If You Have Insomnia, It’s Time to Take Back Control of Your Life.

If you Have Insomnia, It’s Time to Take Back Control of Your Life.

Do you ever find yourself avoiding things such as social activities, coffee, certain foods, light exposure, exercising in the evening, and more in order to try and prevent more trouble sleeping? 

This is normal when you have insomnia, and I had a laundry list of things to avoid. It was exhausting just trying to make sure I follow all these limits I set for myself, and it took away a lot of joy in my life.

You're already not getting enough sleep, and you are likely protective of that little sleep. Of course, we don’t want to lose even a little bit of what we are already getting when we have insomnia.

However, having a list of things to avoid can be problematic.

You lose out on enjoyable experiences and allow insomnia to take control of your life. You can feel like you don’t have any control over your life and getting to do things you want to do.

When in reality, none of these things are going to really cause more trouble sleeping or prolong your insomnia. Yes, drinking coffee late can cause disrupted sleep but use common sense. 

Drinking coffee in the morning is not going to affect you at night as long as you cut off your intake 8-10 hours before you go to bed. I am personally very sensitive to caffeine, so my cutoff time is 10 hours prior to bed, but the general recommendation is 8 hours.

Remember, insomnia is a fear-based reaction to sleeplessness at night. Enjoying going out in the evening or your morning cup of coffee has nothing to do with your fear-based reaction. 

When you are worried about throwing off your routine and having trouble sleeping by going somewhere fun, that is only increasing the fear. You are fearing losing sleep.

The more you can move away from the fear of sleeplessness, the closer you will move toward more sleep. 

It’s time to take back control of your life and not let insomnia control it. Go do things that you enjoy and find pleasure in. Quality of life is important too. 

It’s also really helpful because your list of things to avoid can help take your focus away from sleep. That alone will help reduce the stress and your hyperarousal levels.

Focus for insomnia is like oxygen to the body. Insomnia can’t survive without it.

I’m curious, do you have a long list of things that you avoid so that you can get better sleep? Let me know in the comments below.

If you’re ready to learn the real reason you have insomnia and why your long list of things to avoid isn’t helping you prevent more trouble, then check out my blog post, “Do you know the real reason you have insomnia?”