What is Insomnia?

Pick up your abandoned dreams, Fold them back into your heart; Think, work on it. Until you find it a reality and not just a dream you have; 
                                                                                            Shruti Bevara

What is INSOMNIA??

There's no denying when I say all of us, at some point ,of our "thousand nights" a life spend our time tossing and turning, more like rolling in our bed trying to (more like struggling) get some sleep into our lives. Hey! I can say I am guilty of being insomniac for the most crucial parts of my life. It is okay to admit our failures, struggles out loud. It is okay to be low, to feel unproductive sometimes, it is perfectly fine to ALLOW yourself to feel every emotion instead of burying it deep inside of you, for it to only burst out like a volcano of suppressed emotions on someone else one day. Anyways! that is a topic for another blog, back to our beloved insomnia!

Insomnia - is a common sleep disorder where a person has trouble falling or staying asleep. The state of sleeplessness, causing irritability, low energy and depression. Sleeplessness causes a person to be lifeless. It's a straight up parasite! Trust me! It feeds on our sleep and makes us incapable of doing anything productive. It takes us with it, to a world of darkness, where your deepest and darkest fears live. Insomnia is another name of chaos and depression. 

8 out of 10 adults suffer from insomnia, and the root cause of it is none other than our mind! Having no control over our mind gives "it" a chance to play with us! Causing disorders like overthinking, anxiety, depression, identity crisis and the list goes on..
 Life being the hardest teacher of all, throws every challenge on us to survive through it, overcoming it is one hell of a success but what's scary is the process of overcoming. In order to become stronger, we tend to leave behind the essence that makes us, us. 

But that's also seen as change, evolving into a better (worse in some cases) person. 

   What causes Insomnia?

Well, by now I think we all got a fair amount of idea, of what exactly is insomnia. What we do know and refuse to admit is, mental disorders like these are quite shameful to admit, What would people think? Crazy! that's what they would call me! That is how half the people die! It is straight up torture. Mental imbalance is the worst to face and fight, surviving it is nothing less than a freaking success. We all face our mental demons, some fail, give up on their lives, and some like all of us, survive and work through our lives. Now the most interesting question is, What causes Insomnia? What causes these mental demons to torture us, challenge us?

• Stress : The main and most dangerous cause of all is the amount of stress we take. Be it in professional front or financial, family related or whatever the reason might be. Stress is the worst enemy. Comes from all the overthinking we do. Trying to "guess" or predict what might happen next. Trying to control the outcomes of future or the outcomes of someone else's actions. Thinking about things that we have no control over!
  
  
• Unhealthy sleep habits : This includes everything we do before we sleep like late dinners, sticking to the phone or laptop right before we go to sleep, thinking about the "problems" in life. Or even better, sleeping too late say, 2 am, 3 am!
  
  
• Physical pain : A hard day of work, for me it is leg day at gym! God! that hurts like hell!! Any kind of physical pain doesn't let our mind to put us on sleep mode. It keeps reminding us about the unbearable pain we have. Or it can be due to age. People who reached certain age, finds it real hard to sleep at night, says the survey.
  
  
• Past Trauma : Chronic insomnia is the result of any part trauma a person has, something bad, dark something that cannot be forgotten, that haunts, flashing right in front of our eyes as we try to sleep. It leaves us with a deep scar and a deeper fear that shook us from the roots. 
  
  
• No sleep routine : I cannot stress hard enough on this, about having a routine for everything including sleep! I used to see my grandpa having the most disciplined life, the perfect routine for everything. He used to sleep by 9 pm and wake up at 4 am. Though he was old (86 years when he passed away) he was never cranky like other old people. Some of it came from the routine he had, timing is everything, he said. People get irritable when nothing goes according to them, it's their responsibility to make sure everything goes accordingly from their side! Since we cannot control the other aspects, he said. I stick by his words, and everything else he ever taught me.
  
  

There are other causes of course, some medical related which we are no expert in, to have an opinion. So we stick to our expertise side, that is psychological. When I was dealing with Insomnia, I always used to question like, why? Why can't I sleep like any other normal person? How to get back to being a normal person? A person who sleeps 7 hours a night. After a couple of years of me struggling to get a sound sleep, I realized, sleep or no sleep, balance or imbalance whatever it is that we face (about ourselves) everything is within us! 

     How to treat Insomnia?

No! The sleep meds are not the solution. It will be if you think you need to weaken your mind, but not a solution if you wish to treat the sleeplessness. As I said earlier it is all in our mind. Imagine a game of chess, Us vs our mind. You have 2 choices, either you take down your mind (checkmate) or be taken down by it. The checkmate here is "control". So, either you take control of your mind your well being, or the mind takes control. Leaving you with all kinds of mental health issues you can ever imagine. Win or lose it is all in our hands, Only you get to control your life.

What helped me to fight the battle of insomnia was, getting myself tired, close to exhausted. I used the simplest and the most basic method, "get busy" work around the clock and exhaust yourself so bad that when I hit the bed, I sleep like a peaceful baby. Let's talk about some tips to fight insomnia -

• Have a sleep schedule : Plan a routine, choose a time frame dedicated to sleep. Make sure it is minimum 7 hours and max 9 hours. Less than 7 hours can cause irritability, unproductive mornings and zero energy to get work done. 
  
  
• Get over your traumas : It is easy to say than to actually move on. Yes! it is scary as hell, impossible to get over it, makes you feel numb, emotionless and half dead inside. But that's the thing, if you can feel all of this, then you can also feel the closure, the peace and relief when you get over it. How to get over your traumatic experience is whole another topic in itself. I will talk about it another time.
  
  
• Get Active : Have a workout schedule. Now! don't panic no-one is asking you to get to gym and life heavy weights, stay active means to get your body active and running, not be a couch potato or a chair potato if you're working. Schedule 1 hour or least 30 mins of a walk a quick run or some basic home work out, whatever works for you, to take your mind off of all the negativity, disconnect from the world and reconnect to yourself.
  
  
• Journal your thoughts : What helps the most is either speaking your feelings out or writing it out, for those who are not comfortable speaking to the trusted ones, try writing everything you think, be it negative positive or any experience that bothers you. Get it out of your mind into the paper, it is therapeutic and relaxing. Go ahead! get it out, the paper won't judge you! Maintain a diary, a book or whatever you have and a pen, a dedicated place where you come and dump out all your thoughts and concerns that does not let you sleep. 
  
  
• Focus on Meditation and Breathing : Try meditating right after you wake up from sleep, make it a good start of the day. Focus on the breathing, whatever negative happens with you be it as small or as big; try not to overwhelm it, just keep breathing deep and calming yourself down, so you have a better mindset to face whatever is coming. Going into panic mode is what messes the way we want to handle the situation.
  
  

Insomnia is seriously an issue!! Period. It needs to be accepted before trying to overcome it. It needs to be understood and figured out why is it happening before it is cured. It is NOT permanent, doesn't mean it should be entertained either. So, once you figure it out, you try your best to get out of it. To escape it and to close the door, seal it. For it to never come back knocking again. There's so much in life to feel happy, to appreciate to be grateful about. Fight through your insecurities! Find your true self!

I feel like I have spoken a lot by now! But I just want to end it by one last quote -

"As long as you are breathing it is never too late to dream and start something new" 

Stay Positive! Stay True! Stay Strong
Until next time! 
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