I have been suffering from chronic insomnia for many years. After many years of adjusting my lifestyle to improve my sleep quality, I have come up with this list of methods to overcome insomnia:
- Use Sleep Cycle app to wake up at the right time.
Sleep Cycle app monitors our sleep and wake us up softly when we are in the lightest possible sleep state. This app has helped me tremendously in waking up in a good mood, and it has improved my sleep quality as well. I no longer need to snooze my alarm clock multiple times after getting my deep sleep interrupted by a usual alarm. Snoozing after waking up is bad for you, it will cause grogginess after you eventually get out of bed.
*Update: After 2 months of using the app, I stopped using it, because sometimes it woke me up too early and it was not consistently accurate.
2. Warm shower/ bath 1–2 hours before bed.
This is the one that really helped me. Before I tried this, I followed all the other methods listed below, but it did not work well enough. I still suffered from insomnia. Then I found out that warm showers/baths taken 1–2 hours before bed will leave you in the ideal temperature for sleep. I tried it, and it worked!
3. No caffeine intake after noon.
This is self-explanatory. For me, I am highly sensitive to caffeine. And my insomnia was so bad that I avoid caffeine whenever possible. Foods and drinks that might contain caffeine include:
