As a young insomniac adult in college with a part-time job, I used my sleepless nights to complete projects and do homework and just crashed on the weekends. Come Monday morning I was no more rested than I felt on Friday. But this is college and young adult life, right? Fast forward to my 30’s when I moved to a foreign country, became a new wife, mom and started a PhD all in the same year. 

Sleep deprivation at this point was not an option, it was a way of life. I was “new-mom” tired and “PhD student” tired but when I got the chance to sleep I was still not rested. Add that to the stress of living in a foreign country with a huge language and cultural gap! Nutritional deficiencies from living on a student budget compounded this effect. 

My health declined to the point where I couldn’t even recognise myself in the mirror; hardly functioning and waking up to a blaring alarm clock is in-fact the most brutal way to wake up after a night of non-restorative sleep. I was exhausted at a cellular level. 

Then came the diagnosis, Fibromyalgia. 

This also explained so much of my other overwhelming symptoms. I tried to find any means of relief, especially sleep since this was a great way to manage a lot of the symptoms. I still have bad days and that’s alright, I’m OK though because I know now what is important to my recovery. I try to make the beginning of each day start as best as possible. I changed my lifestyle and did a ton of research and made some interesting connections. 

I want to share it all here in the hope that I can help someone else like me get some…