I basically cured my insomnia

Making a permanent change to my sleep and wakefulness cycle wasn’t easy. As Dr. Twery pointed out, behavioral tools and interventions take time. “We are creatures of habit and routine,” he emphasized. “Coordination of the brain and the rest of your body, with a healthy lifestyle, helps get optimal health and regularity of sleep and wakefulness.” But how do I attain this brain-body coordination in the name of optimal health? First I had to break one of my favorite habits: night coffee. I often feel incredibly fatigued by the end of the workday—a combination of a poor night’s sleep the previous evening coupled with the daily stresses of my job. I’d rather chug a medium-roasted pick-me-up on the commute home than lounge around like Jabba the Hutt every evening. This hasn’t been an easy tradition to break. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, but I’d replace “fonder” with “crankier” alongside some other choice descriptors in this instance. I cut out another beloved ritual in my sacrifices for quality sleep: checking e-mail in bed. A definite no-no. Dr. Twery made that incredibly clear, saying, “Researchers have found that if we sit in front of a bright LED or cell phone, it can suppress or weaken signals for sleep. We should avoid exposure to blue light.” Checking e-mail in bed was a multi-faceted problem for me. Of course, not only was, the blue light tricking my body back into a state of wakefulness, the messages themselves were also an issue. After temporarily catching up on the never-ending onslaught of work email, I’d lie back on my mattress and run through every mundane detail of my day over again. Like many people, I’m my own worst critic. Did I send that spreadsheet to Tyler? Should I have closed that e-mail to a client with ‘Warmly’ instead of ‘Thanks? Question after question, every night was an anxiety-inducing mental rerun of mostly insignificant actions I’d taken that day. Eliminating the e-mail in bed restored a more positive work-life balance for me that was also required for a good night’s rest, but simply powering down earlier wasn’t enough. My mind still raced at a million miles a minute and I struggled to unwind. Then, I integrated nightly meditation into my reformed sleep routine and everything changed. “There is great data showing that meditation can be a useful tool for promoting healthy sleep,” Dr. Grandner pointed out. “It takes a bit of practice, but meditation can help the mind get to where it needs to be in order to allow for sleep.” I had already eliminated standard components of my life that could negatively impact my sleep cycle —caffeine, evening exposure to blue light, and late-night work from my daily habits—but the addition of nightly meditation was the cherry on my quality sleep sundae. I don’t need to distract myself with never-ending queues of sheep or over-the-counter crazes. Meditation enables me to focus on my body, restore its natural rhythm, breathe deeply, and finally relax—naturally. The only negative side effect to my newly rebalanced sleep cycle? I snore, but I couldn’t be happier about it.