From my 20+ years of personally-motivated research on this, I believe the most influential factors in insomnia are, in order:
(1) A controlled, regular schedule of caffeine; limited alcohol. (2) If it exists, a week+ long pattern of waking up at the same time. (3) Exposure to sunlight.
The author's advice is still useful, although I disagree that insomnia "...can be fixed easily and quickly."
As somebody who doesn't sleep well or much, how do you define 'serious'?
In the context of this article, by 'serious' insomnia, I meant cases that are not just psychological (eg stress).
I didn't mean to downplay significant sleep troubles due to stress alone. Even in those cases, non-psychological factors should be considered.
I find a glass of scotch and putting on an old TV episode that I've seen 100 times before to personally be the best cure for insomnia.
I've found that having a regular sleep time has helped me the most. I get up between 7am and 9am everyday and go to bed between 11pm and 12am. If I keep to this schedule I find myself naturally getting tired around 11pm everyday. If I don't keep this schedule (which happens often before I rediscover it's benefits) I find I suffer from bad insomnia and often lie awake all night even when I feel extremely tired.
- Change my bed time from 24:00 to 23:00. Whenever I don't sleep immediately, my mind doesn't go into the 'yet another night' train. Instead it changes to 'there's still plenty time to sleep'. On the upside, when I sleep quickly, I get plenty of sleep compensation.
- Be regular. During the weekends I try to get to bed at most an hour later and get out of bed an hour later. I notice may body gets accustomed to that schedule. I get tired at the right time, and wake up at the right time.
- I stopped reading news sites (including Hacker News) after 21:00. They get me exited and put my mind into overdrive.
- I stopped using a computer or mobile phone after 22:00. Lots of research has shown that prolonged screen use reduces melatolin production.
- End the day with some simple activity that is only mildly interesting. E.g., if you are not too much into sports, watch some boring sports on television.
- Have some melatolin tablets at home, just in case you have some really bad nights. It's said that they do very little harm.
- Have a second place in your house to sleep (e.g. a couch) if you have a partner. You can avoid keeping him/her awake as well.
- Stop worrying about sleep. It's hard, but it helps.
Since I made these changes, I sleep well 95% of the time. The other 5% I still sleep enough ours to make it through the day.
With respect to the Scotch, as much as I like Scotch, I would avoid it. It helps some, but it can quickly turn into an addiction.
A book might be better though, since blue light is supposed to promote wakefulness and is more prevalent in light coming from screens that from your average light bulb.
(FWIW - I tend to watch cartoons on my iPhone just before I go to sleep, but only ones which I find slightly amusing and wouldn't watch otherwise)
The Audible edition of Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" has worked really well for me: it's a fascinating panorama of history, but very episodic so you don't miss out on plot points if you actually fall asleep; the writing style is clear, elegant, and often funny; and the narrator has a calming voice and a smooth even tone throughout all 1300+ years of history so you won't be jarred awake by changes in volume.
"The notebook and pen are professional equipment, as it were. Though actually there is something druglike about them, in the sense that their main purpose is to make me feel better. I hardly ever go back and read stuff I write down in notebooks. It's just that if I can't write things down, worrying about remembering one idea gets in the way of having the next. Pen and paper wick ideas."
Although, I find that most of the time I toss-and-turn b/c my mind is continuously thinking about solving some problem at hand. It's 3am and I should go to bed, otherwise I'll be a zombie at the office tomorrow, but there is this problem that I have to stop thinking about first. Creativity doesn't really follow the same schedules as "business hours"; I would suggest that if you can, stay awake thinking/working/doing until you can't anymore.
At least in my personal case, I've solved the hardest problems while being asleep.
I prefer to get my exercise in the late morning or early afternoon. Unless it's a very hot day, then I like to exercise in the morning while the day is heating up.
For example, I exercise from 19-20 and go to sleep at midnight. But if I have a football match at, say, 23, then it's impossible to go to sleep afterwards, I'm too tired.
Try whatever works for you. Humans are meant to exercise in order to follow their natural metabolism cycle, so an hour of any exercise, just before dinner, works wonders.
But if you are not well organized, then this 1 simple technique comes in handy.
Nice advert though.
The only concession to technology in my bedroom is a DAB clock radio. I'm not interested in checking Twitter or email or whatever from bed, but if it's there, I'll do it instead of sleeping. So just keeping all that stuff in a different room works!
This article is nonsense. It's just a sales pitch for some software. Going on the computer and writing your notes in that software just before bed is likely to harm your sleep, as is going on a computer to do anything right before bed...
What happens is you start to drift off, you relax, an apnea happens, and your body gives you a dose of adrenalin to help wake you up to breath. Hence the mind racing. Often you don't even realize you had started to drift off at all, and just think your mind has been spinning wildly keeping you awake.
Works like a charm for me.