswill give you a sweet inner peace to helppromote the most peaceful sleep.

Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682) said thatsleep is “so like death. I dare not trust itwithout my prayers.”

Stress Management Series (32) Sleep and Insomnia

This page isintentionally blank

Stress Management Series (33) Sleep and Insomnia

5. Try Non-Expectational Sex

Now you won’t find the expression“Non-expectational Sex” in thetextbooks, as this is a term I have

coined to describe a particular range ofpurposeful sexual activities.

Non-expectational Sex is a sexual sharing(with your marriage partner only, of course)with no expectations from either in regard tocompleting it as an activity.

It may include hugging and holding, cuddlingand caressing, or whatever else you bothdesire.

Stress Management Series (34) Sleep and Insomnia

Non-expectational Sex is a relaxant forsome and a stimulant for others. Be aware howyou each will respond and adapt accordingly.Non-expectational Sex means that neither willbe bothered if the other person falls asleep.And if you do feel a trifle neglected, it can befun kissing and making up in the morning.

Relaxing massage of the back, feet,forehead or arms in downward caresses orgentle stroking of your spouse’s hair is atremendous aid to relaxation for some.

Mark and Chrissy Donnelly in JackCanfield’s Chicken Soup for the Couple’sSoul suggest, “Give loving massages with nostrings attached, … never go to bed mad, kisseach other goodnight, (and) sleep like spoons.

Stress Management Series (35) Sleep and Insomnia

6. Establish a Pattern of Good Sleeping Habits.

Check out your environment. You mayneed a quiet room, but not too quiet ifyou are used to the sounds of traffic,

clocks, etc. Is your bed comfortable?

Thomas Hood (1799-1845) said, “O bed!O bed! Delicious bed! That heaven upon earthto the weary head.”

Is the room ventilated but neither too hotnor too cold? The best temperature for mostpeople is between 60-70 degrees Fahrenheit(15-22 degrees Centigrade).

Stress Management Series (36) Sleep and Insomnia

Is the bedroom darkened but not “pitch”black? Would a soft fabric (domino) face maskhelp?

Are your feet and head warm? Don’t letfashion shy you away from bed-socks andnight-cap if they will help you to sleep.

Are the colours in your bedroomconducive to sleep. Cool pastel hues are morerelaxing than vibrant, brilliant colours - savethe bright colours for your office to keep youawake!

Is your computer or your TV in thebedroom to draw your thoughts away fromsleeping? A computer in the bedroom can putyour body into screensaver mode during theday and turbo mode during the night.

Are there visually stimulating posters orpictures on the bedroom walls - ocean wavesare more relaxing than warhorses.

Stress Management Series (37) Sleep and Insomnia

In the spirit of the old, “Early to bed, earlyto rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, andwise”, A. Wolfsen in Healing by God’sNatural Methods, says “One hour of sleepbefore midnight is worth four hours of sleepafter midnight. One hour of work early in themorning is worth four hours of work beforemidnight.”

I believe that your deepest, most refreshingsleep should come within the first two hoursor so after you retire. From that time on untilyou wake up in the morning, you are gettingsteadily smaller returns in rest from the hoursyou lie in bed.

Sleep is as fluid as a pool of water and themind sinks and rises, drifts and hovers in it,often near the surface.

If you are a shift worker, see if you canarrange not to change your shift times toooften because the idea here is to try to go tobed and to get up at approximately the same

Stress Management Series (38) Sleep and Insomnia

times each day. By making sure that these twotimes allow for a reasonable amount of sleepyou can then make slight variations in thetimes according to your daily needs.

Our needs for sleep differ as we growolder. New-born babies sleep up to eighteenhours a day. This usually is reduced to aboutten hours by age ten.

Adults usually need seven to eight hours,although five to ten is still quite normal.Efficient sleep is a more valuable measurethan duration.

One scientist facetiously suggested that theexact amount of sleep we require is …”fiveminutes MORE!”

An Italian proverb suggests, “Five hours ofsleep a traveller, seven a scholar, eight amerchant, and eleven every knave.”

It will be helpful if you can avoid frequent

Stress Management Series (39) Sleep and Insomnia

or marked changes to your waking andsleeping times. At a specific point in the day,an individual will usually come to expectsleep. His blood content is changed, hissquandering of energy falters, the tear glandscease to secrete water and his eyes become hotand dry (when the tear glands no longerlubricate your eyes, you want to close them;and when you close them, you are likely todesire sleep.)

If, at your regular bedtime you find thatyou aren’t at all sleepy, then delay going to beduntil you feel drowsy.

Similarly, if you are in bed, and youhaven’t gone to sleep within thirty minutes(after using sensible self-talk and relaxation),then get up out of bed and go into a differentroom.

Do something relaxing, like reading, untilyou do feel drowsy.

Stress Management Series (40) Sleep and Insomnia

A cool shower can be invigorating andstimulating so take one when you wake up inthe morning and a long warm bath can berelaxing so take one before you sleep (if thebath is too hot or too cold it becomes astimulant).

Don’t use your bed for reading orwatching horror stories or other arousingactivities. Avoid using your bed for eating anddrinking. Also, avoid caffeine or alcoholdrinks just before going to bed.

Smoking in bed is a one-hundred-percentno-no, as the ashes that fall on the floor maybe your own. Although the act of smoking maybe relaxing the nicotine acts as a stimulantwhen it reaches your bloodstream.

