Before I get to the freebie...yes I know you all want one!! But first...my little problem. Was that a groan I heard? Who said not an other one? Honestly, it's not a bad problem...just a teeny, weeny one...that is DRIVING me MAD!!!
Today I feel like I need two matchsticks to prop open my eyelids...yep, I need some sleep!! The only problem is that recently...well, for quite a while really.....I can't get to sleep and to add insult to injury....when I do manage it, I can't stay asleep for any length of time either.
Result, one tired lady. I feel sleepy until I lie down and then suddenly...I'm wide awake. I've tried everything, hot drinks, warm baths, soft music, reading, not eating after 8.00pm, counting sheep...OK, so you get the message!! It is murder...or could lead to it, lol!!
I think part of it stems from my lack of "me" time during the day...no space to think personal thoughts and so at night my eager brain starts catching up and crams in all the things it didn't have time for in the day.
I decided to checked some herbal remedies for sleeplessness and some old Victorian ones. Some of them were sensible but some were scary, some just made me laugh and some really surprised me. I thought that drug problems were a modern thing and perhaps they are, but drug usage was rife in Victorian times...really it was!!
Even Queen Victoria took cannabis for insomnia...prescribed by her own personal physician no less. Lots more people took laudanum, an opium based drug, all highly illegal now. If you were poor gin seems to have been the favourite. But I think that I will give these a miss, sounds like the cure could cause more problems than the problem!!!
An other nasty thing about insomnia is the tossing and turning. Last night I ended up like a grub in a cocoon. I twisted so much that the duvet was wrapped around my legs..it made getting out of bed in the dark pretty risky I can tell you!! I felt like a grounded mermaid!!
One of the "sensible" sounding cures involved "emptying your mind".....sort of like putting out the garbage each night before you go to bed, I suppose. The only problem is my mind refuses point blank to be emptied!!! I empty it and it just fills itself up, perhaps I need a tap to shut it off?
I suppose I could try the insomnia cure that appeared in the Glasgow Herald in Victorian times. This one involved taking old fashioned yellow soap, and rubbing it into the roots of your hair until your head was lathered all over. Then you tied up your head in a napkin (what was that all about?), went to bed and washed out the soap in the morning. ...oh yes and you had to drink tea before this. That soap sounds yucky!! Definitely an other to pass on!!!
On some advice I tried the trick of getting up again and not returning to bed until you feel really tired..but I just end up feeling like a human yoyo!!! In bed, out of bed...feel exhausted..in bed....wide awake, out of bed..and so on!! That could go on for ever until I got too weak to get in or out of bed and ended up a heap on the floor!!
I found one that said to tie a wet hankie or rag around your wrist... this sounds a bit like a recipe for a damp night to me, so that one was consigned to the bin too!!
So any good insomnia remedies...that don't involve heavy sedation, electric shock treatments or nasty ingredients...are warmly welcomed!!!
For now...I am still tired and I have acquired more trivia to fill my energetic brain with!!
Today I have a little freebie I made a while ago but never got around to using. So, I thought I would share it. You can use this one for personal or commercial use. I hope you like the two scrolls. Download them and pop them on your page and add a drop shadow to bring them to life.
You can download them here
Have a great day and if your lucky a wonderful nights sleep!!!