Sometimes I experience insomnia. Quite often, I can identify the proximate cause. In the words of Paul Simon, sometimes I think too much. Also, eating late in the evening, or drinking caffeine (even one diet cola in the morning) may affect my noctural experience.
I find that white noise sometimes helps. In my new office, they have white noise, which is supposed to prevent us from hearing other conversations. It doesn’t, but it does make me sleepy. Unfortunately, our country has not adopted the concept of the siesta, and being in a cubicle, I can’t take a cat nap.
The idea of the nap used to be foreign to me, but lately, one a weekend can get me through the next week.
I find pills don’t really help, even the prescription stuff such as Ambien, but Nyquil often does. But I don’t want to become habituated to it, especially if I’m not sick.
The other thing that helps somewhat is heavy breathing (no, not that – get your mind out of the gutter), filling my lungs as much as possible then exhaling slowly.
Lately Lydia has been experiencing something similar. Like me, she generally falls asleep, but then wakes up in the middle of the night.
So my questions, if you would be so kind to answer:
Do you, or have you suffered from insomnia? For how long? Under what circumstances (stress caused by a particular event, e.g.)?
How did you treat your insomnia? Did you ever go to a sleep clinic?
Why does a two-year old wake up in the middle of the night more often than not recently?