And jetlag crucifies me.ĭuring the day, I constantly felt that I was only firing on one cylinder without “sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleeve of care”’ I had serious brain fog. Siestas and sleeping on a plane? Don’t make me laugh. Highly sensitive to things going bump in the night, I rammed earplugs against my eardrums, especially when staying in hotels. Those 4am awakenings became ever more common, the chattering in my mind stopping me from dropping off again when I did, it was fitfully. I don’t struggle with dropping off – it’s staying asleep that’s the problem. My own insomnia began decades ago, starting before school exams, then progressing to the night before anything remotely stressful until it became part of every single night. Except, it seems, that we’re already awake – about a third of adults in Western countries have sleep problems at least once a week, according to NICE, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.Īdding insult to injury for true insomniacs are all those inane articles telling you how important it is to get your eight hours, then offering basic advice on sleep hygiene – winding down slowly, leaving your phone outside your bedroom, exercising, not drinking coffee after 4pm. It’s worrying enough to keep you awake at night. “As well as affecting your long and short-term memory, it can cause anxiety, depression and psychosis.” “There are also a variety of mental health implications if you don’t get as much sleep as you need,” says Dr Zoe Gotts, an insomnia specialist at the London Sleep Centre who has a doctorate in sleep psychology. Other studies have shown that a lack of sleep weakens the immune system, makes you more at risk of a heart attack or stroke and is linked to diabetes and obesity. Just last month, Harvard University research on more than 170,000 people concluded that regular, restful sleep can extend life expectancy by nearly five years for men and more than two years for women. I’m well aware of the health problems associated with not sleeping enough. I even had a 30-minute session of acupuncture and moxibustion (burning cones of dried leaves on acupuncture points) stretch to three hours because the therapist was so determined to make me fall asleep. I turned to alcohol as a sedative on the evenings I wasn’t sipping milky drinks, then gave it up when it caused broken nights. I’ve cut down on caffeine, sipped every herbal potion on the market, popped every type of pill and potion from ayurvedic remedies to melatonin, and have practised yoga and transcendental meditation in a bid to anaesthetise my hyperactive mind. I’ve experimented with hypnotherapy (total rubbish), kinesiology (ditto) and acupuncture (all that resulted in was a forgotten needle left in my head, which I discovered when on the Tube). I chalked the £3k retreat up as just another failed attempt to get a decent night’s shut-eye.
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