I am an
expert on insomnia. I have to be as it is something I’ve been dealing with most
of my life. As a child, I remember going weeks at a time with no sleep…tossing
and turning and unable to settle. Finally, my mother would give me a half of valium.
It would break the bad sleep cycle for a month or two or three, then it would
repeat. It is no wonder that I was frequently ill with colds, sinus and
bronchial infections as my immune system was compromised by the lack of good
sleep.
Things did
not get better as I got older, in fact they got worse. Instead of going through
these cycles every two to three months, by the time I was 15, it would happen
monthly. I got smarter too, or so I thought. Instead of asking my mother for
the valium, I’d find some other pill that would put me to sleep in our medicine
cabinet. After all, we had pills for every ill in our cabinets, and there were
plenty of sleep inducing medicines. The illnesses got more frequent as I would
miss at least one day of school per month.
This cycle
continued throughout my life. By the time I was in Chiropractic school, I was
trying a variety of herbs. A friend suggested I try Skullcap, Valerian Root, Lemon
Balm, Chamomille and Lavendar. While they all might have provided temporary
relief, none of them gave me long term relief.
By my mid-30’s,
depression was something I regularly dealt with. Was it because I was
chronically fatigued or that I was creating havoc with my brain wave patterns
between regular medicating myself and not every getting into a deep sleep?
Despite having several “shrinks” tell me I should take anti-depressants, I knew
that was not the answer. I needed to get to the cause. Fortunately, during a
really horrible episode of depression, the psychologist I was working with at
the time suggested I go off of sugar.
I was one of
those closet cookie eaters. I would go weeks without eating cookies, then buy a
bag and consume them in one sitting. It was not wonder that I thought I might
be a manic-depressive. So, off the sugar I went. The goal was two weeks but I
wound up going off it totally for 2 years. That includes when going out for
dinner to make sure there was no sugar added to whatever meal I had ordered and
checking the labels for anything packaged I brought home. It wasn’t easy, but
it made such a huge difference in my life. Besides helping me with my
depression, my sleeping improved.
Then in my
early 40’s, I started having hot flashes and developed serious memory problems.
I bumped into a massage therapist that had worked in my office for 3 months and
while she looked familiar, had no idea who she was. My memory was really bad.
Needless to say, my sleep was getting worse again. I would toss and turn for
hours, and my depression started getting bad. I knew this was hormonal but this
was an area that I was unfamiliar. So, I went into the Natural Pharmacy in town
and spoke to one of the Pharmacists. He believed I had an overabundance of
estrogen and recommended a natural progesterone cream.
The cream
worked great and I started sleeping better again and I got pregnant! Things
were looking up but I would have periods where my sleep would be compromised.
From being a new mom and having a daughter who wanted to eat constantly to a
serious injury that would not allow me to sleep for more than 20 minutes at a
time for 3 years. I seemed to be destined to have horrible sleep patterns for
the rest of my life and honestly, I was not sure how I would survive.
Then a year
ago I had the opportunity to discover NeuroInfiniti. I learned about it from a
colleague who was using it in his office. While my initial interest in the
equipment was how I could learn about how a patient’s nervous system was
affected by stress in a variety of areas and the information it would provide
me as to how I could help them, there was something much bigger for me. I was
able to see how my brain waves were affected by stress as well. Finally, I
could understand why I had difficulty turning off my brain when I was trying to
sleep. It was not a deficiency of sleeping pills, there was something very
specifically going on with my theta and alpha waves. The theta waves are the
brain waves that are active right before going to sleep and the alpha waves are
those that are active when you are meditating. Both of these brain wave
patterns were low compared to where they should be.
With this
information I was able to determine a course of action for myself. Immediately,
I started down that path and started sleeping better within 3 weeks than I have
in my entire life. Deep sleep for 7 to 8 hours at a time every night is now the
norm for me. I can close my eyes and be asleep within a minute. I understand
why the other things I had tried gave me minimal results. While decreasing or
eliminating sugar and getting my hormones balanced helped me sleep better, the
reason why the problem still existed was because my brain wave patterns were a
mess. While I still need to use progesterone cream occasionally and watch the
sugar, getting my brain waves into a normal pattern was essential for a great
night’s sleep. What I’ve learned through this experience is that there are many
causes of poor sleep including pain, hormonal imbalance, and chemicals. And,
what affect did taking sleep medicines all of those years have on my brain wave
patterns? What I do know is if you have experienced insomnia for a while, most
likely your brain wave patterns have been affected.
Last week I
decided to have a re-evaluation using the NeuroInfiniti. I had another Stress
Response Evaluation done and compared my results with the prior year. It was
amazing to see the results and to see how
my brain wave patterns are now excellent.
For those that struggle with insomnia, rather than patching it up with
sleeping pills or herbs, get a Stress Response Evaluation done and see if there
is something amiss with your brain wave patterns. Then work with someone who
can help you get balance so you can
start sleeping better AND start feeling great. Insomnia is terrible and can
cause depression and illness. For new moms, it can cause decreased milk supply
and in my opinion, post partum depression. Sleeping great equals happiness!
Trust me, I know.
