Insomnia is a pretty serious disorder, and I sincerely hope you don't suffer from it. But other than chronic insomnia, almost all of us suffer from occasional insomnia from time-to-time. It may be one of those instances when you have enrolled for a difficult course and the deadline to drop it has passed.

You are in an internship where you have to impress your advisor but unfortunately, you are stuck and pressed for time. You could be suffering from relationship issues, and the list goes on.

There are innumerous reasons why many of us lose sleep over a short range of time and it can sometimes vary from days to weeks, and sometimes, to months. What can you do in such situations? Overthinking sure doesn’t help! Let’s take a look at some methods which may help you out from time to time!

1. Create distance between you and your electronic devices.

How many of you are guilty of switching on your mobile phones during the middle of the night to scroll through your Facebook feed just because you couldn’t sleep? Well, got you! Almost everyone of us does this!

Now some of you might be saying, “No man! I don’t open Facebook. I am not as useless as you. I read news articles.” Still, you come under that category of people who switch on their phones at a time when they should be asleep.

It is one of the best ways to escape the reality or the problem by doing such a thing. Stop doing that. The best way to stop relying on your phone for relief is to create a physical distance between you and your phone. The mind is a weak entity when it comes to controlling yourself at times of crisis, at least in my experience.

2. Remind yourself that all of the problems keeping you awake are only temporary.

Now let us tackle the problem of our overworked brain at times of such critical situations. How do you exactly tackle overthinking? Obviously, the best way is to solve the problem that is troubling you. But realistically, real-life problems take time to go away. It isn’t instantaneous. But the first thing you need to tell yourself is that it will go away for sure, sooner or later. Everything is temporary. It somehow soothes our mind when we tell it, “Bro! Calm down. We have endured many problems. This is just another one. It too will go away!”

"What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger" is such an underrated line. It is true for so many situations in our life. Look back in your life and you will understand.

3. Relieve the built-up stress by talking with someone.

This might seem cliched but most of us have a tendency to close ourselves off when problems enter our life which eventually causes us to lose sleep. One of the best stress busters is talking. I have seen even the most introverted people talking about their problems, and they seem to feel so much better than brooding about it.

If you aren’t an introvert, it should be even easier for you to talk about it. You might say that it might hurt your (puny) ego. But there is always someone in your life with whom you can share your problems with, without feeling vulnerable. It can be your parents, siblings or friends. It depends from person to person.

This reminds me of a joke, “When you tell your friends about your problems, you forget the problem itself because they give such useless and ridiculous solutions that you start laughing.” This is very true in among most friend circles.

This should have been the first paragraph but in computer systems there is a term, LIFO (Last In First Out). I believe putting this section at the end will be the most recent item stored in your brain and will remain fresh. I hope you talk about your issues! It inevitably keeps you away from “occasional” insomnia.

4. Remember you're not alone.

So, there you are! For those of you who lose your sleep occasionally, you are not alone. It happens to almost everyone. Everyone is fighting a different war. How you handle it makes all the difference.