These procedures of behaviour change canbe very difficult and unfortunately, like allhabits, bad sleep habits are difficult, at least atfirst, to change. But in time you willappreciate the effort.

Stress Management Series (41) Sleep and Insomnia

7. Manage DaytimeFeelings and Activities.

Recognise that stress is a killer. A lifefilled with stress can really wreakhavoc on your body causing a number

of illnesses such as heart attacks, strokes,asthma, gastric problems, menstrual disorders,ulcerative colitis, angina, irritable colon,increased blood pressure, ulcers, headaches,and sleep disturbance.

There are different types of stress such asmental, emotional and physical. Emotionalstress seems to take the greatest toll oneveryone.

Not all stress is bad; in fact, life would not

Stress Management Series (42) Sleep and Insomnia

be very interesting if it were not met withchallenges. However, too much stress, toooften with no effective and appropriate outlet,does not allow the body and soul torecuperate.

You might review a typical week to see ifyou can identify things that might be makingyou anxious or causing you stress. Onceidentified, stressors can be attacked andeliminated.

If depression, anger, conflict, anxiety,tension or stresses during the day are settingyou up for difficulty sleeping at night thenlearn how to manage those bad feelings better.

We have seminars to cover these topics -check out our website: www.lrhartley.com

Many pages on this site contain additioalfree resources..

If you find that you have trouble sleeping

Stress Management Series (43) Sleep and Insomnia

during the night, don’t try to make up for it bysleeping in the next morning or taking napsduring the day.

Get up at your usual time, and save yourbody’s sleep needs for the next night.Prolonged wakefulness, unless it is carried tosuch an extreme that exhaustion and deathfollow, has no permanently harmful effect onthe body.

You cannot “make up for lost sleep,” aslaymen like to think, by sleeping longer whenyou finally get to bed; even after three or fourdays without rest, a single night’s sleep willrestore you so far as you can be restored. Yourefficiency may be slightly impaired for as longas two weeks afterward, but no longer. Andmore sleep than usual will not reduce thatimpairment.

Get plenty of exercise during the day.People who are physically fit look good andfeel good.

Stress Management Series (44) Sleep and Insomnia

A good exercise regimen will lengthenyour life, improve your appearance, build self-confidence, possibly delay the ageing process,and help promote restful sleep.

Walking is one of the best exercises forstrengthening bones, controlling weight,toning the leg muscles, maintaining goodposture and improving positive self-concept.

Honest manual labour can be a great sleepinducer, as Ecclesiastes 5:12 says, “The sleepof a labouring man is sweet…”.

However balance is required, as fatiguedoesn’t bring on sleep, for abnormal fatigueproduces abnormal nocturnal motility, despitethe words of Benjamin Franklin, “Fatigue isthe best pillow”.

Stress Management Series (45) Sleep and Insomnia

8. Wean YourselfOff Drugs Slowly.

Sleeping tablets may make you feelmuddle-headed next day, although somepreparations are better than others in

this respect. Most of them cause a reduction inthe amount of rapid eye movement (REM)sleep, in which dreams occur, and this is notnecessarily a good thing. It is widely believedthat fears and conflicts are acted out duringdreams, providing a natural safety valve foranxiety.

When people stop taking sleeping pills, theyexperience extra REM sleep, almost as if theyare trying to make up for the amount lost.

Stress Management Series (46) Sleep and Insomnia

Natural sleep without pills is the best way ofrestoring health to your psyche.

If you do take medication for sleeping it isbetter to have pills for this purpose prescribedby your doctor, who knows what type you willbe suited to, than to buy them directly over thecounter.

If you have been using sleepingmedications (or any other drugs), and you nowwant to stop using them, first discuss it withyour doctor, then reduce your use of the drugsgradually to minimise the discomfort ofwithdrawal.

Don’t be surprised if you get temporaryunpleasant side effects if you are cutting out orreducing sleeping medications. Recognise that,although these side effects are genuinelyunpleasant, they are only temporary and resultfrom the withdrawal of the drugs and the sideeffects are not a part of your sleeping problem.

Stress Management Series (47) Sleep and Insomnia

Non-drug sleep inducers are some of thesuggestions above and also herbal teas likecamomile.

According to Jethro Kloss in Back toEden, sleep is aided by the use of herbs such ashops, motherwort, mullein, vervain, skullcapor peppermint. He also suggests consuming aconcoction of equal parts of skullcap, nerveroot, hops, catnip, and black cohosh.

I would suggest that shortly beforebedtime you try drinking a warm (plain orflavoured) milk drink, which can help you tofeel sleepy. This is because milk actuallycontains, in addition to simple sugars, anamino acid (called L-tryptophan) whichrapidly reaches the brain and increases theproduction of serotonin which helps topromotes natural sleep.

(Our website www.lrhartley.com/sleepcontains information on non-dairy sources ofL-tryptophan)

Stress Management Series (48) Sleep and Insomnia

It may also help to then empty your bladderbefore retiring to bed.

Stress Management Series (49) Sleep and Insomnia

And finally...

A word from Oswald Chambers (1874-1917), who said:

“Sleep recreates. ... Sleep is God’s celestialnurse who croons away our consciousness,and God deals with the unconscious life of thesoul in places where only he and his angelshave charge. As you retire to rest, give yoursoul and God a time together, and commityour life to God with a conscious peace for thehours of sleep, and deep and profounddevelopments will go on in spirit, soul, andbody by the kind creating hand of our God.”

Stress Management Series (50) Sleep and Insomnia

This page isintentionally blank

top related