Living With the Effects of Insomnia

Do you live with the effects of insomnia ? Are you an insomniac? Or perhaps you live with an insomniac? In any case, you then know how difficult life can be when somebody is not able to get enough sleep. Here are a few tips on living with someone who is suffering the effects of insomnia; whether you are the grouchy bear, or whether you live with one or simply happen to know one.

Common Sense and Healthy Living

It just makes sense that poor health habits will only make the effects of insomnia worse. Therefore eating nutritious food and getting regular exercise will help insomniacs as well as the ones who love them.

Eating a lot of sugar will also mess with your sleep cycle, because it will be bouncing your insulin levels up and down. A sugar crash makes you grouchier, too; you will feel a great deal better and you sleep better as well if you simply avoid eating a lot of sugar.

Certain protein foods contain tryptophan, which helps you sleep; milk and turkey are good examples of this. Protein also helps to keep your blood sugar level more even so that you avoid those sugar highs and crashes, and adding protein to your diet may help both your sleep and your mood.

Exercise helps develop good sleep by reducing stress and simply by tiring you out. Therefore, if you are suffering the effects of insomnia, regular exercise may help.

If you are living with an insomniac, regular exercise may help you tolerate him or her a little better because it will help your mood, too. It also gives you an opportunity to get away from him for a little while.

Grace and Space

Give yourself — or your insomniac friend — grace and space while he or she suffers the effects of insomnia. We all miss some sleep now and then. If you are not the insomniac, you can certainly empathize with them.

Remember to not expect too much of yourself. Cut back on your schedule until you are sleeping better, however schedule overload is stressful and can make insomnia worse.

As much as possible, give yourself extra time to complete projects and deadlines. One of the effects of insomnia we are all familiar with is fuzzy-headedness. Giving yourself some extra time will decrease your stress, and may even help your insomnia.

If you are the insomniac, give other people a little space and grace yourself. You know you are crabby right now. You are suffering the effects of insomnia, but your friends and family don’t necessarily have to. This is a good time to decrease your social contacts and take care of yourself. Avoiding others is one way to help them not deal with the effects of your insomnia.

When one member of a family is suffering the effects of insomnia, everybody feels it. By taking care of yourself and by giving everybody a little grace and space, you can all help each other until the grouchy bear can hibernate again.