Insomniacs Are Taking Over the World
My title is a bit of an overreaction, but it feels like they are. At least it is a huge problem many Americans face every night. Insomnia does not affect me, but it affects my upstairs neighbor and she keeps me awake with her constant walking. Why she feels the need to walk all over her room and make a ton of noise at midnight, 1 am, 2 am, 3 am, 4 am and so on is not understandable. Once she told me if she is making too much noise to just hit on ceiling with a broom. Umm, shouldn’t you be considerate enough to know you are making a lot of noise and stop making it? As I said I do not suffer from insomnia so maybe her constant walking around makes her feel better. Yet, I don’t understand why she doesn’t just sit on her bed quietly reading a book or looking at her phone. She insists on walking around like a maniac, shuffling through her closet, and keeping me awake. Before she told me she was an insomniac I honestly thought she had some other problem, I was leaning towards demonic possession, so kind of a relief to find out it was only insomnia.
Insomnia affects older adults more than any other age group, and there is no cure. Usually people who suffer from insomnia developed it due to poor sleeping habits. They are unable to fall sleep, stay asleep, and when they do sleep they don’t wake up feeling like they had a good sleep. Since there is no cure many people just deal with it as best as they can. My upstairs neighbor apparently deals with it by rearranging her furniture every single night. This is not good for me since I love my sleep, and if you know anything about me then you know I need at least 8 hours of good sleep to feel well the during the day. So I have a huge problem with my upstairs neighbor disrupting my sleep, and making me feel like I am a borderline insomniac. I hope I never have to deal with full blown insomnia, but if I ever do I think I will have a few tricks to help me sleep. Every night I know I will have to deal with my neighbors sleep disrupting noise so I have made a nightly routine to help me fall asleep and stay asleep during the night. I should also share this info with her and maybe we can both have well rested nights.
Tea Tea Tea
Drink a small cup of your favorite herbal tea. Chamomile is one of my favorites since it is very soothing and it calms you down, but I prefer Sleepytime tea. It is caffeine free and it is made to relax you before bed. You can add some honey to make it even better. A lot of people don’t like to drink anything before bed because you wake up to use the bathroom more often, but I suggest trying one cup of tea a night and see how you feel. Besides if you are not sleeping at night then there is no problem in drinking liquids before bed. It is worth a try. For me it has been a great winding down routine before bed.
Put the Phone Down, Pick up a Book
This is where I really get confused about my neighbor making so much noise at night. If she can’t sleep then why would she get up and walking around in circles? (I am not kidding. It honestly seems like she just walks from one corner of her room to the other to the other, so I guess it would be more like she walks around in squares.) When trying to fall asleep the less you think about your day or your problems the easier it will be to fall asleep. Looking at your phone will not only keep your brain more awake because of the light shining on your eyes, but you will also be thinking about whatever you are looking at on your phone. These days the news on social media is very worrying, and personally I don’t need to think about that before bed. Reading a book will keep your mind occupied while your brain starts to wind down. You won’t be thinking about problems in the real world, and depending on the book you are reading you will travel to a more relaxing and happy place. I suggest reading poetry books or nice relaxing books to keep you calm. I usually take 15 to 30 minutes to read in bed before turning off the lights.
Music and Breathing
You drank your calming tea, did your 15 minutes of reading, the lights are off you are starting to doze off, and then BAM! You hear the footsteps on the ceiling alerting you that your upstairs neighbor is not going to let you fall asleep so easily. For me hearing those footsteps now gives me anxiety. Oh, the joys of living in an apartment. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind the noise, but during the day just not at night when I need my sleep. I had to adjust to the noise. For a while I tried to put ear plugs, but they were uncomfortable and just didn’t work for me. I decided I would try and fall asleep while listening to music and that has help a lot. I turn on my music after I finish my book, and let it play till I fall sleep. I don’t listen to anything heavy or with words so my mind can just stay relaxed. Along with the music I do breathing exercises. I did a bit of research on this and it has really helped me. Doing breathing exercises on a nightly bases will help you fall asleep more easily. There are many different techniques and advice on how to do it out there, but for insomnia this one from the Sleep Foundation Organization will really help. What works best for me is breathing in for five seconds, holding for five seconds, and then breathing out for five seconds. I repeat this for as long as I can. The music drowns out the noise from my neighbor, and the breathing relaxes me to the point where I just fall asleep without any worry.
These are my tips for either trying to fight insomnia or if like me you need to deal with an insomniac keeping you awake. I hope they help someone out there. If you suffer from insomnia or know someone who does and would like to share what has or hasn’t worked for them I would love to hear from you. I am not an expert so remember everything I wrote about I have tried and it has worked for me, so I wanted to share it!
