Keeping a Record of Your Insomnia

Keeping a Record of Your Insomnia

If you have problems falling asleep or staying asleep, you need to start keeping a record of your insomnia. Simply keeping a log book or notepad beside your table at night will help you keep track of when you are sleeping fitfully, and when insomnia has you in its tiresome grasp. But you should record more than simply the times and dates when you are restlessly fighting insomnia, and when you get a good night’s rest.

Sometimes sleeplessness is caused by your own actions and activities. You enjoy drinking tea with dinner, and the powerful effects of caffeine can disturb your sleep for up to 8 hours after you ingest it. So in your insomnia tracker, you also need to write down everything that you eat and drink, as well as when.

This means being very honest with yourself. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a responsible adult enjoying a couple of alcoholic beverages or beers during happy hour after a long, hard day’s work. But if that causes you to take a 2 hour nap as soon as you get home, this could definitely lead to insomnia later in the night.

If your diet is full of carbohydrates and calories, you may catch yourself napping throughout the day. And if you are considered a night owl because your natural circadian rhythm makes you prefer night time wakeful activities to day time, you could have sleeping problems if you work early in the morning.

So your notepad or tablet needs to chronicle every action and activity you take during your waking hours. Obviously, also jot down each time during the night that you find yourself awake. Even if you just get up out of bed to use the restroom, you need to journal that activity.

Also, emotional states can often cause chronic sleeplessness. This means you may suffer from insomnia because of issues at work, or problems with a spouse or family member. Journal all of this information as well.

What do you do with all of this painstaking information once it is accumulated?

After you have compiled 2 or 3 weeks of detailed data about your daily activities and sleep cycles, you may be able to notice patterns where you are causing your own insomnia. But the best use for all of this information is to approach your doctor and see what he recommends.

In many cases, you may be referred to a sleep specialist or sleep coach. And insurance sometimes pays for light therapy and other treatments of insomnia, where changing your personal lifestyle was not enough to reset your sleep clock. Just remember that every detail in your daily life is important to track, if your efforts at defeating insomnia with a detailed daily journal are going to be successful.