Arts & Entertainment
Insomnia—Curse of the Brainiacs
It's good to have an active mind, but how do you shut it down when you want to sleep?
Wouldn’t it be nice if this column could actually help you cure your insomnia? Ha. I have not yet found a cure for insomnia, but I think about it in the middle of the night.
Most of us who live in Silicon Valley make our living by sitting down and doing something with our brains. The results are world famous. But how do we shut those brains down long enough to sleep?
As a chronic insomniac, I have developed some ideas about the search for sleepiness, but don’t blame me if these ideas don’t work for you.
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- We should be getting WAY more exercise. Our jobs do not involve our muscles. I recommend at least an hour a day of serious vigorous exercise. Exhaust yourself and you might be able to sleep. Fresh air and sunshine help, too.
- Learn to . Quieting your mind is actually a skill that can be learned. Here is a meditation suggested by a friend of mine: “I start at the top of my head and take a breath for different points on my body: each eyebrow, each eye, nose, mouth, chin, each shoulder, etc. It helps keep the wandering thoughts out of my head, and I’m usually asleep before I get to my toes! If not, I start all over again.” I do a variation of this: I count my breaths to 100, and then backward to zero. Sometimes it works.
- Limit your caffeination. Seriously, you need to figure out how much caffeine you can consume without being awake all night.
In our own backyard, Stanford University, we have the world’s expert on sleep, Dr. William C. Dement. His main idea is that we should all be getting more sleep. A website that offers a lot of good advice and information is called End Your Sleep Deprivation. It was was created by Dement's inspired students and former teaching assistants (there's even a video tribute to the "father of sleep medicine").
The site advises getting up if you cannot sleep. I find that reading FaceBook postings can make me feel drowsy.
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In any case, I hope you can get some sleep. As the Beatles said,
“Now the sun turns out his light
good night sleep tight
Dream sweet dreams for me
Dream sweet dreams for you”
About This Column: Each week Pam Walatka will explore sustainable life in Los Altos Hills. Contact Pam at pamwalatka@yahoo.com or see the Pam Portugal Walakta Writings on FaceBook.
