There are two things that DO NOT go well together. Kids who can’t fall asleep on a school night and having to wake them up the next morning. YIKES! Talk about serious GRUMPS! They were biting everyone’s heads off and spitting them out, even the cats! (LOL).
I tend to suffer from insomnia. Mostly because I’m a “worry wart” as my mom would call it. I worry about everything and anything. Even if the outside world doesn’t think I should have a worry, I do! It’s not right but that is how I am.
Lately with the added worry about my husband’s job and his new salary which is about $20,000 LESS per year now, I don’t sleep much at all. Usually after dinner I doze off for a bit, but not always.
My kids sometimes get bouts of insomnia too. Apparently last night they did too. So instead of telling us they couldn’t sleep they just lied there wide awake. This morning I had to feel their wrath of being overly tired. I’m sure it’s going to be a long day for them, especially my daughter who has track try outs this afternoon. It’s hard to run long and fast when you are “dead to the world” tired.
For the past few weeks I have been using a product called a NightWave sleep assistant to help me fall asleep. Sometimes it works well for me, other times it doesn’t. When I’m OVERLY stressed and frazzled nothing is going to help. NightWave does work better on my kids, so why they didn’t ask me for it I’ll never know.
NightWave is a small little box that sits on your side table the beams a blue light on to your ceiling. You are suppose to look at the blue light and breath along with it’s luminance. When it’s bright, you are breathing in deep, when it’s starting to fade away you are suppose to let your air out. If you follow along you are actually doing deep breathing exercises to help you to be more relaxed. When you are more relaxed it’s easier for you to fall asleep.
I was a bit sceptical at first but more then happy to try it out because I rather NOT use sleeping pills to aid me in getting a good night’s sleep. The more natural the remedy the happier I am. If you told me that eating a raw egg (ewww…) and jumping up and down on one foot while barking at the moon would help me to get a better night’s sleep I would if I knew it would work.
It was a bit hard at first to get used to the deep breathing exercises you do when you use the NightWave. I’m not used to them but the more I used it the easier it got. Taking such deep breathes was a bit hard for me at first.
The NightWave sleep assistant has different settings. The common one is just a mere 7 minutes. Oce you turn the system on and set it for whatever setting you wish, the Night Wave will automatically shut off when times up. Seven minutes is supposedly the average time it takes people to use the NightWave and get sleepy enough to go do sleep.
Personally the NightWave works about 50% of the time. In all fairness to the product if you are BEYOND stressed out I think that effects it’s usefulness. For mile worry and stress it works fine, and yes, even in seven minutes. Sometimes I set it again for another 7 minutes when I feel I need a bit more help.
My kids use the NightWave. It works great with my daughter. It usually knocks her right out within the seven minutes. I’m very impressed by that. She knows how to set it too so if she feels she needs it she gets it out of the cabinet and sets it up herself. She says she likes to do the breathing exercises.
My son has used it too. He is like me, it works sometimes, and sometimes it doesn’t. My son also has anxiety so I don’t know if that has something to do with it.
I would say that the NightWave DOES help you fall asleep faster for average people. If you are someone who tends to have a lot of stress in your life (I mean A LOT) then it might not work for you all the time.
The site does tell you that the blue light is calming and helps you, as well as the breathing, but perhaps some people are more immune to these things. It might also be that I can’t get the room totally dark. We live in a condo complex and have lights in the parking lot. Our place is NEVER truly dark unless there is a power outage. The kid’s room can be made dark because of their heavy curtains. It’s very possible that is also effecting the results. I sleep in the living room and we have sheer curtains in the dining room and thin ones in the living room and I can see perfectly find in the room at night.
Here is an interesting little fact about the NightWave. The company that manufacturers NightWave, Coherence Resources, Inc. just donated units to help Peace Corp Voluteers in Africa who are working in HIV/AIDS clinics. The volunteers are required to take anti-malaria medications that cause sleeplessness as a side effect. NightWave helps them fall asleep within minutes, naturally – and they don’t have to take another pill, worry about drug interactions or waking up groggy. They also donate NightWave sleep assistants to VA Medical Centers across the US.
To learn more about NightWave sleep assistant visit http://www.nightwave.com/. It’s sold online on the web site. There are plenty of great testimonials on the site and they do offer a money back guarantee. Check out the above video too where they talked about NightWave on the Morning Show. Dr. Michael Breus, the “Sleep Doctor”, also weighed in on it.
So back to my original story…
Instead of my kids coming out to get the Night Wave they opted just to lay in bed wide awake most of the night. Sigh… That makes no sense.
I am NOT looking forward to them coming home this afternoon because I’m sure they will be beastly.
I’m actually pretty sleepy myself right now. I think I need to go and make a pot of “Eyes Wide Open” coffee. LOL!
Hopefully the kids will sleep like babies tonight.
* I received the Night Wave free to do this review. There was no other compensation. The opinions expressed are my own and that of my family.