Question:
A cure for insomnia ?
Answer:
I have been subject to the type of insomnia where you go to sleep OK,
but then you wake up too early. Anyone who has this problem knows how
bad it is - you wake up, you know you won’t be able to get back to
sleep, and you know the whole day is going to be bad.
I am going to describe how I now am able to get a good nights sleep.
While this method works wonders for me, and it could work wonders for
you, the problem is that most of you won’t have the perseverance to
continue long enough to get the desired results. But, if you do adopt
this technique, you may find, as I have, that it’s the most rewarding
thing you could ever undertake.
The technique is called chi gung. Other spellings include chi kung
and qigong. It is a Chinese practice, somewhat akin to tai chi. What
I do is actually a specific type of chi gung, called standing. Other
names include hsing yi, I chuan, something that sounds like jan jong.
A good book on it is called: ‘The Way of Energy’, by Lam Kam Chuen.
Although this is a good book, and there are many others, I doubt you
could pick up the practice through a book. There are certain
subtleties about the postures that you need to work with a teacher to
get right. The other thing is, you need to practice quite some time
before you are able to stand (or sit) long enough to get the desired
results - most people give up long before they reach this point. But,
the good thing is, the effects are wonderful.
What I do, is wake up each night at 2:30, and practice the exercise
for 1 hour, then go back to sleep. I again wake up at 6:00, practice
about 12 minutes, and go back to sleep until 7:15. These time periods
I worked out over a long time. Sometimes you need to practice more,
other times less is OK. For example, on vacation, when the stress
level is lower, I don’t need to practice so long. About one day a
month, on average, I still might wake up early, usually this is
related to something stressful going on. But before I adopted this
practice, it was about 2 out of 3 days were bad.
So, maybe you will give it a try. If you do, hang in there, you will
be amazed that something which seems so innocuous can do so much. It
is hard to find teachers for it, try tai chi teachers, some teach chi
kung.
I wish I had that version than the sleep-onset version, which has driven me to
develop a homebrew CPAP despite the dangers involved. Sure wish I could relax
without that damn homebrew (or for that matter, real) CPAP.
At least I know what part of my problem is from that damn experiment. Try
this: Lay on your back and relax. If you get apnoea, go to a sleep doc to get
on a CPAP. Hopefully, your health insurance will not deadbeat like mine does,
which also helped push me toward my homebrew CPAP development. Healthcare in
America is lame. Sure hope I don't have to develop a remote control robot to
do my sympathectomy using cough syrup as the anesthetic.
A damn good question is what you are supposed to do when your insurance
deadbeats on a mere $130 thyroid blood test when you need a surgery job done
and have apnoea. Do you just live with the problems or do you develop the
machinery needed to fix it like my gas mask CPAP apparatus? Or a surgery robot
to do a transdorsal sympathectomy? (and I'm ignoring the need for finding the
surplus endoscope for the latter)
What the fuck do you do when your insurance company is a deadbeat? Damn good
thing I'm not in an HMO. I'd be about the furriest person you've ever seen as
I'd use Rogaine as a blood pressure drug and look like an orangutan.
I stand about 2 hours a day, or more, part of it bent leg, part
sitting, part straight leg. I have been doing it for 30 years.
That is great that you practice so much. Never stop. I wish more
people would find out about it, it is amazing how good it is, and it
could help many people with many problems..
