Concealing insomnia

Under-eye concealers don’t work. How do I know? Because, mug that I am, I feel like I’ve tried every bloody single one of them and I still look like I need to rent a permanent space in the ‘excess baggage’ queue.

Why I won’t convert to clean sleeping

Nicole Mowbray’s article on ‘clean’ sleeping in last weekend’s Guardian magazine is worth a read by anyone of the insomniac variety. Not least for me, because it served as a reminder to keeping my sleep obsession in check. I say “sleep obsession”, but comparing myself with some of the individuals she interviewed, I feel like I’m doing ok.

How sleep science helped me

I’m eager to share this before it disappears from the iPlayer. Here is a lecture from Professor Russell Foster CBE on the importance of sleep. It was the opening lecture in the BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking series, which sounds like the kind of improving thing I should be listening to more.

Imagine you can’t imagine

Many of the relaxation aids I’ve tried (including Glenn Harrold’s hypnotherapy track featured in my last post) require some kind of visualisation. You know: “Picture some clouds in the sky”, “picture a deserted beach”, “picture a box, full of your troubles”, that kind of thing. My problem is, I just can’t.

Reasons to be grateful

When I thought about writing this blog I knew that I wanted it to be a positive thing. Not just somewhere I could offload how awful it is to be a member of the Wide Awake Club (no not THAT one, children of the 80s). Instead of wallowing in droopy-eyed gloom, I thought it’d be worth coming up with my own little gratitude list. My way of saying “actually insomnia, I owe you one”. Here are just five of my own reasons to be grateful in times of sleeplessness.

Making friends with insomnia

Warm milk, lavender oil, meditation, yoga, a bath before bed, writing lists, keeping a diary, exercising before bed, not exercising before bed, avoiding caffeine and booze, turning the phone off, opening the window, reading, going to bed at the same time, getting up at the same time, dropping the weekend lie-ins, herbal sleeping pills, medicated sleeping pills…