The insomnia chat substack

A blog/book writing/app project type thing

The insomnia chat substack

Blurb: Insomnia chat is a place for resources and support for a sleepless generation. My aim is to eventually set up a social enterprise that offers a realistic alternative to the self-help insomnia industry that discusses the pros and cons of different techniques, analyses the self-help and insomnia industry, how it operates, markets its “cures”, and can become predatory in nature for those in need of mental health support.

I want to pierce through and take the good elements, the techniques, tools, and treatments that work and remove them from all the other BS that surrounds them.

Who am I? I am Sam I am, and I have lived with insomnia since around the age of 12, at the time of writing I am 45. In the last 5 years or so though I have gotten my insomnia under control and generally get 4-6 hours of sleep a night. Because of this, I want to share with you the things that have worked for me, the things that haven’t, the dangers of the self-help industry for insomniacs or anyone really, and what we can do to protect ourselves from the bad whilst taking those nuggets of gold that may lay within.  

I am not a medical professional, so I would say that everything I write, talk about and so on is my own opinion and may or may not help you. If you feel you need mental or physical health professional support, I urge you to speak to your doctor today. Don’t put it off. You are if great importance to this world.

I do not offer cures, I offer some thoughts, some experiences, some guidance, and resources that may help. I will come at this from several different angles. By day I am a marketing and communications professional that has a particular specialism and focus on data-driven, direct, and digital behavioural marketing communications. After over 20 years in the field, I have developed a skillset to be able to analyse markets, marketing, communication, and advertising campaigns and spot what they are doing technically, the technologies they are using, and how they're trying to shape your behaviour. I intend to shed light on the insomnia self-help industry.

I am a certified NLP / Hypnosis Practitioner trained to master level, and have 15 years of experience practicing meditation, and hope to pass on some of the benefits from this that have helped me.

The other elements I will look at are the already mentioned nuggets of gold within that industry. I have found great benefits in meditation, mindfulness, hypnosis, neuro-linguistic programming, Tai Chi, and Qi Gong practices and psychotherapy. The problem with a lot of these areas is that they are filled with snake oil salesmen who offer you a cure at a high price only to find it has no real long-term effects. My aim here will be to share some of the good bits that have worked for me, and maybe create some of my own content to share on this in the form of guided meditations and hypnosis. Some thoughts on metacognitive training and why it can be beneficial to insomniacs, and more.

Finally, if you need support and would like a place to talk to other insomniacs, please check out my insomnia chat Facebook group. At the time of writing, it has over two thousand members and growing. People post within the group or use the chats provided to share their experiences and give each other support.

You can find it here: Insomnia Chat Facebook Group

Join our free anti-social network being launched soon here insomniachat.com