There’s no substitute for rewiring your brain for sleep – for re-learning all the things your brain already knew before you piled on new strategies, tactics, tips and hacks to your bedtime routine. I won’t lie – this takes work and consistency. But it’s so worth it to do this for and with yourself.
Think of it this way: if changing your mattress and pillow, making your room darker, not looking at blue light screens before bed, and having a really specific bedtime routine every night really helped you sleep better, you wouldn’t be here reading this, right?
That advice has been available to you, for free, for a really long time. And I bet you’ve tried all of the tips. Most women who struggle with insomnia tell me, “I’ve literally tried everything!!”
Which doesn’t mean the advice is bad, it’s just not helpful for women with chronic insomnia. Sleep hygiene tools and tips help support good sleep but they can’t fix poor sleep on their own.
Marketing messages and the primitive, reactive part of your brain condition you to look outside yourself for quick solutions to most problems. Sleep is no different. It’s easier to take drugs, supplements, change things in your environment, or blame others than it is to look inside yourself – at your thoughts, habits and beliefs and decide that’s the place to start.