I've had a horrible case of insomnia for about 8 months now and its driving me crazy! Ive been told by holistic doctors that changing to a healthier diet like raw veganism could probably help relax me...but so far ive made little progress! Also when I detox I dont know if my body is really detoxing or if i have low energy from not enough calories or if the low energy is from lack of sleep or detox. Has anyone else had problems with insomnia, and if you have what have you done to fix it! ive tried so many things and im desperate and will do anything! I want to eat a raw food diet but like i said i dont know if the diet is making me weak or if its for other reasons! Thank you guys! : )
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one thing i've noticed is that sometimes people think that having a clean diet is everything, or following a particular strain of a diet will fix all problems - and in a way, this is true, but there is no one cure-all. chances are, if you're experiencing insomnia (or other problems like this), it's not just your diet, it's probably a conglomeration of several different things... nor is everything always detox. that said, i'm sure it does affect it - but it's not everything. listen to your body, quiet yourself if you can, and try to feel yourself from the inside out. are you stressed about any particular issue, and if so, is it something you can fix?
i find myself particularly anxious, stressed, and unable to sleep after i have a lot of coffee and sugar; however it also happens when i am dreading something, even if it's a subconscious dread. one trick that i use is to bring it to my consciousness, write it down, journal or something. that's a big help. another thing you can do is try recording the dreams you have when you finally do fall asleep. this can shed a whole lot of light about what the real "problem" is. what i like to do is keep a dream journal by the bed - at first it's hard to remember them, but soon a whole flood of dreams come flying in and i remember up to 15 a night (who knew we had that many dreams!). then when you look back over a particular week or group of weeks, you start to see trends - worries manifest themselves in symbols. i started resting a lot more easily when i did the following things:
1. stopped eating after a certain time - not too close to bed-time. usually, a good time to stop eating (for me) is around 6:30 pm.
2. obviously, eating raw, vegan foods helped a great deal. however, stimulants (as durianrider said) such as cacao, etc. can keep people up, so don't try to eat those close to your bed time, if you do eat them. however, i don't know much about your particular diet, so i can't say much about this bit.
3. drinking enough water! this is a biggie. i mean obviously you don't want to be waking up in the middle of the night and having to pee, but during the day stay hydrated :) honestly most times that i find myself imbalanced or with a particular problem it's really just that i wasn't drinking enough water. and i have some water and it somehow mysteriously heals, haha.
4. chamomile tea can help, if you're into drinking tea. sleepy time tea for kids is good, too.
5. journaling and keeping a dream journal - these were biiig helpers. also, making sure you got everything done that you need to do! sometimes these little things stay in my mind and i know i should be doing them, but it's all about inertia. "an object at rest tends to stay at rest..." well if you've found yourself at rest too much and avoiding things that you need to do, BECOME that outside force and get yourself moving. :) this is so important. i used to worry into the night... worrying isn't relevant when you've got nothing to truly worry you.
i hope this helps! best of luck.
P.S. - i read those ionic foot baths were a hoax! apparently someone ran them without feet in them, and the water still changed colors. :/
Hi, scrapperjoe,
...sorry to hear about the sleep problems. I have often suffered from insomnia during stressful times in my life, like a rough job or family illness. The thing that helps me the most is getting plenty of exercise. If I get an hour in in the morning and then something low key like a 1/2 hour walk around 6 pm, I find it a lot easier to get some sleep. It sometimes takes a week or so of a really consistent schedule of that before the sleep kicks in, but that's the only thing that works consistently for me that doesn't require some kind of medication.
wishing you the best,
-osoniye
2plus2, that's interesting! i'm sorry, i didn't mean to be abrasive / i hope i didn't come off that way. it is definitely good to be skeptical but if they do work sometimes then that makes sense too, depending on who's doing it. i probably should have looked into it more! i just thought that it'd be good if i wrote that as a side note, because it is something i'd heard and... well, these days one never knows, because some people are just selling snake oil as natural cures, or what have you, the "bad men" :), and its hard to tell who's who any more.
My stressful job gives me bouts of insomnia plus I think I inherited it from my dad. He had it really bad. I don