I have figured out one possible cure for insomnia.
I started having insomnia in the mid-1990s. Mine is the sort that wakes me up at night, my little brain buzzing like an electrical transmission tower, thoughts of work, thoughts of family, song worms, you name it.
I have tried everything to cure this, from earplugs and eye masks to $90-per-window light-blocking shades to learning to meditate to prescription drugs on occasion when things get really out of hand, as well as therapy off and on. Years of this. Years. It's been the bane of my existence. I considered that I manifest stress as insomnia and that's it. It's been something I dealt with and something I expected to manage until I die.
Then I came across an article about some Danish girls who did an experiment with WiFi where they planted some seeds near WiFi and some in another room. The seeds in the room with WiFi died, while the seeds without WiFi in the room germinated and flourished. This interested me. I started doing research on WiFi and discovered that many countries warn their citizens that WiFi can be dangerous for the brain. Canada, Germany, France, and many others all consider this science worth examining. Here in the U.S., if something will cost a few rich corporations money, it's often ignored or suppressed. Who cares if babies or children get brain cancer and die?
In any case, while this is all interesting, it wasn't this WiFi information that caught my eye so much as the reason that the girls thought to conduct this experiment in the first place. The article stated that all of the girls noticed that when they slept near their mobile phones when the phones were turned on, their sleep was restless and difficult.
This got me to thinking. My mobile phone is always next to my head on my bedside table. I've had a mobile phone since at least 1996, which is about when my insomnia started. What if my insomnia is not caused by my inability to relax, but by the mobile phone signals?
I tried my own experiment. I began turning off my mobile phone at night. I also turned off our household WiFi. It isn't in the same room with me, but it is just through the wall, not six feet from my brain, and WiFi waves travel through walls.
Immediately my sleep improved. I've had a few nights where I awakened, but I fall instantly back asleep without the little buzzing brain going on. No more song worms. No more spinning thoughts. No more waking so much my kidneys think it's time to turn on the bladder. No more tossing and turning and finally falling asleep at dawn, only to have to rise a half an hour later exhausted and worn.
I've gone for almost three months sleeping through the night. Nothing else in my living situation has changed to explain the improvement in my sleep. Even when I wasn't having insomnia episodes before, my sleep was always restless. Now I actually rest.
The other night I awakened at 3 a.m. The awakening was similar to my previous insomnia. Tossing, turning, spinning thoughts. Lying there, I asked myself, "Why am I awake?" Then it dawned on me that perhaps my teenage daughter had not unplugged the WiFi. I went out and checked. Lo and behold, the WiFi was plugged in. Within five minutes of unplugging, I was asleep.
I think there is something to this possible cause for insomnia. Never once has it been mentioned to me by any health care professional as a possibility, but it makes sense. If you're having insomnia, I suggest trying it. I had no expectations about its efficacy when I started this, but the results have been amazing. Perhaps the scientific community should take heed.
I googled "mobile phones and insomnia" and "WiFi and insomnia" and found several studies linking mobile phone or computer use just before sleep to insomnia, but I couldn't find anything on the electromagnetic waves or other waves given off while the phone or WiFi was next to one's head. I don't use my phone or computer before bed. I don't have a smartphone anymore (I got rid of it because it was making me dumb), so staring at a screen before bed could not have been the cause of my insomnia.
I am loving sleeping well. I had concluded that I was going to have to spend the rest of my life dealing with insomnia. Now I'm hopeful. I look forward to the possibility that I can live the rest of my life without it.
Sweet dreams!
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