😦 What Doesn't Help

People Who Have Never Truly Experienced Long-term Insomnia Just Don't Understand

To those who have never truly experienced insomnia, they often give us advice that we have already tried, without success. They think our suffering is easy to solve, which disrespects the years of pain we've endured.

I know you're tired of hearing it—those who have never truly experienced insomnia (including our friends, family, and even many doctors) often tell us things like:

• Exercise more during the day, get more sunlight
• Don’t look at your phone at night, reduce blue light exposure
• Don’t drink coffee
• Eat more vegetables and fruits

They assume we don't exercise or get sunlight, and they think we stay up late on purpose. After suffering for years or even decades, being dismissed so lightly can be infuriating.

I’m sure you, like me, have tried these methods and found they don't work:

• Yoga before bed
• Meditation
• Aromatherapy
• Hot baths
• Soft music
• Weighted blankets
• Steam eye masks
• Melatonin

And when you search for how to sleep better, the results tell you about the dangers of insomnia—as if we choose to be sleepless, as if we don’t already know the harms.

We Just Can't Fall Asleep

The real issue is, no matter how hard we try, we just can't fall asleep. I think we know better than anyone about the downsides of insomnia and relying on sleeping pills. So, when others kindly advise us to sleep early or not take pills, we can only smile: if it were that easy, who would choose to stay up late or take sleeping pills every day?

So here, I won't repeat those downsides. Instead, I will give you a practical plan on how to overcome insomnia and stop relying on sleeping pills, and how to rebuild a healthy sleep pattern.