I started to develop serious issues with insomnia when I was in high school.
- I think it coincided with the rise in my caffeine and coffee consumption.
I started drinking it late in the day and I think it had a serious effect on me trying to sleep at night. I remember some nights when I would go out with friends at 10:00 and I would drink a cappuccino or an espresso. And then I would go home and try to go to bed. I can’t imagine how I didn’t see the correlation between both of these issues, with the caffeine abuse on the one hand and the inability to sleep on the other. However, these days I’m a lot more careful when it comes to my use of stimulants. Although I tend to use caffeine daily, I try to stop taking it at least 8 hours or so before I want to go to sleep at night. Granted, the coffee is probably still in my system to some extent, but not to the degree it would be if I was drinking a cup of coffee at night every evening. The other thing I’ve been using to help with my insomnia is medical cannabis. Specifically Indica strains of marijuana are often really effective at being sedating. I like sativa strains of cannabis when I want to use cannabis during the day and stay focused and alert, but they’re not good for trying to sleep at night or when I’m really stressed out or anxious. That’s why I tend to lean towards Indica strains of cannabis whenever I’m shopping for marijuana products at the medical cannabis dispensary.