I use to have a bad case of insomnia on and off for several years. My brain just couldn't shut off at night and it was the worst during stressful times. I tried a whole bunch of remedies including meditation, white noise CDs, counting, and sleeping aides. Tylenol PM ended up being my last resort on those 3 night runs.
Strangely, what flipped me around was when I ran a half marathon.
I was working on two hours of sleep in two days after a quarter close at work and I had just gotten back from a huge backpacking trip in Peru. I was physical, mentally and emotionally exhausted.
I ran 13.1 miles. And I beat my personal record. It was the best feeling in the world.
I remember sitting in my car after the race, thinking about how I wasn't able to sleep in those two days because I was so stressed out about my limitations. It seemed silly to worry when I was perfectly capable of overcoming them.
My sleeping habits improved dramatically after that. I haven't needed a sleeping pill in years.
It sounds cliché but ‘It is what it is’. You’re doing all you can and now you need to trust yourself enough to know that you are capable of doing this.
Something that also helped me: On those wide-awake-nights when there was no hope for sleep, I kept getting up or I would just stare at the ceiling. I did some research on insomnia and read somewhere that, even when you close your eyes and lay in bed, your body is getting more rest than you think. Reading that made me stop moving around and turned my ‘hopeless’ nights into ‘better than nothing’ nights.
AUD - PASSED MAR '15
REG - STUDYING SEP '16
FAR - PASSED MAY '16
BEC - PENDING JUL '16