This Guide is Out of Date.

For now, feel free to read the guide below, or get more specific help on your sleeping problem by trying my Diagnostics Page.

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A Complete Guide to Finding Insomnia Cures

All Natural Insomnia Cures are summed up right here - if you suffer from insomnia, then you should take this guide seriously, or read through it when you have the time.

This is a really exciting, important guide for me to write because I don’t think anyone has ever addressed the real issues here as I am about to, in such a complete way.

Maybe I’m killing it here, but seriously, don’t waste time pillaging through the internet for insomnia cures before reading this.

This is very compact, so the more you focus, the more you’ll get out of it.  I’ll be expanding this single post into a whole bunch of blog posts (linked to this post) to make a full, extensive, free master guide for conquering your sleeping problem, naturally. For every link you see within this guide, it’ll bring you to an extension of the guide.

This wasn’t written for people suffering from sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, or to address sleep problems that arise with feminine hormones.  If you suffer from sleep apnea, I’ve recently come across the most popular guide for sleep apnea on the internet right now, which you can check out here.  If you suffer from restless legs syndrome, this guide can help, but I recommend this guide to save you time.  You can also read my 8 Tips For Fighting Restless Legs Syndrome.

The first thing to realize is that this is called Insomnia Cures because there isn’t *one* cure for insomnia…

Within Cures For Insomnia, There’s:

1. The curing of insomnia from your life: See Life Choices below.
2. Cures within the act of falling asleep: See Insomnia Cures below.

Life Choices include behaviors that INDIRECTLY help you go to sleep by influencing the sleep cycle. There are two cycles that influence and make up the sleep cycle - our body’s heat cycle and it’s melatonin cycle.

Due to these hormonal cycles controlling the chemicals we need to fall asleep, upwards of 80% of all sleeping problems lie here.

Insomnia Cures refers to affecting what actually happens when you try to fall asleep.  Sleep is not a choice - you can’t choose to fall asleep - but you can choose to do things that will cause you to fall asleep.  I’m going to cover things you can do to train your brain to fall asleep.

Life Choices

First of all, there may be obstacles in your life - like being depressed, being very tensed and anxious all the time, and others - that may be the source of your sleeping problem.  People who get their life together often comment that they sleep much better than they used to.

If insomnia is a serious, chronic problem for you, it’s usually a reflection of life; A message from your body to get it together.

When I finally came around to doing this, I found out that it actually makes me a lot happier when I work on my own life, and it BOOSTED the insomnia cures I was already using.

To improve your sleep, think of it like you govern your “sleep cycle”.

As the government, you’re the one who decides what behaviors you put into action - and like the economy or any cycle or system - it needs a certain amount of things to function among other needs.

This is so important because you are already the government for this cycle, so no help from the outside world can fix it.

1. Throughout the day, you need to get a lot of sunlight.

WHY:

This is the most important item because your melatonin cycle tells you when you need go to sleep and when you need to wake up.  The most likely problem for someone suffering chronic insomnia (and people up late into the morning before they can fall asleep) is that your melatonin cycle is off - it’s telling your body to do the right things at the wrong times.

When the sun sets, that’s supposed to be when your body goes, “there’s no sunlight to give me melatonin.  I better make my own” - which results in you being tired.  Then, around the time it rises, that’s when your body shuts off the melatonin, waking you up as you start getting melatonin from the sun again.

Depending on your beliefs, you could say this is the way we evolved.  In any case, it’s your system of natural sleeping pills and cappuccino - and it can get off - giving you your sleeping pill at a totally inappropriate time and waking you up when you need to be sleeping.

HOW:

Look, I can give you the cold numbers here - at least 1 hour with direct sunlight a day (as in, light comes through the atmosphere and hits your skin) - but it varies per person, and you simply need A LOT more than you’re getting now… if you think you’ve been getting an hour or less a day.  On cloudy days, you need at least twice as much.

