The ideal thing is to have no fewer than six hours of sleep each night and no more than having nine hours of sleep. That will help your physical and mental health tremendously. If you don’t get enough sleep, that can lead to many problems with your physical and mental health, and the same applies if you sleep too much. When it comes to getting the right amount of sleep nightly, the sweet spot is from seven to eight hours of sleep. However, the reality is that many people don’t experience that luxury. Many people, unfortunately, struggle with sleep disturbances or insomnia, and insomnia can happen as a result.

What Causes Sleep Disturbances Or Insomnia?

Sometimes if you ate too late at night, you wouldn’t get a good night’s sleep because of either having too much energy or indigestion. If you drink alcohol or have too much coffee late in the day, you will struggle to close your eyes. Your mind won’t shut off. If you are not sleeping alone, perhaps your partner in bed or your room is snoring too loud or keeps tossing and turning. That will interrupt your sleep. Maybe you have a pet that keeps stirring around in your bed, and that keeps you up. Or, you have young kids or teenagers that you worry about, and that sums it up.

Either way, there are many reasons for insomnia or sleep disturbances. If you are in chronic pain, that will interrupt your sleep, or have a mental illness such as depression or anxiety, that will also cause sleep disturbances. Since I focus primarily on mental health, I will talk about how mental illnesses play a significant role in insomnia or sleep disturbances. The tarot card combination that rule sleep disturbances are the Four of Swords and the Tower. The Four of Swords is all about resting, sleeping, and recovering. The Tower is a sudden disturbance. Therefore, it is safe to say that you will not get a restful sleep when the Tower is in the picture.

Four Of Swords And Tower Tarot Combination: Insomnia And Sleep Disturbances

The Four of Swords (Four of Wind in the Penguin tarot deck) represents rest, sleep, and recovery. The Tower is all about upheavals and destruction. When you add these cards together, you will end up getting plenty of disruptions in your sleep. The Tower never allows any rest to happen as it keeps you on your feet since it is always shocking you. That goes for any other card. Therefore, when you add it to the sleeping tarot card, which is the Four of Swords, you can expect a night filled with sudden jerks, maybe even sleep paralysis, a sudden nightmare waking you up, or you having intrusive thoughts as you attempt to sleep. That is what you often see with mental illnesses such as PTSD, anxiety, or depression.

According to the Psychiatry Advisor, if you do not get enough sleep, that will cause you to regulate your intrusive thoughts. So what happens if those intrusive thoughts keep you awake because you cannot shut your brain off, and your sleep deprivation is worsening your intrusive thoughts? That becomes a vicious cycle. The lack of sleep will worsen your mental illness. Therefore, sleep deprivation will worsen conditions such as depression as it will worsen symptoms. How can you reduce the risk of those Tower moments keeping you awake and unable to sleep? Let’s talk about tips for treating insomnia now.

How Can You Treat Insomnia So You Can Get A Better Night’s Sleep Night After Night?

According to WebMD, the link between depression and other mental illnesses and insomnia happens. You can also find that you have hypersomnia which means you oversleep when you have mental illnesses too. That is when you sleep too much during the day in addition to sleeping more than nine hours each night, which is the maximum number of hours you should rest. The only exception is if you have a chronic physical illness, but that is not something I discuss in this post.

The good news is that there are ways to combat insomnia if you have depression, any other mental illness, or going through a bad phase, which can happen randomly. Firstly, you can take medications if you are not medication-resistant for depression that helps with sleep regulation. According to the same article, SSRIs such as Prozac or Paxil can help with insomnia. SNRIs such as Cymbalta can help, and tricyclic antidepressants such as Elavil and sedating antidepressants such as Remeron can help.

You can also take sleep aids such as Lunesta but beware that you could become dependant on them, so you may want to try other options before resorting to that. Melatonin is an idea as well, but that can cause strange dreams. Foods such as tart cherries, turkey, almonds, crackers, and dairy are great snacks to eat before bed in small amounts. They have properties to help you sleep.

You will also want to limit drinking alcohol, and anything with caffeine after 2 pm as that can also keep you awake. Alcohol is also not good for your mental health, to begin with, except for having one glass of wine a day which you will want to do at least five hours before going to bed.

Exercising is also essential to do earlier in the day, and don’t do too much at night. Taking a brisk half-hour walk before five hours of going to bed is ideal, and exercise is good for your mind. Exercise early in the day and read something calming at night before bed. It is best to avoid screens two hours before bed, as the blue light from that can disturb your sleep cycle as it lowers melatonin levels.

If you cannot sleep even after trying that, then go into another room and read something boring. That may help you get drowsy. Professionals do say it’s best not to sleep in the same room as you work, but I find that to be just fine personally. My office is my bedroom. I have no issue with that. However, if none of these tips work, then you will need to see a sleep specialist.