HealthTree Blog

I love to sleep. But if sleep loves me, it’s fickle. When I had chronic insomnia, sleep ran off around 3 a.m. most nights, doing who knows what. Meanwhile I rearranged pillows, wrote down troubles, tried a dozen cures, answered e-mails, or hoped to force sleep by aerobic resting.

Needless to say, nothing worked—until I learned to accept myself and my insomnia.

Instead of fighting insomnia, I looked at how to make use of those waking hours. Not “making use” in the usual productive ways: I was too tired to fold laundry or formulate spreadsheets. Instead I made use of the sleepless hours in the ways of the night, connecting to my body, dreaminess, and self-healing.

As I journeyed through ways to accept myself, I discovered the gift of how to accept insomnia. I learned that certain connections to my thoughts, emotions, environment, spirit, and body made me more awake—others led me to deep rest.

Night after night, I discovered how to mimic the benefits of sleep to greet the mornings refreshed. It’s true it was not as good as a full eight hours. But still, I was productive, alert, and could live with my insomnia. As friends and coaching clients wanted to know my secret, I began teaching classes in my program, Restful Insomnia™.

I learned about many types and causes of insomnia from my students, sleep doctors, and my own experience. And I developed many ways to change the suffering. They cover five basic areas:

1. Create a soothing night environment (i.e. creating a Night Nest™ of goodies by your bed)
2. Befriend the body (noticing how your physical sensations change)
3. Diminish the thinking mind (singing or humming to yourself to change thought patterns)
4. Release the hold of emotions (tapping on acupressure points— Energy Psychology—to release emotional charge)
5. Tap into the natural or spiritual self (noticing you’re part of and moved by something bigger than your mind)

Details and many other methods are in my book, Restful Insomnia: How to Get the Benefits of Sleep, Even When You Can’t (Conari Press, 2010), or on my website www.restfulinsomnia.com.

Do these ideas work for others? My students use them to create their path to soothing wakeful nights. As one lawyer said after one of my classes, “I learned a new perspective on sleep, so I can spend my awake time in a soothing, relaxed way—I’m actually getting the rest I need.”

Enjoy your nights!

This post was written by guest blogger Sondra Kornblatt. She is the author of, Restful Insomnia, and, A Better Brain at Any Age.