”Yoga cured my insomnia!”
Unable to fall asleep night after night, Tamara Hoerner, 50, felt like she was sleepwalking through life. Then she found the surprising fix that changed everything
Tamara groaned as she rolled over and looked at the clock. It read 7:30 am, which meant she had gotten fewer than four hours of sleep. “Hey, Mom, do you know where…” “Not now! I don’t know!” she barked at her 17-year-old son, before burying her face back in the pillow as he slowly backed out of the room. Who is this angry, snippy person? It’s not me, she thought to herself. I have to do something about my insomnia.
“The problems had been progressing for about eight months, but there were two or three months during which I wasn’t getting to sleep until 4 am,” recalls Tamara. “I wasn’t myself, and I knew I couldn’t go on living like that. Somehow, I had to take my life back.
Tired and grouchy
“I’ve been a night owl my whole life. I love late nights and being the only one awake in a dark, quiet house. So when I started an online masters program focused on health and nutrition a few years ago, I naturally left my reading and homework assignments for after my family went to bed. If I had an assignment due the following day, I would stay up until I finished it, which was sometimes 4 am. This wasn’t the case every night, but gradually my nights got later and later. On the days I didn’t have homework, I would go to bed whenever I was tired, and over the course of a few months, the time I became tired moved from 11 pm to 1 am, until finally it was 3 am and I was still wide-awake.
“One of my biggest problems was that I couldn’t turn my mind off at night—it would just run and run. I’m a chronic worrier, so instead of relaxing and preparing for bed, I would worry about my school assignments, about how I wasn’t meeting my weight-loss goals or even about whether or not I would be able to fall asleep. And if I did manage to drift off, I would sleep for only a couple of hours, which left me feeling groggy for the rest of the day.
“The main change I noticed was in my mood. I was crabbier than normal, frequently arguing with my husband and snapping at my son. Not to mention the fact that my house was a mess and I had no energy to cook. I was tired all of the time and taking it out on my family, which made me feel depressed and guilty. I found myself snacking late into the night—plus, I didn’t have the energy to exercise, so my goals felt totally unreachable.
“Between caring for my family, doing my schoolwork and running my blog, The Purple Almond (ThePurple Almond.com), I didn’t have time to nap or recoup any lost sleep. I was stuck in an unhealthy sleep cycle.
“In my research about insomnia, I learned about circadian rhythms, and I realized that my rhythm was off. Maybe, I thought hopefully, all I need is a reset! I figured that the solution was similar to flying to a new time zone, when experts recommend you stay up and adjust to the new time, so I decided to do something drastic: I would stay up all night one night and into the next day to reset my rhythm and get some sleep.
“The first few days after the ‘reset’ were rocky. Staying up all night left me overtired and wired, and there were nights during the following week when it was even harder to fall asleep than it had been before. I tried to stay positive, but I knew that if I didn’t establish a new routine fast, things would only continue to get worse.
Sleeping, at last!
Around that time, I remembered yin yoga. It uses traditional yoga poses, but instead of flowing from one position to the next, you hold each pose for up to five minutes to help the body relax. I had tried it once or twice and had written an article about it for my blog a few months earlier. I enjoyed the slow, calming practice, but I didn’t keep up with it. I decided to try it again.
“I found a video online of a 30-minute yin yoga routine for deep relaxation. Around 10:30 pm, I set up my mat in the living room and put the video on. The simple poses and quiet, inward reflection helped me relax and shut off my mind instead of having the whole day running through my head while I was trying to get to sleep.
“After just a week or two of practicing nightly, I was falling asleep much faster. I was so relaxed that my tendency to worry began to drift away. My sleep became much deeper and more consistent, which meant I had more energy for more intense exercise—and exercise tired me out, so I was able to sleep even better.
Once I was working out and no longer snacking late at night, I started to see changes on the scale too!
“I try to do my yoga routine every night, and I’ve been consistently getting to sleep around 11:30 pm. It’s been almost six months since I’ve seen the clock read 4 am, and I’m happier and healthier because of it. I’m no longer moody in the morning, I don’t quarrel with my family—and my son has stopped avoiding my room before school!” —As told to Alyssa Sybertz