 |
Triggers
of Chronic Insomnia
Certain things for me tended to set insomnia off or intensity
it.
For example, the insomnia tended to get “triggered”
the night before, or even days before, a day that I know would
be stressful, challenging or activity filled. Prior to these
days, in particular, I would worry and think about not being
able to sleep well and how more difficult the day will be for
me if I do not. These thoughts and worries, of course, created
stress in me which resulted in me sleeping poorly.
Below are the rules I followed to deal with these triggering
events so that the stress and resulting sleeplessness they can
cause was minimized.
Rule number one. I did not avoid potential triggers.
For example, I did not avoid or cancel days or activities that
would be stressful, challenging and busy. As I discuss here,
avoidance would only make things worse for me by reinforcing
my fear and sending the wrong message to my subconscious.
Rule number two. I calmly analyzed the trigger(s) the
best I could under the light of reason. I ask myself, for example,
what are the facts exactly? Will the day really be as difficult
as it seems, or am I making a mountain out of a molehill? When
I did this, the trigger usually turned out to be much less scary
than I previously estimated and, as a result, my stress level
fell and so did my negative sleep thoughts.
Rule number three. If my analysis did show that tomorrow
would indeed be a difficult, stressful day, then I asked myself
what I can do now to make the day less stressful. For example,
if I have a presentation to give tomorrow, could I prepare more
now so that I am more confident and less worried about how I
will do? If I am not sure that I know exactly how to get to
the location where I give my presentation, can I make a trial
run? If I don’t know what I will wear, why not decide on
this before bedtime?
Finally, a big source of stress for me would involve my alarm
clock. I always worried that, for whatever reason, it would
not go off, especially on the mornings of important days. This
worry would contribute to my stress and help keep me from sleeping.
I finally fixed this by getting three alarm clocks of various
types as well as an automated phone wake-up service. This solution
totally removed the oversleeping concern of mine and as a result
reduced sleep-destroying stress.
Properly addressing the things that can trigger insomnia is
often an overlooked technique in my opinion. Using the above
rules were important in allowing me to overcome chronic sleeplessness.
Next: Negative sleep
thoughts
|
