Holidays are here: in theory, I should sleep more soundly given I no longer have to fret about the school run. But like many who battle with anxiety, insomnia remains a constant challenge. I can have trouble getting to sleep, trouble with waking in the night, and trouble waking up too early. I crave the deep, oblivious sleep that helps keep my Black Dog at bay, what Shakespeare called ‘the balm of hurt minds’.
The reassuring news is that learning to sleep is a skill like any other. My psychiatrist has helped me understand that not sleeping very much is not the problem. The danger is worrying about it. That is what can stop you from sleeping and make you ill. Our bodies are cleverer than our minds. When we are truly tired, we will fall asleep. Sleeping is a natural action. You don’t have to do anything to get to sleep. It is not humanly possible to stay awake forever.
But the one topic that mustn’t be on one’s list of worries is sleep itself. It is the ultimate paradox: to achieve sleep, you have to abandon the imperative to achieve it. I also believe in taking more practical steps and practise what doctors now call good ‘sleep hygiene’. All the clichéd approaches help: a completely dark room (I put up blinds); a milky drink (dairy products are rich in tryptophan, an amino acid that also acts as a hypnotic); doing nothing too stimulating before bed (a wind-down routine); and going to bed at roughly the same time every night. Here’s hoping your hurt mind receives the balm of a good night.
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