So please don’t trust in 1 hour - trust in doubling or tripling the amount of sunlight you normally get in a day. You’re probably going to need to lead more of an outdoor life for this to be considered amongst your “Cures of Insomnia”.

That means, you can’t struggle to try for 1-2 hours a day.  It means you have to rethink the way you’re living life a little bit - and see the benefits of being outside more and why that would be good for your life, not JUST for sleep.

If you don’t WANT to be outside, just deal with the fact that you’re never going to get the sleep you want.  It’s so important that you get you’ve got to want to do the things that are required… because quite frankly, it’s not nearly easy until it’s been about 21 days and it’s a habit.

Alright, moving on to more insomnia cures…

2. Throughout the day, you need to be active and drink water.

This isn’t something you can escape, even though the second a lot of people hear it that’s exactly what they try and do.

For some of us, not being active defines who we are.  At first, I thought this all really “sucked” and so I tried other cures for insomnia, only to realize that the sleep cycle works the way it works.

WHY:

The other cycle you’re able to govern that makes a big impact on your sleep cycle is your body’s temperature cycle or heat cycle.  For you to feel awake, the temperature MUST rise. For you to sleep profoundly, it HAS to drop.

The more it fluctuates, the better. Problem is, an inactive lifestyle may cause this wave to be rather flat, causing sluggishness during the day and poor sleep at night.

This creates something in your brain called SMR, which is something you MUST have enough of in your system to be able to fall asleep.

HOW:

This is a lot easier than you might think.  You don’t have to work out every day, as much as I’d recommend it.

1. What is easiest is to put getting light and getting activity into one solution.  For me, I started by going out a few times a day - once in the morning, once around lunch, and once around dinner - and hanging out with friends (if I could get them outside) or discovering something new.

2. It’s hell until it’s a habit. I started working out a few months ago, and I could never do it every day - I always struggled - until I learned about this.  Once I forced myself to do it for 21 days, I literally had no problems with working out, and now it feels hard to *not* work out (I think it’s because working out generates proactive thinking).

You have to want something - if you can keep at it for 21 days, you just won’t find it hard anymore; you’ll completely accept it, and it’ll be easy and routine.

…OR…

This strategy uses brain entrainment.  You can learn more about what brain entrainment is and the science behind it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainwave_synchronization

An Alternative: The Insomnia Buster Track. I have a confession to make: I didn’t work out when I (first) cured my insomnia.  And I still got my sleep cycle on track.  This is because as explained above, working out is more about the “wear and tear” effect on your body, which helps increase SMR and trigger your sleep when it’s bedtime.

You can achieve this affect by increasing SMR another way - The Insomnia Buster track within the Sleep Tracks program.  This is extraordinarily effective when used WITH working out, but works well on it’s own.  Since this is what worked for me (and mixing the two SMR methods cured my insomnia for good), I highly recommend it throughout my blog.

How to use this method most effectively:

1. At first, play the track 2 to 3 times daily, and at least one time before bed - this will help train your brain to make SMR.
2. 3 to 5 days later, start listening to it once during the day and once before bed.
3. After 10 days to 2 weeks, just listen to the track before sleep - soon, your brain will begin to “get it”, and make it’s own SMR more and more, especially right after hearing the track.

I count this highly amongst my insomnia cures; click here to check it out.

3. Consider your health.

Anything unhealthy - including passing out in front of the tv every night - can affect your sleeping cycle.  Maybe you just need to fix the little things!

Your health in shape is important because it affects many hormonal cycles which can alter your sleep cycle.  Each one only has a slight affect - but together, they could make up your entire sleeping problem.

According to the End Tiredness Program:

“the most common causes of tiredness are:

• Stimulants (Caffeine, Nicotine, Alcohol)
• Dehydration
• Stress
• Physical Inactivity
• Bad nutrition habits
• Sleep problems”

When it comes to water, you should be getting at least 8 cups (measured) a day.  You can still drink soda and what not, but consider what I just mentioned, and get the water in - gatorade doesn’t count.

