You’ve taken the sleep hygiene checklist. The weighted blanket is collecting dust in your closet. The magnesium supplement is half-used on your nightstand. You’re lying wide awake at 2 a.m. wondering how nothing works.
Here’s the thing about sleep hacks: most of them a) assume your sleep problem is mild and b) we just don’t know better on an individual basis and need to spend money changing where we sleep instead of fixing ourselves. Putting the phone down at 10 and investing in blackout curtains do just the trick for some. But for someone who may have been struggling for months (or years!), these suggestions come across as somewhat insulting.
Because the reality is, when your sleep becomes a real problem, it’s not tons of added ambiance to bedtime that do the trick but something completely different.
How the Common Sleep Hacks Fail You
Most sleep “hacks” are for people who sleep halfway decently and need some maintenance moving forward. The simple things that people suggest are not equipped for those truly suffering.
It’s your nervous system to blame. When you’ve been surviving on little sleep for so long, your body no longer associates nighttime with rest, but stressors. Your heart rate elevates when you enter your bedroom instead of relaxing. Thoughts spiral about all that you need to accomplish by tomorrow or what you should have said to that one conversation three years ago.
And this is when it starts costing you money if you’re not careful. People run out and buy sleep tracking devices, fancy pillows, sound machines, and a range of supplements that help but edge on covering the problem instead of repairing it.
Your body forgets that nighttime isn’t a threat. This seems simple enough – but it’s the hardest part to achieve.
What Everyone Gets Wrong About Sleep Timing
One thing people forget is timing. We try to force ourselves to sleep during windows our bodies don’t want to accommodate. Yes, you’ve heard that you should go to bed at the same time every night. But that’s true after you’ve found your ideal time.
Some people are genuinely night owls. If you’re wired for alertness to occur until midnight, forcing yourself to go to bed at 10 p.m. will only increase stress levels and create a greater tension response. You’ll lay there longer, getting angrier at yourself at the inability to sleep – and by then – your heart’s racing too much to calm down anyway.
The better approach is to cater to your physiological needs for the time being. If you don’t get tired until midnight, stay in bed until midnight. When you start sleeping consistently, then it’s time to gradually shift earlier – if necessary – for work or other obligations.
But know this – many people never need to shift it. They acknowledge themselves as night-people and accommodate their entire lives around it. Not everyone can do this with work situations, obviously, but is fighting your naturally determined bed time part of your problem?
What Will Help When You Can’t Shut Your Mind Off
This is where it gets tricky for most people because while your body may be tired, your brain is running marathons imagining every single project possibility you need to convey at tomorrow’s meeting or something you’ve obsessively regretted saying this time last week.
Ideally – meditation and deep breathing – but sure. That makes sense for some but if you’re someone who’s high strung and who thinks fast, sitting quietly focusing on breath gives more time to consider every single perceived stressor compounding against you.
Usually – something that gets your brain to focus on something semi-challenging yet boring enough not to rouse you back up works best. Whether that be podcasts or audiobooks. Or progressive muscle relaxation tensing and relaxing groups of muscles. A handful swear by the sleep story apps.
Finding something that occupies the mind without ramping up emotions or energy levels works differently for everyone – which is why one size fits all advice falls short.
For those who suffer from particularly stubborn methods – especially when there’s discomfort/stress involved – further alternatives such as cannabis can be found through sources like https://www.bulkcannabis.cc so that many people feel they have more control over nighttime routines so they can feel much better equipped going into sleep. It’s all about finding what actually works for you instead of settling for general recommendations not meant for stubborn conditions.
Time To Readjust
Even when you find something that works, it rarely works well right away without readjustment – which nobody tells you about up front.
You might find three nights of good sleep and a horrible one and then two more good ones.
Your body didn’t forget what’s it’s like to acclimate overnight. The issue is that most people determine that their attempt isn’t working because they had one bad night and too soon scrapped whatever help was ideally adjusted with time.
Give any new method at least two weeks before determining if it’s helpful or a burden. Your body needs to relearn what bedtime means-one or two rough nights in that period does NOT undo years of what it thinks it’s done well.
The other thing that helps? Stop tracking every little detail. Sleep tracker apps help – but create more anxiety than the worth. You don’t need to see you got four hours and thirty-seven minutes of sleep when you already know you didn’t sleep well because you don’t feel great? The numbers just make you feel worse.
Building Routines That Actually Stick
The bedtime routine advice you’ve heard isn’t incorrect – but usually composes too many steps that people get frustrated over if they’re missing one.
Keep it simple with two or three things effectively known as a reliable means of cool-down each night. A hot shower, dim lights, and reading work for some; stretching, a unique playlist and an exceptionally cold room works for others.
It matters less what’s important than the consistency learned from frequency over time in order for your body to prepare what’s coming next once they all join together.
Also – people should know this ahead of time – have a plan when you’re not able to sleep. Lying in bed for hours awake only creates bigger issues with bed-stress connection. If it’s been 20-30 minutes with a racing mind – get up, go into another room and do something low-key until tired again.
It feels counterintuitive – but it’s easier than remaining in bed getting angrier.
When To Actually Be Concerned
Listen – if you’ve tried everything and you’re still barely sleeping after several months – yeah, that’s a medical condition worth seeking professional attention over. Sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome and other conditions aren’t changeable through routine because they’re medical problems with real suggestions making all the difference.
But for many – and hopefully most – their sleep got thrown off due to stressors/life events, then their anxiety about not sleeping became part of the bigger issue – and that’s fixable, even if it takes some time.
Look – not every night will be perfect sleeping from here on out, but it’s highly unrealistic even for non-sleeping challenged individuals, anyway. What’s the goal is enough passable sleep most nights so functioning isn’t a problem and daytime isn’t filled with exhaustion-induced misery instead because that’s totally achievable – even if the world seems impossible at 2 a.m.