Nightmares and Sleep Hygiene
You’ve been working all night. You lay down just close your eyes and that dream — that horrible dream takes over. What can you do now?
One of the things that I have found interesting is that psychosis, which is a state of false reality that is characteristic of mental illnesses like schizophrenia or drug-induced psychosis and a host of other illnesses, has some similarties to dreaming, especially nightmares.
I have been in a state of severe psychosis a few times, and there have also been many times in my life when I had really bad dreams. When I was a pilot, I would often dream I was in charge of a 747 full of passengers and it was in a hopeless spin, about to crash into the ground and kill everyone on board.
My shaky mental health made me have bad dreams, and later when I had psychosis, it was like I was living a really bad dream that I couldn’t stop. But this article is mostly about nightmares and how to improve sleep hygeine.
One of the first ways you can combat bad dreams is to keep a good, healthy diet, get your three hours of cardio in each week, take supplements like multivitamins, and plan to get eight solid hours of sleep a night. But there are people who can’t manage that, and there is hope for them.
Something I learned a long time ago is that if you train yourself with a simple technique, you can eventually control your dreams. All you have to do is stop what you are doing for a moment, no less than five times a day, and ask yourself, “Am I dreaming?”
By doing this you soon learn to automatically check to see if you are in a dream state or if you are in reality. Once you are aware you are dreaming, most of the time, you can change things about your dreams, and be more able to wake from them.
Years ago when I drank, if it was available, when I woke from a bad dream I would have a shot of whiskey. Later I learned that bad dreams often occur as a result of a imbalance of nutrients. Instead of whiskey, I took a multivitamin and found I could go back to sleep and rest easy.
Another trick is to get up, warm a cup of milk in a pan or microwave, add just a little sugar, and drink it while eating a banana. Then you go back to sleep but sleep on your other side. It can work wonders.
One of my latest tricks to help me sleep has a bit of a cost involved, I have bought myself a weighted blanket. I don’t know how it works, but when I curl up under 25 pounds of stuffing, I feel so safe and comfortable that I often can drift off easily.
My favourite method for beating insomnia is to pour a hot, hot, hot bath and throw in all the epsom salts I can manage and to soak, then get out of bed, put on only underwear or pajamas if it is cold in my apartment and climb into bed. I have found it works wonders, especially when I combine other things like my weighted blanket.
I don’t know if it applies to everyone, but also from a very early age I found out that if I sleep with my head where I normally put my feet and vice versa, I not only fall asleep faster, but get a quality sleep.
Many people believe that exercise can help them sleep, but I am of the opinion that exercise before bed won’t help. I try to get the bulk of my exercise first thing in the morning. Like today, instead of taking the bus to work I walked five miles just to wake myself up and expend some energy and calories I had for breakfast.
One of the hardest thing I have had to face up to in my middle age period is to simply not see the need to go out on the town as much as I used to. Focusing on my work and my mental and physical health, I stay home and read or listen to music. I rarely watch TV, and I was told once by a Pastor that TV will relax you, but only while you are watching it. Turn it off and you will go back to the same anxiety level you had before watching. Because of this, I only have a radio in my bedroom and my two TVs are in my livingroom.
There are many ways to relax before bed. Of course sex is one of the better ones. It lets off stress and eases tension, leaving you with a feeling of being satisfied and ready to rest in the arms of your loved one.
I don’t recommend taking sleeping pills. They are too easy to get addicted to and they actually lower the quality of your sleep. Many people prefer the safe alternative of taking Melatonin. I have found Melatonin makes me sleep in too much and can sometimes make me restless, but as it is a natural hormone, I suggest you go ahead and see how it works for you. My Doctor has told me I should take my dose two hours before bed for the best results.
Do you have any sleep ideas to share? Please leave your comments below, I would love to hear more ideas for further exploration and study.
