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.

For those of you on the east coast of the United States, the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health in Stockbridge, Massachusetts offers a wide assortment of classes and community to relax your mind, soul and body.

And even if you’re not an the east coast, Kripalu is an amazing destination or those looking for a retreat.

I visited Kripalu nearing 25 years ago, during a very stressful time in my career. A co-worker urged me to join her for a day-long retreat, including yoga, exercise and meals at the center. Reluctantly, I joined her, only to be refreshed and revived by a day of fantastic yoga, energizing exercise classes and silent mealtime.

Shortly after that visit, I left the area for Atlanta, Georgia and my life has taken me far from the realm of the Berkshires. But I’m planning a visit home, and my thoughts have wandered back to the simplicity of Kripalu.

Sign up for a catalog, check it out online. You can even enjoy a “Yoga Break” right then and there.

Janet Muniz

Photo Credit: mriggen

There’s an empathizing article in the May/June issue of Spirituality & Health about why we sleep. Written by Jill Neimark, a writer who contributes the Open Mind, Open Heart column to the magazine, the article documents her first-ever bout with insomnia and what she learned while dealing with it.

One of the things she says: “If you can’t sleep, you look for someone or something to blame.” Jill targeted her boyfriend and her bed, of all things. She devotes an entire page to the anatomy of her bed.

This fascinates me.

She ends up with a wool-filled futon covered by an organic cotton cover by Surround Ewe Sleep Systems. She added a wool felt from Shepherd’s Dream.

Her new bed definitely helps her resume her normal good night’s rest. But after her seven-month ordeal with sleeplessness, her revelations about what we need to know about sleep are perceptive and profound.

Spirituality & Health just recently upgraded its website, so I hope this article is available online soon. If not, consider subscribing to it, or at least to their new newsletter (upper right-hand corner of the home page).

I look forward to reading every issue, whether I’m sleepless or not.

Janet Muniz

Photo Credit: jayceh

Retirement Living TV has a new and original primetime television series called Whole Body Health. Premiering April 29, the show explores alternative, holistic healthcare treatments and ancient healing practices with the help of medical experts.

The premiere show explores the history of yoga, and it moves on to a variety of therapies in complementary, alternative and integrative medicine. Host Dr. Kevin Soden experiences many of these treatments first-hand; his immediate reactions can help users get a feel for how each one cold help you.

Whole Body Health is a companion series to RLTV’s Healthline, a show that shows users how to take better control of their healthcare.

The whole philosophy here is that the more healthy you are, the more you’re like to enjoy your life.

Which could translate into a better night’s sleep, too.

Janet Muniz

Photo Credit: hoyasmeg

Dr. Mercola runs the Natural Health Center in Hoffman Estates, IL. He offers 33 Secrets to a Good Night’s Sleep, a plethora of practical suggestions for getting past common obstacles to healthy rest.

If you’ve ever had trouble sleeping, you’ve probably heard some of these secrets before. Yet Dr. Mercola is currently recommending something called Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). Described as “psychological acupressure,” it works much like traditional acupuncture treats physical ailments, but without the needles.

I’ve been working with practitioners of these types of alternative treatments, like Dr. George Pratt, Erika Barrantes, Kris Kirkbride and others in developing informational materials to share with potential patients—and other practitioners—that help with healing through the emotions. Fascinating stuff.

It’s a little like The Secret meets What the Bleep Do We Know? meets traditional western medicine. Perhaps more.

These days, our stress levels may be on high alert. Indeed, life in the United States and around the world has gotten much more challenging in the past eight months, even longer. What do you have to lose by opening up to potentially powerful –if not unorthodox—tools to help navigate through hard times?

Here’s the other benefit: you may actually get a good night’s sleep in the process.

Janet Muniz

Photo Credit: Jacob Bøtter

If you’re a light sensitive sleeper, one of our readers suggests this no-drug “assistant” for restful sleep: Blackout curtains.

This solution is great for those who live in areas of the world where the spring and summer days a long, like in the northwestern part of the United States. Not to mention photographers.

For instance, my husband keeps a very early work schedule, rising at 4:00 A.M. He needs to get to bed about 8:00 P.M. and the spring and summer sun is still shining then in Idaho (he’s a photographer, too).

