I’ve been having insomnia for almost four years now. Great news though! A combination of homeopathy, a nutrition supplement, and a different “blanket” are making the difference. So I’m sharing what is working for me in hopes it will help any of you out there.

Because I am a mom who has had seven children, and you moms out there know what I mean, I wake up nightly between 2-5 AM to go visit the bathroom. So many times I have lain awake, after doing my business, not being able to fall back to sleep. Ugh! Then once I would fall asleep, I would sometimes wake up 2-3 more times in the same night. I then would awake around 5-6 AM with my husband’s alarm, to get up with him and pack his breakfast and lunch and send him off to work. Soooo many times I have not felt “done” sleeping when all that happens. Double ugh!

Ever since my car accident in Las Vegas when I totaled a car after surviving a head-on collision, I’ve had these problems (Nobody died or got majorly hurt thank goodness!) That was almost four years ago. That first night after the accident, we had to sleep in a hotel room. We didn’t even get into the room until after midnight. My adrenaline was still on full tilt. I lay there awake with the accident replaying in my head. I finally fell asleep around 5 and woke up at 7 because the kids woke up and I can’t sleep when I hear kids making noise. I haven’t had a good night’s sleep since then.

The way I had been dealing with this hard-to-fall asleep and then frequent waking has been to just cuddle under the blankets, keeping the lights off, reading stories on my phone, with a dark background to lessen the light keeping my eyes awake. I do this for anytime from 5 to 30 minutes, until I fell asleep. I only read in the Gospel Library App. That allows me to read peaceful things, things of God that help me feel safe, secure, and loved, because I am feeling the Spirit.

Another way I have dealt with this lack of sleep is going back to bed on mornings, when I can, after sending my husband off. I sometimes get up as early as 5:15 for that. Sometimes I have commitments for my kids’ homeschooling, so I can’t. But two mornings a week I can so I do. I then sleep until I am done. I feel blessed I am in a season of life when I can do that. My youngest is 11, :-). Oh how I remember the days when I yearned to sleep more but couldn’t because the baby was done sleeping and was ready to be up. I always wished babies could be like dolls that I could switch on and off, so that they made noise only when I wanted them to, :-).

Anyway I started taking Joette Calabrese’s Gateway to Homeopathy 1 class. It’s fascinating! I learned from the class that Aconitum napellus is good for shock from accidents. It’s best when taken right away, but I started wondering if it would help me heal from the shock, even though it’s been years later. I did chiropractic treatment for months after the accident. That helped a lot. But when I’m in bed, it’s like I’m back in that hotel room reeking of stale cigarette smoke. I don’t feel completely free from that nightmare event repeating in my mind.

So from the Gateway class, plus a Facebook Live Joette did on insomnia, and one of Joette’s podcast guests talking about insomnia, I have come up with the following treatment plan for myself:

1. 1 pellet of Aconitum napellus 30c before bed.
2. 1 pellet of Nux vomica 30c before bed. In the podcast I referenced above, a woman says that Nux vomica isn’t usually the first choice for insomnia (the usual one is Coffea Cruda) but Nux vomica works for her because it’s good for overdoing, whether it’s overeating, overindulging, overworking, or anything you do too much of. She says that she tends to overdo it so it works for her. When I heard that I thought, “Yeah, I feel like the past 20 years of my life I’ve been overdoing it because of all the stress I’ve had in my life.”
3. 1 tablet of KAL’s 40 Winks blend, including Tryptophan an hour before bed
4. Put my phone into airplane mode, since my phone is at my nightstand for an alarm
5. Take off my socks and pajama pants so I don’t get overheated. I’m usually always cold, especially in the winter, so I tend to wear socks, cozy warm polar fleece PJ pants, and a long-sleeve PJ top as I’m lounging in the home before getting into bed. I have finally figured out that if I keep those on in bed, I get too hot. I finally realized the heat was making me wake up, even when I didn’t need to visit the bathroom.
6. Remove the quilt I used to have on top of my bedspread.
7. Use a weighted blanket instead of the quilt on top of my bedspread. My bedspread, as much as I love the lemony yellow color, see above, has been too lightweight, once I removed the quilt. I don’t feel settled or contained, when I am lying underneath it. I feel like I’m just going to “levitate” right off the bed. It’s like I can’t feel settled, like I’m just out there and not protected and safe. But the quilt makes me too hot so I finally realized I couldn’t use the quilt. Well, I happened to see a weighted blanket when I was perusing the Internet once. It sounded so dreamy and sleep-inducing. I prayed and asked God to help me to know what I could use instead since I didn’t have the extra bucks to buy one. Within a few days, God came through for me. He inspired me to use my extra-large bath sheet. It’s nothing fancy, like organic bamboo. It’s just an aqua-colored bath sheet (bigger than a “bath towel”) that I bought at Target years ago. So I tried it and it felt perfect. Placed on top of me, it gives me the perfect “weightiness” without the extra heat. I no longer feel like I’m going to “fly” away. It’s super easy for me to snuggle down under the covers and drift off to sleep.

As a result of my new sleep regimen, I am falling asleep within 15 minutes, and when I wake up for potty duty I am falling back to sleep within 15 minutes. Yay! I am finally catching up on my sleep in the night, so that I don’t feel like I have to go back to sleep after my husband leaves for work. Yay!!! There’s nothing like great restorative sleep for feeling well!