If you have insomnia, without self-kindness, you will remain stuck.

So, you want to learn how to overcome insomnia? Well, the first step is to give yourself some self-kindness. Having insomnia isn’t easy, and we can be hard on ourselves, which in the end, can keep you stuck.

If you want to overcome insomnia, self-kindness is a must.

I’m going to give you some tips to practice self-kindness while you have insomnia so that you can move toward recovery.

CATCH YOURSELF IN THE MOMENT 

The first tip on practicing self-kindness is to recognize if you aren’t giving yourself the self-kindness that you need. The key is to recognize when this is happening in the moment.

Some ways that you might see this happen could be…

• When you are upset with yourself for not figuring out how to overcome insomnia sooner.
• While not feeling great after so little sleep, you snapped at someone or said something you wish you hadn’t. You might get angry at yourself for what you said. We have all been there.
• For not taking care of your sleep sooner with a specialist or looking for professional help.
• When you get mad or have hateful thoughts toward your brain and body for doing this to you.

All these reactions are normal responses that we all have at times. 

However, when you aren’t giving yourself the self-kindness you need, you can remain stuck in the insomnia cycle.

TREAT YOURSELF LIKE YOU WOULD TREAT A FRIEND

Moving onto the next tip, and that is to treat yourself as you would treat a friend. Friends know that you are only human and aren’t feeling well, and they would be understanding and sympathetic toward you. That’s how I want you to treat yourself. 

Before you do anything, ask yourself if that’s how you would treat a friend going through the same thing. It can also be helpful to think about how you would talk to a friend with insomnia. 

I am guessing you would say kind things, be supportive, and be there for them. That’s how we should all be talking to ourselves.

YOUR FEELINGS ARE VALID

Have you ever felt sad, angry, or upset about something someone did, and then someone told you it’s ok what happened and the situation is ok. Or something like that where they invalidate your feelings. Ugggh I hate this one.

I’m here to tell you that you are allowed to feel the way you do. Your feelings do matter, and you also don’t need to force yourself to look at the positive in everything in life. 

You can feel and be with your feelings and allow yourself to process them instead of immediately trying to force the positive in a situation.

Instead of using a positive affirmation or choosing a positive outlook, you could do something like, “It’s ok that I feel upset that_________.” 

Once you feel like you have processed your feelings and are ready to look at the positive, you can look for the lesson and the positive in the situation.

SELF-CARE

The next tip on transforming your sleep with self-kindness is practicing self-care. Absolutely EVERYONE needs self-care, but it is especially important when you have insomnia.

Some ways that you can practice self-care is to…

• Nap
• Have a lazy day 
• Take a hot bath
• Write in a journal
• Get some sunlight and movement
• Do something you enjoy
• Go to therapy if needed. Perhaps your insomnia started after something traumatic happened, and therapy can really help you.

Those were just a few tips on how to practice self-kindness. Giving yourself the self-kindness that you need will only help you on your journey to overcoming insomnia.

Now that you know how to practice self-kindness, you may want to see if you are making any of these five mistakes that keep you stuck with insomnia.

If so, check out this post so that you can identify any mistakes that you are making so that you can get more sleep.

5-Mistakes People with Insomnia Make 

https://www.katelingates.com/blog/5-mistakes-people-with-insomnia-make