For those who travel check out portable blackout curtains.

Not only can blackout curtains help with sleep schedules, they have that environmentally-friendly cache many consumers are looking for these days. They can help you save on your heating and cooling bills.

I think they call that multi-tasking.

Janet Muniz

Photo Credit: Anderson Mancini

Mother Earth has a transition thing going on right now, and it may be affecting your good sleep.

Yep, it’s springtime. Re-birth. Day after day of weather extremes. Night after night of heat-on, heat-off, windows left open then closed tight, covers on, covers off. Perhaps the pajamas need to come off when laying your head to rest, only to need them in the wee hours of the morning when the outside temperature dips 30 degrees.

Not only that, you are probably enjoying spring’s days, too—getting out there, riding bikes, doing yard work, dusting the cobwebs off your fishing pole or hiking gear. Working up a sweat? For the first time since last fall?

It’s all about temperature, folks. And it’s a good time to pay attention to what your ideal temperature for a good night’s rest is, since Mother Nature is giving you so many options.

Janet Muniz

Photo Credit: kudumomo

Do you sleep alone or with a partner? Remember—this includes pets, and pillows!

I sleep with three other beings: my husband and my two cats. Yes, four of us share a king-sized bed with three pillows.

Please, somebody make a bed bigger than a king!

Sleeping alone lets a person move and position the body at will. There’s always room to toss, turn or stay still.

Sleeping with bedtime partners usually means you’re sharing space. Believe me, space is premium with kitties: the space right next to you, the space between humans; under the covers, on top of you—I experience it all. My human partner pretty much keeps to his own space—he is a very light sleeper. Even the sound of the cats purring can bother him. He’s prone to insomnia, too. He’s the one who uses the extra pillow—when our boy-cat isn’t already using it.

With his own sleep issues, it’s no wonder that is it my husband who alerted me to my sleep apnea. Totally freaked him out that I stop breathing during sleep.

I’m just lucky the sound of the CPAP machine doesn’t keep him awake. The kitties—they’re O.K. with it, too.

How do these circumstances affect the quality of my sleep? I need to be forceful sometimes with the cats. Their little bodies can constrict my space so much that I have trouble moving freely.

At first, I didn’t want to disturb them, so I’d contort in all these crazy ways to avoid it. Now, I make the kitties move out of the way of my restful sleep.

That’s working out pretty well, actually.

Janet Muniz

Photo Credit: soundfromwayout

Jan Sadler, author of “Peaceful Sleep,” is now offering a new edition of the book called “A Good Night’s Sleep.” For those interested in a drug-free solution to getting some shut-eye, this book helps you learn how to use visualization, breathwork, and meditation to break your pattern of insomnia.

The book’s description says it “explains how to retrain the body to sleep solidly,” whatever that means, and offers an audio CD of guided visualizations and relation techniques that you can use to promote healthy sleep. You can even sample this audio program online if you’d like.

I’ve had much success with audio meditation tapes at bedtime because the combination of soothing music and breathing technique calms the mind enough to create and inner environment for sleep to come naturally, with no stress. And no drugs. Check it out.

Inner Traditions and Bear & Company is a publishing house offering a plethora of publications ranging in subject matter from art to philosophy, sexuality to healing, ethnic music to mediation and more. If you can’t sleep, perhaps you can read one of their books!

Janet Muniz

(photo credit: just.luc)

It’s a brain imbalance. That’s what a recent study concludes about why some adults suffer from primary insomnia, meaning that the insomnia is the patient’s primary complaint.

Insomniacs suffering for at least six months have 30 percent less gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), a chemical that slows overall activity in many brain areas, the report says. Other may call it a “racing mind.” They say approximately a quarter of people with insomnia suffer from primary insomnia. Lower brain GABA levels also have been found in people with major depressive disorder (MDD) and anxiety disorders.

So if you can’t sleep because your mind can’t slow down at bedtime, and your insomnia isn’t related to the medications you’re taking, or other conditions, you may have primary insomnia. And the best way to find out it to see your doctor.

Janet Muniz

(photo credit: brendanlim)