Are You Self-Sabotaging Your Sleep?

If you have trouble sleeping at night, surely you can relate to a person who is willing to do almost anything to get a good night's sleep.

Just some uninterrupted rest is all you need. Being willing to go to extreme lengths can sometimes cause people to lose focus on the actual goal.

3 habits that are not helping my insomnia

So it is possible that a person could well be self-sabotaging their own sleep. While this might not be the cause of the insomnia, I found that these 3 bad habits were certainly not helping my insomnia at all.

Making some changes with regards to them has made a difference. I do, however, find that even though I am not always able to implement the changes practically, knowing what could be the added aggravation makes me feel better.

1. Irresistable afternoon naps

Oh my goodness, the love affair I have with napping. On a Saturday afternoon, when the world goes quiet, and my house is clean, and lunch has been served, my favorite thing is to curl up under a warm blanket and snooze the afternoon away.

Inevitably, I am tired, so that slumber is calling my name in all sorts of beautiful ways. However, on the days when I succumb to that treat, I know that by that night, there will be no decent restful sleep awaiting. Afternoon naps are often top-quality sleep for me. I do try and avoid them as far as possible. The days when I cannot pass it up, at least I know what is coming.

2. Picking up tech at night

It is 2 AM, and the world – well, most of it anyway – is asleep. You so wish you could sleep too. You think to yourself you will just scroll through social media a bit, just to pass some time before sleep will come and get you again.

BAD IDEA – a very, very bad idea – well, for me, it is anyway. I get sucked into an endless black hole of true crime, cooking, crafting, or music. When I blink my eyes again, it is 6 AM and time to get up and ready for work and school. Besides the black hole, the sensory overload from the light, sounds, and movement make it impossible for me to fall asleep again.

3. Staying up late to tire myself out

I have and continue to fall into this trap from time to time. My mind tells me that if I stay up later than I normally would, then I will be so tired that I will just collapse and sleep all night. Again, this is a myth for me anyway.

11 PM is my cut-off. If I go past that, then it is over for me. Falling asleep becomes a real struggle, more than usual anyway. I will easily only fall asleep around 2 AM and then have incredibly broken sleep.

Are you self-sabotaging your sleep? What habits would you like to break? Tell us more in the comments below.