I'M DYING FOR SOME SLEEP… (Insomnia is a curse indeed)

“…O sleep, O gentle sleep,  

Nature's soft nurse, how have I frightened thee, 

That thou no more will weigh my eyelids down, 

 And steep my senses in forgetfulness?”   

― William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 2 

Insomnia is a curse indeed.  

Why do you sometimes toss and turn for hours, trying to adjust the pillow to make your neck feel more comfortable, but the coveted sleep just refuses to come? Your head is chock-full of erratic thoughts, plans, fears, and imaginary conversations.

You know that you must sleep, your miserable body craves rest, too - yet there’s no relief. Or, even worse, you go to bed, spend three hours blissfully sleeping, and then all of a sudden you are wide-awake again. It’s dark and gloomy outside; you badly need at least another couple of straight hours of sleep in bed, rather than intermittent dozing off at your workplace. Sounds familiar, right? 

 

Why on Earth? 

A few facts first.  You fall asleep because your brain complies with the order sent by the so-called reticular formation, a network of nerve cells in the brain stem. This system, in turn, receives signals from various groups of muscles and from the internal organs. If and when all these signals attenuate, the reticular formation instructs the brain to go to sleep. Conversely, messages of strain or distress make it keep the brain on the alert. Our subconscious mind knows how to cheat this mechanism by yawning and stretching neck and shoulder muscles to send signals to the reticular formation when we do not want to sleep. This instinct is inherent to adults, babies, and animals alike. 

Insomnia is a cruel joke played by the night on humans.  

                                      Victor Hugo 

Now imagine what happens if these muscles are so chronically overstrained that they keep bombarding your reticular formation with distress signals even as you are relaxing in bed. Right: you cannot fall asleep because both the reticular formation and your brain are overstimulated. You can calm them down by relaxing your face, jaw, and neck muscles (in this particular order) with the help of autogenic training. It works: just repeat slowly and monotonously (remember the alpha-rhythm?) something like “My forehead muscles are relaxing and getting heavier… my facial muscles… my neck muscles… my shoulders…” and so on.  

Alas, these soothing formulae do not help against chronic muscle spasms. For instance, I could never achieve relaxation and the blissful feeling of heaviness before my lower back and neck were “relieved” by manual therapy. The problem is that self-hypnosis cannot relax muscles that are “hanging” on a blocked joint.  They need to be mechanically stretched by exercise or, even better, by a professional who knows how to eliminate muscle spasms.  

Learn to fall asleep 

As a first step to good sleep, learn to relax your face and neck muscles, as well as those between the shoulder blades. Stiffen them when breathing in and relax them when breathing out.  

Insomnia is when you can’t sleep even when it’s high time to wake up.  

                                        Isaac Asimov 

There are two pretty simple ways of dealing with sleep problems. First, learn to relax your face and neck muscles as well as those between your shoulder blades. Try to stiffen them when breathing in, listen to their tense vibration, and relax them when breathing out, following their soft murmur as they are unwinding - as if swelling, warming up and getting heavier. Mark these changes in soft whisper (“warmer”, “heavier”). Next, your eyelids may be quite helpful. Rather than closing your eyes right away, let them stare into the darkness for a while until they start closing on their own. Shut them slowly and open again without hurry, trying to feel their growing weight. Repeat this exercise a few times, and the sweet yawning will come naturally, helping you to relax your facial muscles.  

The second remedy is to slow down your body rhythms.  Nothing can be simpler: just listen to your breath. It should be deep, smooth, and rhythmical. You may accompany your breathing with words (or thoughts) like “up-down” or “rise-fall”. This kind of monitoring seldom works the first time because of resistance from the subconscious mind that keeps imposing some “major life problems” on our brain as a distraction from concentrating on “senseless muttering.” Unfortunately, we have almost no power against the subconscious mechanisms of anxiety and aggression.

We are so bogged down in our own “underground” world that we are hardly aware of it unless we make an attempt to change something inside ourselves. Like any skill, this ability improves with experience. Even if you fail the first time, don’t despair. Try doing the “conscious breathing” exercise two or three times a day, two or three minutes each time for at least a week. If nothing happens, you are free to go and tell your friends that “this exercise crap does not work for me.”  

Step two: learn to slow down your breath while keeping it smooth and rhythmical.  

Don’t take sleep for granted, especially if you are a senior. It should be earned, helped, and maintained – in other words, you should fight for it!