We Are Basically Plants With Anxiety

Surely you have already read and heard a lot about the importance of sleep (mostly from me I hope) and why it is so important to treat sleep disorders seriously and treat them like actually take steps to fix your sleep, the subject would’ve already made you sleepy if you weren’t an insomniac. And, and, and you must’ve noticed by now, like come on, you love my stuff, you read it religiously, it’d be a little creepy if it wasn’t so flattering (I’m kidding, please don’t stop reading my stuff) anyway, that my last three posts concurrently talk about this one, beautiful, brilliant, blissful experience. Sloth, I mean sleep.

The reason, well reasons for this are two-fold, one, need I even say it? I love, fricking luuuuv sleep, and secondly, sleep deprivation is a B***h, with a capital B! But how is a process in which we spend practically a third of our lives not going to be important? Like, come on guys!? While we sleep, many processes and functions of the brain are consolidated, such as memory and learning, that is why when suffering from insomnia or other sleep disorders, our functioning during the day is affected.

When talking about insomnia treatments, most people think of sleeping pills, but many do not like this idea and for good reason, yes they work, and yes again, they are a legitimate way to deal with the issue, however, it should only ever be used as a last resort, due to their capacity to be devastatingly addictive. Being dependent on drugs even to go to sleep, when until recently I only needed my teddy bear and a lamp in my room is not the direction I want to go.

Thankfully there are plenty of alternatives to this problem on the market, some are sold as miracle products, claiming they could knock out a horse, some probably could, others are simple scams, fortunately, some do what they say on the metaphoric tin, but the question remains which ones work? It depends on you. But luckily you don’t have to part with your precious cash go and buy test each of these bad boys out to see which one works for you without knowing anything about them, you can read this *amazing* review that someone wrote for you in this blog (hey, that’s me!).

In A New Chapter In The Saga Of Harry Potter And The Mystery Of Why I Can’t Sleep: Light Therapy

Light therapy involves being exposed to a bright white light source of at least 10,000 lux for a few minutes a day. And that’s it, you just need water and light. You are an anxious plant.

You only need a few minutes a day and you will start to notice changes. This light source should not be strobe or flicker, without magnetic effects or ultraviolet light.

So why light? What I said about us being anxious plants is not just me being funny, although I’m utterly hilarious. We need light to control our biological cycles, including our Circadian cycle, which is what happens while we sleep. When this light is captured by our eyes, it becomes a stimulus that causes the secretion of melatonin in the pineal gland, which is crucial in the sleep process. So being exposed for at least two weeks, every morning by this light, will mean you’ll have better-regulated sleep cycles.

Sleep problems can be associated with our internal clock, which tells us when to go to sleep and wake up, being poorly adjusted. What light therapy does is calibrate this, so that it will eventually adjust to our desired sleep patterns.

Let There Be Light!

How to use Light Therapy lights? Very easy:

Place the luminous screen/light so that it is one foot or 30 centimeters from the eyes

Switch on in the minimum intensity position

Increase intensity to the maximum

When the maximum intensity has been reached, keep your distance for 30 minutes

You don’t need to look directly, so you can do other activities while keeping your eyes open.

Do this when you wake up every morning and you should start noticing an improvement in your sleeping quality in only a few weeks.

Why Buy A Lamp And Not Just Use… The Sun?

Several studies have proven that the climate and the weather directly affect our moods and our performance during the day. Normally, during a clear and sunny day, we want to go out, be outdoors, be on the move, and on cloudy and rainy days you prefer to be indoors, become a burrito of sheets in our bed and stay nice and toasty. Mmm, burrito bed. The influence of this is such that it can have a prolonged effect on the personality of inhabitants of certain regions, it is believed that that is why people who live in cloudy cities like London can be more calm and serene (note the infamous British stiff upper lip) and those who live in tropical cities where there are only two seasons of the year: hot and hotter, they can be more energetic and vibrant (see every South American since ever!)

Light therapy will allow you to control your biological cycles without depending on the weather, it is like having your tropical sun in your room, so you can have energy and motivation even on the rainiest of days.

It is because of this that light therapy also turns out to be highly effective in other disorders such as jet lag, SAD (seasonal affective disorder), and even in neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

Read every story from Mindsmatter (and thousands of other writers on Medium) As a Medium member, a portion of your membership fee goes to writers you read, and you get fullaccess to every story on Medium

____________________________________________________

We made something a little great! The Anxiety Workbook, get yours by clicking here.

____________________________________________________

Want To Support Us?

You can like this story, tell a friend about it, buy us a coffee on Ko-fi, check us out on Medium, or all of the above! It all helps!

____________________________________________________

Want Even More?

Grab the latest updates from Mindsmatter. Exclusive stories, mental health resources, and more!

Click here to join the newsletter!