4. More Guides On Curing Insomnia From Your Life:

These are the books or programs that I built this program from. I haven’t gone through all of them myself, as some of these have been highly recommended to me by people I trust.

• The End Tiredness Program (book): This is a very scientific approach at monitoring your sleep cycles and using techniques with the data to conquer your sleep problem.  After using sleeptracks as a cure for insomnia, this is the program that actually solved insomnia permanently, and helped me write this guide.
• The Sleep Optimization Program (video) within Sleep Tracks: This approach comes with the sleep tracks - meaning, if you need help falling asleep and you also want to cure insomnia from your life entirely, this is a good way to go.  In fact, this guide is largely based on the sleep optimization program.
• How to Beat Insomnia (Complete Resource): I have to give it up for this guy - he’s put together a complete resource that provides 7 extra guides as helpful bonuses.  This will not only lay out how to cure insomnia from your life, but it also gives you cures for falling asleep (tapping into the subconcious of your mind) and guides to help you with the individual parts.

That’s it for life behaviors - and remember, this section makes up 80% of the insomnia cures most people need.

Insomnia Cures - The Act of Falling Asleep

This is very important and I don’t think anyone has ever addressed the real issue here as I am about to.

Sleep is not a choice. You can’t “choose” to fall asleep - there’s no connection between the chemicals in your brain that caused you to fall asleep and your desire to fall asleep.  Actually, the opposite is true…

If you “choose” to go to sleep, what actually happens is that the chemicals in your brain have been asked for action, and so your brain goes into action mode.  By trying to go to sleep, you’re brain *gets* that you are *trying* at something, and goes into an activity, which by definition, PREVENTS YOU FROM BEING ABLE TO FALL ASLEEP.

The good news is that we can use these chemicals to create different cures for insomnia.  There’s a few I’m into, and one I’m not:

What I’m not into: Sleeping Pills.  No!  I believe that if you are going to alter the chemicals in your brain, you should do it naturally.  And the data supports me on that.  Of most people that get into sleeping pills, they stop working after a couple of weeks.  Or they don’t work at all.  Or they work with nasty side effects.  I’m not saying sleeping pills don’t work - they do for some people, and if you seriously need help in the area of helping your brain fall asleep, sleeping pills aren’t a bad idea.  Try them.  But come to me if you ever want something permanent and natural.

Insomnia Cures I am into:

1. A program called Sleep Tracks.

I count this among my cures for insomnia because, well, it’s what worked for me!

This strategy uses brain entrainment.  You can learn more about what brain entrainment is and the science behind it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainwave_synchronization

The sleep tracks directly affects the chemicals in your brain without messing with them.  I am working on a more natural cure - for that see #2 - but for now, this program has worked excellently for many people at altering your brain activity.  It doesn’t mess with your chemicals because technically, it’s your brain choosing the ones you want - even though it’s stimulated by an external source.

The way this works is fascinating.  Sleep tracks play soundwaves that cause your mind to adjust the frequency of it’s brainwaves.  During sleep, we naturally experience slower and slower brainwaves, which these soundwaves are able to emulate.  It’s based on the same process that happens when you listen to a musical rhythm.

I recommend this program because it worked for me and it’s worked for a lot of people - but it takes effort just like anything else and it won’t work if you continue to make bad lifestyle choices.  The only reason I stopped using it was to work on my own skill for falling asleep - but now it’s hard for me to test my own skills, because I naturally fall asleep better since I’ve done sleeptracks.

As far as I can see, the data shows me that this program works for the most people.  It’s just important to remember that just like everything, it takes work and bad life behaviors will still cause bad sleep.

Click here to try it out.

2. Other Natural Insomnia Cures:

If you go through my other blog posts, you’ll see many reviews of other blogs, and if you check them out, you can find a variety of different programs for insomnia.

