10 things every insomniac knows to be true

Let us start by saying insomnia is zero craic and if you regularly experience sleepless nights, you’ll know how annoying it can be.

Chatting amongst the Her team, we found that there are several things you come to learn when you’re lying awake at four in the morning. It's panic central It’s a vicious cycle. The goal is getting to sleep and you’ll try anything to get forty winks BUT the more you stress, the less chance of nodding off.   Sleep tutorials don't always work If your battle with insomnia is going on a while, chances are you’ve tried every YouTube video, breathing exercise, hypnosis technique and sleep playlist available. Yet, nothing works and if you have to listen to another ‘soothing’ voice, you’ll be forced to throw your phone out the window.   You FREAK OUT…about everything Lying awake at night gives you a lot of time to think and once you’ve exhausted your usual to-do lists and holiday daydreams, you might ponder some of life’s great mysteries. Before you know it, you’ll have predicted all the terrible things that might happen in the next year. Don’t. Do. It.   Things go bump in the night Although you might be awake all night, chances are your other half/housemate/neighbour isn’t. It’s best to try and keep quiet when getting a drink/ going to the bathroom/shedding tears of frustration but everything is so much louder at night. Oops.   You'll flip the pillow. Again and again. It starts by turning over in the bed because you just can’t get comfortable. Then the pillow flips start and you’re on a road to nowhere.   You hit a wall Like clockwork, when half five rolls around, you suddenly start to feel really sleepy. Despite this, you’ll still find it hard to sleep because insomnia never gives in.   There's alarm fear This really is a nightmare. You keep checking your alarm because you need to know something will wake you if you do eventually conk out but after looking at it a zillion times, you start to panic you’ve switched it off completely. The FEAR.   It's too hot. Too cold. Too hot. It starts off cosy when you get into bed but after fifteen minutes of tossing and turning, you’re too warm. The covers are thrown off and all is good until five minutes later and you’re absolutely freezing. You pull up the duvet and the whole process starts again.   You start a love affair with Netflix What started as a romance is now a full-blown love affair because Netflix is one way of distracting yourself when you’re wide awake for the fifth night in a row. Of course, this can be disastrous if the site goes down. Let’s not go down that road.   As for counting sheep…really? The whole counting idea in general. All that happens is we lose track and end up more confused and stressed out than ever. *Honorary mention* It can be easy to feel like you’re the only one battling with insomnia but it’s a common problem.