{"id":74,"date":"2020-05-03T17:29:39","date_gmt":"2020-05-03T17:29:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.howtocureinsomnia.com\/?p=74"},"modified":"2020-05-03T17:29:39","modified_gmt":"2020-05-03T17:29:39","slug":"how-to-stop-insomnia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/howtocureinsomnia.com\/how-to-stop-insomnia\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Stop Insomnia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"How To Stop Insomnia\" width=\"840\" height=\"473\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ml-OGD7meHU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Most insomniacs have a big misconception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have chronic insomnia, you probably believe it\u2019s something that\u2019s impossible to stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While understandable, this is simply not true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can get rid of insomnia if you can do 2 things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You must be able to identify the variables that cause of your insomnia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You must stop these variables from continuing to function.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most people don\u2019t know what\u2019s causing their insomnia, and even those who do usually don\u2019t know what to do about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The good news is, in most cases, you can figure out what\u2019s causing your insomnia through the process of elimination. I\u2019ll give you a quick rundown of the most common causes to look into. Then, once you\u2019ve figured out what the likely suspects are, you can get to work on them by picking the right solution from the set of solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First, you\u2019ve gotta determine if your causes are mostly physical or mostly mental. If your quality of sleep is low, or you wake up over and over, that\u2019s more likely to be heavier on the physical. If you struggle to fall asleep and struggle to go back to sleep if you wake up too early, then the larger issues for you are likely mental.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From there, let&#8217;s rule out all the main causes of insomnia.&nbsp; If you inexplicably don\u2019t sleep well and suspect one or more of these issues are the cause, you can go through a list of those causes by reading virtually ANY sleep book written by a sleep expert MD, or go see a sleep profession, to see which would likely apply to you and then go to work on those issues and see if your sleep improves. There are also medical experts specializing in sleep that can help you identify these sorts of issues, and once you\u2019ve identified the issues, it\u2019s pretty straightforward to solve them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the other hand, if you have a hard time falling asleep or going back to sleep, this likely says more about mental issues, which means that you want to focus on the things that lead to a fragmented sleep cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fragmented sleep has 3 tell-tale signs\u2026 it makes it so that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>-You feel more awake when you try harder to go to sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>-You wake up frequently throughout the night<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>-Your sleep is not deep and refreshing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The good news is, fragmented sleep is not caused by too many things. Just see how many \u201cyes\u201d answers you get to the following to get a sense of what could be contributing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>-Do you get anxious about going to bed?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>-Does getting less sleep stress you out during the day?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>-Are you dependent on anything to help yourself sleep? This can be medication, having a new mattress, using incense, wearing a sleep mask, and a thousand other things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>-Does being tired have a significant impact on your work, school, relationships, social life, or other areas of life?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>-Do you suffer from anxiety, depression, pain, exhaustion, diminished focus, laziness, or anything else that\u2019s really bothering you because of lost sleep?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>-Does the fact that you aren\u2019t getting sleep come up over and over again throughout the day?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Are you feeling defeated or suppressed because of insomnia?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>-Are you growing concerned about the impact a lack of sleep is having on your health or well being?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you had no \u201cyes\u201d answers, your sleep might be fragmented, but it\u2019s likely more due to a physical issue\u2026 but if you answered yes to any of the above, you likely have unconscious mental sleep issues at play, and even if this isn&#8217;t the case, learning the mental side of sleep can help you improve the quality of your sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That&#8217;s because, scientifically speaking, easy, refreshing sleep only happens when your brain slows down. When your brain speeds up, it prevents deep sleep. Learning how to create slow, smooth brain activity at night improves your sleep, and if you have chronic insomnia, it\u2019s most likely because without realizing it, your brain unconsciously and automatically speeds up. This happens throughout the night, and for a lot of people, it even happens when they attempt to fall asleep, which causes them to feel more and more awake the harder they try to fall asleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now I know that\u2019s all probably a little confusing right now, but the main point is, you\u2019re keeping yourself awake and you don\u2019t even know-how.