Of these, the ones I know enough about to recommend are:

• Meditation: Meditation naturally puts you in the right state for sleep.  It’s especially effective for people who can’t fall asleep because of endless chatter or anxiety.  I’m currently putting together a guide on how to meditate, but in the meantime, here are some programs I recommend:Guided-Meditation
  -Deep Zen Meditation: This is a world class CD you can listen to that allows anyone to meditate as deeply as a Zen monk.  You can get a demo at no charge.  This is the highest class guided meditation CD I can recommend.

  In general, guided mediation is very similar self-hypnosis.
  
  Book / Guide
  -The New Meditation Handbook: This is the buddhist method of meditating, but you don’t need to be a Buddhist to meditate like one.  I’m currently turning this book into a guide for this website (as of October - November 2008.)
  -Calming Words: This book teaches you techniques with using words to relax, and helps in general with meditation.  Highly recommended if anxiety is keeping you awake.

• Self-Hypnosis: This is particularly effective if you suffer from non-stop chatter that keeps you up all night.  You can learn it yourself, (which I’ll have a post for later), or you can have a professional guide you via CD.  Dr. Montague is a psychologist and hypnotherapist that has made a CD for her website that will put you to sleep.  It’s very effective - This was what I use when all else fails.
• How to Beat Insomnia (Complete Resources): In addition to a guide on curing insomnia for good, it gives a strategy for literally tapping into your subconscious mind and reawakening your ability to sleep.  This is highly recommended if you don’t know why you can’t fall asleep.




• SleepWiz: Another new brain entrancement program, this serves as a cheaper alternative to the sleeptracks program.  It uses the same exact technology, and there’s some interesting bonuses and other options you can select.  I don’t know anyone who’s tried this one, but since it uses the exact same technology as sleeptracks, I can recommend it safely enough.
• SleepTracks: As recommended above.

…and there are others (see my reviews).  Even on some of the blogs I’ve reviewed, I’m clueless as to all the cures they recommend.

You can rest assured that any of the products I recommend are things that actually worked, for me or others - which doesn’t mean they’ll work for you, but at least they’ve been put to the test in very real context.  If I recommend a product that I’m not sure about, I’ll be sure to let you know that.

Keep in mind the most important thing to do before choosing ANY cure is to determine the most likely sources of your sleeping problem.

3. The “Skill of Falling Asleep”

I’m actually studying a method of putting yourself to sleep by directly causing the right chemicals for sleep to activate.  It’s based on my research that people who meditate often or people who are very creative sleep very well, and it’s uncommon for these kind of people to have sleeping problems.

The idea is that by meditating, you can put your mind in a place where it’s at peace and aware of the environment, causing slight increase in SMR, and much more so after practice.  Then, from a state of high SMR, activate the chemicals that cause you to fall asleep by entering a creative state - something which is incredibly natural, but most people have spent their entire lives undoing this natural skill.

I can’t even begin to sum it all up in this post, but you can click here to learn more.

While the system for finding Cures for Insomnia has been completed - this blog has to be made one post at a time, and the majority of my work goes into testing these techniques (meaning, I see how they work with other people - I spend most of my time teaching.)

I’m results oriented, so I won’t ever direct you something that didn’t work. The cures for insomnia you’re looking for are already inside you - you just need to know what to do, and I just want to help you find them.

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If you have ANYTHING good, bad, or indifferent on your mind, I would like to hear about it.

You can leave a comment on this post below (by first clicking on the post title) or you can email me at thecahoon@gmail.com.

In particular, you can help me to better help others by explaining the following: what is your specific problem with sleep, and what are the top 3 frustrations you have because of it?  (Sending me an email about that would be very helpful towards putting new stuff on this blog.)

I can’t stress enough how important it is to me to hear about different sleeping problems from different individuals.

Until then, working on my Insomnia Cures,
James Cahoon

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