Occasionally I get insomnia. About 5 years ago, I started dating this half-marathon runner. I was reasonably fit doing boxing and some random running, but nothing like that! So, I decided I better get my butt into gear, literally, and booked myself into a 10 km run in the Gold Coast within 4 weeks. Nothing like a challenge right? However, with working full-time, being totally overworked and stressed out plus studying part-time and my new pumped up exercise regime, I ended up getting insomnia about 4 days before the race! You know the drill, lying there, your mind on loop, kind of resting but not really sleeping and looking at the clock every hour, tick-tock. My Naturopath had put me on all these healthy supplements for adrenal exhaustion as apparently, I was burning the candle at both ends, yet again.

Well, this wouldn’t do as I had flights booked to run in Qld, so I went to the Dr for some last-minute sleeping tablets. Now, don’t get me wrong, this was never my first point of call as I’d never taken them before, I’d always gone natural, but it wasn’t working and I knew that my body couldn’t sustain a 10 km run without adequate sleep so these were desperate measures.

It’s just a little pill, right?

So, they started working, well kind of, they worked for 4 hours and then I would jolt awake like an alarm had gone off. I took them that week, finished the 10 km race (woo hoo!) and finished the pack. What I had found though was they were now taking an hour to kick in so I’d take another. I went back to the Dr, explaining that I didn’t want to keep taking sleeping tablets, but the herbs weren’t working, it was now taking longer to get to sleep and I would wake after 4 hours. He instructed me to continue taking them alongside the herbs, until they kicked in, take 2 at once to get to sleep and if I woke after 4 hours take another. I did this and it worked! However, um that means I was taking 3 of these pills a night? Mmm.

Natural vs Pharmaceuticals

I was taking melatonin, a natural supplement that gives you a boost in well melatonin (your sleeping hormone) as these had worked in the past. But nothing. I researched it and they don’t actually work unless you are low in melatonin? But how would you know? I was also taking some other supplements with a mix of high dose herbs from the Naturopath, all relating to sleeping and relaxing the adrenal system, but again nothing! I started this regime of going to bed earlier each night, starting the natural supplements first and would lie there for 3-4 hours, nearly get to sleep, feel like I was almost tipping over the edge, but didn’t, so would revert to sleeping pills in the early hours.

Withdrawals

I had to get off these pills! I’d stop taking them each Friday afternoon and take herbs all weekend, but then I would barely sleep all weekend and have to start again Sunday night for work so at least I'd get 4 hrs of sleep. Don’t get me wrong, even with insomnia, you do sleep a little, the human body can’t survive that long without sleep, but you don’t get much and as a result, you are exhausted! I felt wired, like I’d had 20 cups of coffee or a 20 hour flight but at the same time so tired, it’s a weird and unsettling combination. I’d still been training, but then I put my disc out again in my lower back and could barely move for 4 days! Your body regenerates and heals when you sleep, particularly your muscles, so my body literally stopped me from moving altogether!

This went on for 6 weeks. I know I have an addictive nature but this was ridiculous! I’d never taken sleeping pills before, but now I couldn’t sleep without them? I’m studying herbs and nutrition, yet none of these were working in this instance. I wanted to make it stop!

Little black balls

I finally went to an acupuncturist which I’m a true believer of. I thought they could help relax my muscles enough to help me sleep and now I had a whole world of back pain plus additional neck pain which is a side effect of insomnia, oh joy! I took all my herbal supplements to show her what I’d been taking naturally. She felt my pulse and proclaimed my body was totally exhausted but wired from the sleeping pills. She told me that I wouldn’t be able to sleep without my sleeping pills now as the DOSE was too high and I had too much in my system so these herbal supplements (which are normally very helpful) would not work! OMG, this is exactly what was happening!

So, a bunch of needles later, she told me about the Chinese herbs that I needed and off I headed to Chinatown. I needed quite a few of them to pretty much sedate me and bring me down off the sleeping tablets. If you’ve ever had Chinese herbs, they make them into these tiny little black balls for the westerners as boiling up the dried herbs can be too much for our poor sensitive tastebuds. Within 3 days, I was totally off the sleeping tablets and sleeping! Within a week of taking these herbs, reducing the amount each night, I no longer had to take them at all and I was sleeping without anything. They were my absolute saviour!

Hindsight

If it strikes now, after a couple of nights, I’ll take these Chinese herbs for 2-3 nights and usually that’s enough. Sleep hygiene as they call it is really important with insomnia. It’s pretty much, turning off all the electronics at least 1 hour before going to bed ie. Laptop, TV, facebook, emails, removing stimulants late in the day and going to bed at the same time each night (& not @ midnight). It helps your body get back into a sleep pattern so it knows when it should go to sleep and I find it can take up to a week to get your body back into proper sleep mode after a bout of insomnia. There’s also a theory that universally if everyone was in bed by 9:30pm and asleep by 10:00pm you will get the best and deepest sleep ever. We however keep ourselves awake through TV, emails or Netflix marathons which stimulate us and keep us awake. If I ever go to bed that early, I do have a pretty amazing night of sleep though, just saying!