Up to 20 percent of adults, and more than 60 per cent of women going through the menopause, have problems sleeping. Mindfulness for insomnia can help.
Insomnia is defined as difficulty falling asleep, and/or problems staying asleep. It can also encompass waking up too early, not feeling rested, and being tired during the day.
Outcomes of not enough sleep can include:
- anxiety and irritability
- more stress
- difficulty focusing
- problems remembering/staying on task
- making more mistakes/having more accidents
- headaches
- gastrointestinal issues.
For midlife women, changing levels of oestrogen and progesterone exacerbate sleep problems – because progesterone is a sleep-producing hormone. And that is before the night sweats wake you up.
Mindfulness for insomnia: how it helps
Mindfulness helps you learn to watch yourself thinking, and to develop an insight into your own mind, that helps you be a better friend to yourself. Some of the ways mindfulness can help with insomnia include:
- Stress reduction – mindfulness helps you calm your mind, reducing stress, which is associated with better sleep.
- Worrying about not sleeping – one characteristic of insomnia is that the longer you have problems sleeping, the more likely you are to worry about problems sleeping. This type of ruminative thinking is normal, but unhelpful. It can produce a state of hyperarousal throughout the day, which is characteristic of chronic insomnia. Mindfulness can help you interrupt the pattern of overthinking and guide your mind towards more compassionate thoughts. Try bringing your mind back from thoughts.
- Less anxiety and depression – ruminative thinking can also contribute towards anxiety and depression, which can worsen with insomnia, and/or contribute to it. Mindfulness has been shown to help reduce anxiety and depression.
Self-care for insomnia
Mindfulness meditation combined with good sleep habits appears to be at least as effective as pharmaceutical interventions for insomnia, without problems of dependency, tolerance, and side effects.
Some ways to maximise your chance of a good night’s sleep include:
- Setting a sleep schedule – having a consistent pattern to when you go to bed and when you get up. This may change as you age, so adjust accordingly
- Cool room – temperature of around 65oF (18.3oC)
- Minimise distractions – keep your bedroom as dark and quiet as possible
- Turn off devices 60 minutes before going to bed – mobile phones, tablets and computers all emit blue light, which causes your body to produce more of the hormone cortisol, and this keeps you awake
- Eat earlier – going to bed on a full stomach is likely to give you heartburn and reflux, so eating lighter in an evening and eating more than two hours before bedtime, is recommended
- Reduce stimulants – tea and coffee can help you feel more awake, so limiting their consumption after 2pm can help you sleep better. Nicotine in tobacco is also a stimulant, so smokers may not sleep as well. And although alcohol is not a stimulant, it can interfere with the deep restorative stages of sleep.
- Consider melatonin supplementation – melatonin is the hormone that makes you sleepy and it can help reset your sleep wake cycle. Ask your doctor before trying.
- Practice meditation – often regarded as synonymous with mindfulness, meditation is a practice on its own. Use an app, or a guided practice from a teacher, or join a group. A guided meditation to help you sleep is included at the bottom of this page.
There is no one size fits all. Be patient with yourself. Mindfulness for insomnia is not a magic wand, but small steps taken consistently over time can yield big outcomes. Take care of yourself and always seek medical or professional advice if you are unsure what is right for you.
