Solutions for insomnia with a music pillow

Did you know insomnia and trouble sleeping well is a frequent side effect of ADHD? I did not know that until recently, and once I learned it I thought to myself, “That explains SO much.” Both my daughter and I suffer from insomnia at times, and it can be a beast to deal with, so I’m always looking for insomnia help that is not pills (because sleep medication is incredibly addictive). I’ve got the tools in place for daytime ADHD solutions, but I haven’t found a solution for the nighttime problems.

{This post is sponsored by Dreampad from Integrated Learning Systems, I was compensated for my time, and received a free product, but all opinions and long-winded stories are my own)

My history of insomnia

Looking back, I can recognize the symptoms of insomnia in my childhood. I frequently had trouble going to sleep at a reasonable hour. I now wonder if my reading until late at night had more to do with my inability to go to sleep, than my wanting to know what is going to happen next. It was certainly, and still is my go-to insomnia help.

Hit adulthood and stress and what have you and I have two different types of insomnia. There’s the my body refuses to go to sleep type, which happens at least once a month if not more often, and then there’s the I wake up about 20 times a night.

I know all of the advice for getting a good night’s sleep, I can recite it to you in my sleep, if I am sleeping, which I’m not.  I even tried sleeping pills for a short time, but I really didn’t like having to take a pill to sleep. Really didn’t like it.  Besides, the pills left me feeling groggy the next day, which did not help.

My daughter’s insomnia

Looking at Princess’ sleep habits as an adult, I recognize the troubles of insomnia in her. I can send her up to bed at 8:00, but I also know about 8:15 she will come back downstairs with a request for an extra hug. Then at 8:45, she’ll come and tell me something interesting about the book she’s reading.

Then at 9:20 she’ll come and tell me she’s bored. She’ll come down one final time around 10:00 or so. That’s a full two hours after she’s supposed to go to sleep. Her brothers by contrast have been asleep within the first few minutes of going to bed. I envy them that ability, but there you go.

Did you know insomnia makes ADHD symptoms worse?

I didn’t until recently, I knew days one or the other of us hasn’t slept well are not going to be good days, but I didn’t have the facts for why until recently. Brain chemistry (imagine me waving my hands as I say this) imbalances, and all sorts of stuff keep you from focusing even more (Dreampad has some studies on their site if you want to read more).

But what insomnia helps are there?  You can’t force yourself to sleep, I know I’ve tried

Here are the insomnia helps I’ve been told for years, I have a prescription from my doctor telling me this stuff, it doesn’t help (Or find out more about good sleep hygiene for kids):

1. Have a common bedtime and stick to it, every night.  EVERY NIGHT.
2. For an hour or so before your bedtime don’t use any electronic devices, there are all sorts of studies showing it does weird things to your brain.
3. Go for a short walk about an hour or so before you go to bed.
4. No caffeine after lunch or so.
5. Have a bedtime routine.  KEEP THE ROUTINE.

You know what, those help, but I can do all of these, and still lay in bed for hours not sleeping.

Enter Dreampad, a super cool music pillow

Dreampad is AMAZING! Princess and I are both trying it out, we’re in discussions to buy a second pillow right now. Dreampad plays low-level music through a speaker in the pillow, and only the person using the pillow can hear it.  I didn’t believe it when I first got the pillow, but I’m totally convinced now. I can have it turned up as loud as I find comfortable and Jeff doesn’t have a clue I’m using it. I sync the Bluetooth with my phone, choose the music I like (Moonrise, Princess pointed that one out to me, and it’s awesome), and lay down, and within a few minutes I’m asleep.

That’s it.  I’m still working on the sleeping straight through the night, update since I first drafted this, I am pretty much sleeping through the night. My Mom loves to tell the story of being at a family campout together and managing to work my way off my top bunk bed, fall from there onto the hard floor, and SLEEP through the whole thing. I also used to sleepwalk, but that’s an even stranger story.

Dreampad does have an option to use it as an alarm clock, but I move around so much in my sleep that it’s useless to me because I don’t have my head on the pillow by morning.

Does it work for Princess also? Yes, but getting a 9-year-old to explain good sleeping habits is hard. She discovered she can also play other music through the pillow than just the music included on the app, which is both good and bad (bad because I can just picture her singing along to her favorite music as it plays and annoying her brothers). But good in that it increases the functionality of the pillow.

The one downside is you have to remember to charge it every day, especially if your child is using an older smartphone like mine is, and we haven’t quite hit the right routine for that happening every day.

Curious about Dreampad?

Well, they’ve got all sorts of different-sized pillows you can enjoy. I picked the smallest and flattest pillow I can find (and it’s seriously AWESOME!). I usually don’t use my pillow other than as a device to prop myself up for reading, so I’m loving this super small pillow. Princess loves it because she can stuff it inside her special pillow she likes and use both of them together. That and it’s great for travel.

On one side of the pillow is a zippered pouch that you plug your smartphone into and zip shut so it’s not hitting you in the head at night. If you’re like me and have a monster phone case because you drop your phone all the time, I would highly recommend getting the Bluetooth upgrade, because that little thing is awesome (also as a side note, do not attempt to read the instructions for said pillow when suffering from insomnia and trying to go to sleep, you will not be able to figure out said instructions and will want to cry).

Ready to get your own Dreampad and solve your insomnia problems?

Well then, head on over to Dreampad and pick out the size pillow you like best. Then use the code MyDreampad at checkout for 10% off.

If you’re still worried you might not like it, Dreampad has a 30-day money-back guarantee, but I’m betting you won’t need that guarantee.