Beating Insomnia

Having a life in which you eat, work, exercise, socialize, study, sleep or rest at different and unpredictable times each day makes it difficult for your body to get into a rhythm compatible with good sleep.

Our bosses don’t let us learn through our mistakes any more. Society

accept this, you’ll find that from time to time life throws you a bouquet which you haven’t earned. It cuts both ways.

Getting really good at managing your mind is central to improving your sleep. This means getting expert at a relaxation exercise, at how to be mindful and at how to challenge the unhelpful and unrealistic thinking patterns which keep you awake.

term is really a misnomer when discussing major or clinical depression (depressive illness), which is a physical illness, not a mental illness, involving a real chemical disturbance in the brain and hormonal changes in the body.

isn’t necessary anyway, as research on child-rearing shows that being ‘good enough’ as a parent is better for your kids than being perfect.

relatively empty address book may be lonely for a while, but if you keep the users and abusers away and look out for the givers, they will eventually arrive.

the excellent texts on the subject written by an expert. I would recommend Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation for Everyday Life by Jon Kabat-Zinn (London: Piatkus, 2004), Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World by Mark Williams and Danny Penman (London: Piatkus, 2011), or any one of the myriad books on

What are the ‘givens’ which keep me in this situation? Is this stressful person who I call a friend really a friend? Can I reduce the stress which this place causes