No matter how excruciating insomnia may be, not everyone loves and can take a magic pill if suddenly “a dark night cannot sleep.” The reasons for refusing medication can be very diverse: from the banal “I don’t want” to individual intolerance or pregnancy. It doesn’t matter why you don’t want to take a drug to help you sleep. The important thing is that you can beat insomnia without pills. How to quickly fall asleep with insomnia without medication – we’ll talk about this today.
Good afternoon, dear reader!
From the first lines I want to express my deepest respect to you, for the desire to overcome insomnia only on your own, without the help of medicines, is very, very commendable.
Where to begin? First of all, I propose to determine the cause of insomnia in order to know which targets to hit the enemy on.
Insomnia causes
Strong emotional experiences
Very often, stress becomes a trigger for the development of sleep disorders. In the beginning, a person who has experienced extreme stress begins to have trouble falling asleep. He tosses and turns in bed for a long time, scrolls through the events of the past day in his thoughts, “finishes” conversations.
If stressful situations persist, then over time negative experiences accumulate, creating a constant source of negative reflections.
To get rid of sleep disorders, you will have to, among other things, work on the purity of your thoughts, do the so-called mental hygiene.
The starting point for this work can be my webinar “How to deal with stress, turning it from a monster to a helper.”
Emotional Disorders
Similar disorders can be with mental disorders and borderline personality states. Chronic insomnia often accompanies these disorders.
In addition to insomnia with emotional disorders, a person has the following symptoms:
- Low self-esteem;
- The prevalence of bad mood over good;
- Reacts too emotionally to ordinary life events, often dramatizes everyday situations;
- May act rashly under the influence of strong emotions;
- Not able to control himself at the moment of vivid emotional reactions.
To help you better understand what to do in case of emotional disorders, I have recorded an online training on the specifics of the treatment of emotional disorders. This training is the result of thirty years of my work as a body psychotherapist. During the training, you will be able to learn effective techniques for improving your emotional state, improve your sleep, and improve your quality of life.
Somatic diseases
Often with diseases of the endocrine system, neurological pathologies, insomnia can become a constant companion of a person. For example, with diseases of the thyroid gland, a person during a night’s rest may have bouts of palpitations, excessive sweating, a feeling of shortness of breath. Because of this, sleep becomes torn, a person often wakes up in sweat with a feeling of intense anxiety.
In the presence of somatic diseases, treatment of the underlying disease is important. But this does not mean that nothing can be done about insomnia.
In this case, body relaxation techniques will help to get rid of insomnia.
Thanks to them, you can make it easier to fall asleep and increase the amount of slow sleep during the night rest. And the quality of slow sleep also affects immunity, and the body’s fight against inflammation, and the aging process of organs and systems.
Sometimes, with somatic diseases, pain prevents you from falling asleep, and in this case you cannot cope without painkillers. There are, of course, yogic techniques that allow you to remove pain as well, but you will not be able to master them just by reading an article.
Bad habits
For many years, alcohol has been considered a way of relaxation, but this property is more than contrived.
Indeed, with the help of alcohol, many try to solve their problems and get some relief for a few hours. But then reckoning comes, which just turns into a high level of anxiety, sleep disturbances, and an unstable emotional state.
Smoking also does not promote good sleep.
In this case, before starting the process of restoring sleep, you need to get rid of bad habits.
How to quickly fall asleep with insomnia without medication? Practical advice
If you have insomnia, there are several ways to sleep soundly without medication. Today I will tell you about these methods and techniques. Not necessarily any of them will work for you.
But, having tried each, you will surely find something that will help you fall asleep quickly.
Monotonous repetition technique
First you need to breathe a little calmly. This can be done using a variety of breathing techniques. You can breathe in any way convenient for you, the most important thing is that the exhalation is about twice as long as the inhalation.
- Count to yourself as you breathe. For example, if you inhale in four counts, then exhale in eight. Or inhale in three counts, so exhale six.