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, fragmented sleep happens when your mind speeds up during the night. It\u2019s this increased brainwave speed that causes damage to your sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In good sleepers, brainwave speed is very smooth throughout the night, only having slight variations, like the waves on a calm lake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By comparison, an insomniac\u2019s brainwave speed exhibits sudden large variations that happen all night long, like giant ocean waves during a storm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is these large variations in brainwave cycles that cause fragmented sleep. Sometimes this fragmentation causes you to wake up, but even when it doesn\u2019t wake you up, the result is poor quality sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s why you\u2019re sometimes still exhausted even after getting 8 hours of sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you only have a problem falling asleep, it\u2019s a good bet that your brainwave activity is too speedy, preventing it from happening in the first place. And after you finally fall asleep, large variations in brainwave activity continue throughout the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The source of these large variations in your brainwaves is the real cause of your insomnia problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The good news is, it\u2019s not too hard to identify these causes. If you answered yes to any of the previous questions, your unconscious-mind automatically prepares for action when it comes to sleep. It is aware of how important getting sleep is, so like any other important matter, it speeds up your brainwaves, making your sleep light and in many cases even making you feel wide awake no matter how exhausted you feel. This importance you\u2019ve associated with sleep (which good sleepers do not have or need) speeds up your brainwaves all night long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To identify the causes of your insomnia, just look at where sleep has become overly important. To get a better sense of this, watch my video called \u201cCannot Sleep? The Downward Spiral of Insomnia\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once you\u2019ve identified what\u2019s creating the unconscious things causing sleep to be overly important, you can start to get to work on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The problem is, to slow your brainwaves and break the spiral, you have to stop seeing sleep as so important, which is all you\u2019ve been doing lately!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The question is, \u201cHow is it possible to see sleep as something that\u2019s not important?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s a valid point. Sleep IS important!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The truth is, it\u2019s impossible to see sleep as \u201cnot important\u201d. Seeing sleep as \u201cnot important\u201d is to trick yourself. That doesn\u2019t work very well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What IS possible is to make sleep far LESS important. Seeing sleep as \u201cless important\u201d is to free yourself. This works and it even gets better and better with time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Making sleep less important is just a matter of figuring out what feelings, thoughts, and beliefs you have that are making sleep excessively important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let me be clear \u2013 ALL insomniacs have many thoughts about sleep that make it extremely important, whether they notice these thoughts or not. It\u2019s totally normal, and you shouldn\u2019t ever feel bad about valid thoughts. The problem is that these thoughts simply become irrationally immoderate; They go too far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There\u2019s some truth to each thought and emotion. The key is to determine what\u2019s valid, where it goes too far, and what\u2019s just plain wrong or misguided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, take a thought like \u201cI can\u2019t have a good day tomorrow if I don\u2019t sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s not wrong, but it\u2019s not right either. On the one hand, not sleeping makes the next day a lot harder. On the other hand, you can still have a good day tomorrow. Just think of any time you were exhausted, but still ended up having a good day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When you can catch thoughts like that one, you can make sleep much less important. Your brain is full of thoughts that irrationally make sleep much more important than it should be. You simply have to listen in and moderate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you could even make sleep HALF as important as it is now\u2026 you\u2019d probably fall asleep twice as fast, with DOUBLE the quality, and sleeping pills and other remedies would actually do their job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To learn more and about how to do that, I recommend watching my video on \u201cMental Ways to Help Sleep\u201d where I\u2019ll run through a variety of the most common ways that people create fragmented sleep, along with solutions you can start implementing to start changing these things right away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also, if you have a problem falling asleep or falling back to sleep, check out my &#8220;Best cure for insomnia&#8221; video, which is specifically designed to approach falling asleep in a fundamentally different way than you have been. This is a way of approaching the technique that gets rid of the pressure, disregards the result, and puts you at total ease.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most insomniacs have a big misconception. If you have chronic insomnia, you probably believe it\u2019s something that\u2019s impossible to stop. While understandable, this is simply not true. You can get rid of insomnia if you can do 2 things: You must be able to identify <span class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"more-link btn btn-transparent\" href=\"https:\/\/howtocureinsomnia.com\/how-to-stop-insomnia\/\">Read More &#8230;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,20,21,22,23,25,26,27,28,29,30],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/howtocureinsomnia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/howtocureinsomnia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/howtocureinsomnia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/howtocureinsomnia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/howtocureinsomnia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/howtocureinsomnia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/howtocureinsomnia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/howtocureinsomnia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/howtocureinsomnia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/howtocureinsomnia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}