The Surprising Tool That Curbed My Insomnia

Insomnia is ever present in my life. I’m so sensitive, my environment has to be just right to fall — and stay — asleep. The princess and her pea has nothing on me. It’s a normal part of my chronic illness so curing it isn’t possible. Still, it’s tricky. I can’t sleep, my health gets worse, which in turn makes the insomnia worse and my health degrades further. It feels like a never-ending cycle. I’ve accepted that curing my insomnia isn’t possible. Instead my aim is to curb it to minimize it’s impact.

So, I look for ways to encourage my body to sleep. I let go of sleep anxiety long ago, accepting lack of sleep as part of my life. This really helped. I’ve made space in my schedule for sleep problems. I rarely schedule meetings before 10am (working for myself really helps). I gather my meetings on two days a week — three at most. This allows me to sleep in or stay in bed resting as long as I need. On bad nights, I use a supplement that helps my body relax so I can sleep. I faithfully followed the Effortless Self regimen. It helped…for a while. I’ve tried just about every remedy: hyponsis, cbd, no blue lights, blackout curtains, sleep mask, regular bedtime, no caffeine, yoga, massage, meditation…just about anything you can think of. Even that one breathing trick that’s guaranteed to work! Please don’t come in the comments asking if I tried (insert your favorite sleep remedy) trust me, I have.

Recently I wondered about the connection between bruxism and insomnia. I wondered if targeting the stress in these muscles would have any impact on sleep. Of course, like any good wellness nerd, I did a bit of light research. Awake one night at 4 a.m., I discovered a new tool from Wildling. I hoped it would relax my jaw muscles and stop me from grinding. I’d been doing gua sha for a few months as an experiment to reduce inflammation and detoxify my lymph nodes. I liked their other tools so I decided to give this one a go. I’m used to spending thousands of dollars a month on my health at times (yes, really) so I figured this $65 tool, the Empress Wand, was worth a try. The bar was low, I thought it might be yet another remedy that sat at the back of my toiletries closet hanging out with the dust bunnies.

I starting following an instructional reel I found on Instagram. The whole routine takes less than two minutes. It doesn’t sound like much. I was wrong. This tool doesn’t look like much but wow is it mighty. A few weeks after starting to use this tool I started falling asleep easily — within 10-15 minutes. No more staring at the ceiling or tossing and turning to find just the right position. I started sleeping deeply. Instead of waking every two hours, I woke once a night. Falling back to sleep has historically been a huge problem but not anymore. After getting up to go to the bathroom, I go back to sound sleep within five minutes. Usually I lie wide awake for at least 30 minutes, sometimes hours.

I’ve been in a flare so my health has been poor lately. Though the extra sleep hasn’t kicked me out of the flare completely, it has eased it. I have more stamina and less symptoms than usual. I can work longer hours, which is important since I’m a business owner. This compact tool makes the short list of must haves for this chronic insomnia sufferer.

I feel less anxious about insomnia — a perennial problem — while I travel. I won’t have to carefully pack to make space for the plethora of tools I usually bring. The Empress Wand is going in my bag whenever I travel. I’m heading to Colorado for a one night trip soon so I’m traveling very light. Despite the limited space, this little guy will be coming with me.

This is not an advertorial. I received nothing for writing this post. It’s been such a game changer I want everyone who suffers from insomnia to know about it. Who knows, maybe it will make a huge difference for you like it did for me.