- After you have done several breathing cycles, continue to breathe in the same rhythm, but now repeat the short command “Sleep!” on exhalation.
Do you think this is too easy? Just try it and the result will not be long in coming.
Technique of alternating tension and relaxation
- Already lying in bed, you need to start relaxing with your legs and gradually lead it higher and higher. To do this, you first strain your feet, hold the tension for about 5-10 seconds. Then you drop the tension abruptly. If this exercise is done correctly, then after a sharp relaxation you will feel pleasant fatigue and relaxation.
- After you have relieved tension from the feet, move up to the calf muscles. Tighten them, and hold the tension for 5-10 seconds in the same way. Dump the tension as well.
- Using the same technique, tighten and relax the muscles of the thighs, abdomen, and pectoral muscles. Then go to your hands. To tighten your arms, they must be tightly clenched into fists. Squeeze them so that the arm is fully tense up to the shoulder. When you release tension, throw your shoulders back.
- After relaxing the whole body, it is the turn of the facial muscles. To do this, you need to make an “evil” face. Tighten him as if you are very angry. Hold this tension for 5-10 seconds and also drop it sharply.
Usually, those who practice this exercise often fall asleep quickly enough. Faster than you can reach your upper body.
True, it will not protect you from frequent awakenings at night. There are other techniques to remedy this situation.
Visualization
Many children unknowingly use this method for sleep disorders. Falling asleep, they begin to plunge into the world of dreams.
Growing up, people stop dreaming and very much in vain. I would say that many adults are even afraid to dream.
A person always knows the answer: “Why is it impossible.” And that is why the dream no longer gives him pleasure and does not put him to sleep.
However, it is immersion in the most pleasant dreams or memories that can relax a person so much that he will not notice how he falls asleep.
Auxiliary methods
Using music to fall asleep
Of course, music itself is not a special technique, but under certain conditions it can help you relax and fall asleep.
There are several types of music that can help you fall asleep. The most effective is music with a hypnotic effect.
Her monotonous sounds help not only fall asleep, but also get rid of obsessive thoughts before bedtime.
Complete darkness in the bedroom
It is the absence of even weak light sources that makes your sleep truly sound and calm.
Even a weak night light interferes with the normal production of melatonin (sleep hormone) by your body.
This means that you will wake up not quite rested and feel sleepy during the daytime.
Relaxing massage
It’s not really a technique. But it is also a very effective method of falling asleep.
There are different types of massage. Relaxing will help you fall asleep.
Ideal if you have someone who can massage you. But in the absence of such, you can do with self-massage.
- During a relaxing massage, it is very important not to use tapping, pinching and other active effects on the skin. Only light strokes and the lightest touch on the skin with your fingertips. Such strokes are very calming and prepare the body for sleep.
- Foot massage also helps to fall asleep. If you are massaging your feet, then, on the contrary, light stroking is not needed here. On the contrary, the foot should be massaged as actively as possible, and soothing strokes should be applied only at the very end. It will be ideal if you do a contrast shower or a warm foot bath before the foot massage.
By the way, foot massage as a remedy for insomnia is very popular in Chinese medicine.
The fact that there are many on foot akpunkturnyh points, so it is believed that their “bursting” helps eliminate stagnant “energy qi ,” the most to eliminate the causes, preventing sleep.
In today’s article, I deliberately did not mention herbal teas , aromatherapy and other uses of plants for falling asleep. Although this is not a medicine, we agreed to use only the resources of our body.
All three techniques that I told you about are completely different. Each of the methods I have described is effective, the main thing is to do everything correctly.
Any of them does not require any special knowledge and is quite feasible at home.
Try them and something will suit you by all means.
I think in today’s article you have found the answer to the question: “How to quickly fall asleep with insomnia?”
And that’s all for today!
Subscribe to my blog, share information on social networks, like and write comments.
I wish you a good night’s sleep tonight.
Until next time!