The Short Version
I minimized EMF (electro-magnetic field) exposure by turning off the electricity to my house at the main circuit breaker and turning off and/or physically distancing myself from all battery-powered electrical devices.
This is the surest way to eliminate as much EMF as possible, because it is easy to unknowingly expose yourself to EMF, since its sources are not always obvious.
Before, I was constantly fighting a vicious cycle of "later to sleep, later to wake". Now I get tired and fall asleep easily around 11 or 12pm and wake up (without an alarm) around 9 or 10 AM — which for me, is a huge improvement.
This only took a few days to "cure" it, and I've been sleeping in this healthy pattern for a several weeks now.
The simple version of the theory is this:
It's not just visible light and blue light keeping you awake, it's also invisible electro-magnetic fields, some of which probably have a similar biological effect as blue light.
The Long Version
I think the technical term for what I had might be "Non-24-hour sleep–wake disorder".
Non-24-hour sleep–wake disorder - Wikipedia
It's when you can't get tired / fall asleep early enough and then you can't wake up early enough either (without it being a miserable experience). And then if you let yourself sleep in, you end up staying up later the following night, resulting in a vicious cycle of staying up later and waking up later each day.
Previously, if I let things happen "naturally" I'd end up falling asleep about 0.5 or 1 hour later each day, then waking up an later, and so on. And it would get to the point where I'd be staying up till 5 or 6 AM and sleeping in till around 1 or 2 PM. And it would just keep going like this later and later unless I did something drastic to try to "reset".
Some people even try to keep that cycle going — later to sleep, later to wake — or to stay awake all night to "reset" and get back to a normal bedtime, but it doesn't seem to work because you still have the problem of not being able to get to sleep when you want to.
The Cure
Now when I intend to go to sleep, I eliminate as much EMF (aka "Electrosmog") as possible by cutting off all electrical power (except to my refrigerator and AC/furnace) at the main circuit breaker and turning off or physically distancing myself from all battery powered electrical devices like phones and tablets and laptops.
I recommend trying the circuit breaker method rather than just manually unplugging and turning things off because A) you don't always realize the EMF being generated by various devices or appliances and B) and some devices are putting out EMF even when you think they are "off".
To wake me up, I left the curtains of a window open so that the natural sunlight would be my alarm clock. Within a few days and for a few weeks now, I have gotten tired around midnight and have woken up slowly around 9 or 10 but not later than 11 AM — and this in mid-winter and the time the sunlight wakes me up tends to correlate with how sunny or overcast it is (just as you'd expect: the brighter the day, the early it wakes me).
This may not seem like "getting up early" to some, but for a former "night owl" insomniac this is a huge improvement. I consider myself cured.
In the past, I've tried using sunlight to wake me up in the morning, and it worked in terms of waking me up, but I'd feel miserable because I did not get enough sleep. And it was not a cure because I'd still have trouble getting to sleep at night (because I still hadn't addressed the original cause of the problem: the "Electrosmog" of EMF).
Considerations
Here's a video of a guy measuring magnetic fields generated by various devices in a home:
Some examples of things generating magnetic fields that you may not realize:
Magnetic fields can be generated by electrical current running through the wiring in your home which can happen even when devices are switched off or not being used.
Example: The AC to DC power supply that charges my MacBook generates a strong magnetic field even when the charger is not plugged into the computer (but is still plugged into the electrical outlet, of course).
You may be surprised to discover which "background" technologies in your home generate magnetic fields, including: refrigerators (the compressor), air conditioners, furnaces (the fan), electric fans, dishwashers, dryers, ovens, dimmer switches.
So, for example, you could remove all computer-like devices from your room, but then not get the full effect if there is a fridge on the other side of the wall from your bed generating a strong magnetic field.
The other kind of EMF to consider (aside from the magnetic fields) are the radio/microwave type. Examples within your household being: wireless routers, cordless phones, cell phones and baby monitors.
I turned off the WiFi feature of my internet router and just use wired internet at all times. And I used aluminum foil on the inner wall adjacent to my home's "smart meter" to hopefully reflect away the radiation it emits. These additional steps or may not have been essential to preventing this problem.
Also, on the outside of your house there could be "smart meters" for your household utilities, which are a bigger problem, because you can't (easily/legally) turn them off.
Other sources outside your home include: nearby cellular towers, nearby WiFi from neighbors or other hotspots, broadcast television and radio signals from towers and satellites.
If just addressing the EMF sources inside your house doesn't work, you may have to do further research and address all of these sources of EMF.
The Theory
I think the biggest problem was the exposure to the strong magnetic fields being generated by my laptop and/or iPad (often held right on top of my torso while lying in bed waiting to get tired).
I've been avoiding visible blue light at night for years but that alone never did the trick. I used red light bulbs and the flux app to turn my device screens to red light, and even covered my device screens with physical red filter gels (for theater lights), and even though it was easier on my eyes, it never solved the insomnia problem (not getting tired or being able to fall asleep).
Some have suggested that it's the mental stimulation of the act of using these devices but I don't think that alone explains it.
I can still use my laptop at night, but I use a wired mouse and keyboard and keep the laptop as physically far away from my body as possible (3 or 4 feet from the screen). This seems to be enough to avoid the insomnia-producing effect, and does not prevent me from getting tired.
The theory for why this works is that the invisible EMF being put out by our electrical devices are causing an effect similar to the "awakening" effect of visible blue light, and there are some studies about the effect of EMF on melatonin production to back this up. Here's one:
Static and extremely low frequency electromagnetic field exposure: reported effects on the circadian production of melatonin. - PubMed - NCBI
The proximity to your body is what really matters because the strength of the field correlates with distance. The strength of the magnetic field can drop by an order of magnitude in a matter of inches.
One of the keys may actually be the local effect of EMF on your skin — so if you keep your face/eyes away from the screen, the magnetic field may still being having a biochemical effect if your hands are holding a phone/tablet or resting on a keyboard (where the laptop's magnetic field is strongest).
It seems like a very plausible theory to me. Visible light is just EMF of a certain range, and light is nature's alarm clock (it's both the wake-up clock and, with its absence, the go-to-sleep clock). So why shouldn't or couldn't invisible EMF have a similar biological effect? In my experience, it does.
P.S.
If you're new to all this EMF stuff, here's a good introductory video:
I minimized EMF (electro-magnetic field) exposure by turning off the electricity to my house at the main circuit breaker and turning off and/or physically distancing myself from all battery-powered electrical devices.
This is the surest way to eliminate as much EMF as possible, because it is easy to unknowingly expose yourself to EMF, since its sources are not always obvious.
Before, I was constantly fighting a vicious cycle of "later to sleep, later to wake". Now I get tired and fall asleep easily around 11 or 12pm and wake up (without an alarm) around 9 or 10 AM — which for me, is a huge improvement.
This only took a few days to "cure" it, and I've been sleeping in this healthy pattern for a several weeks now.
The simple version of the theory is this:
It's not just visible light and blue light keeping you awake, it's also invisible electro-magnetic fields, some of which probably have a similar biological effect as blue light.
The Long Version
I think the technical term for what I had might be "Non-24-hour sleep–wake disorder".
Non-24-hour sleep–wake disorder - Wikipedia
It's when you can't get tired / fall asleep early enough and then you can't wake up early enough either (without it being a miserable experience). And then if you let yourself sleep in, you end up staying up later the following night, resulting in a vicious cycle of staying up later and waking up later each day.
Previously, if I let things happen "naturally" I'd end up falling asleep about 0.5 or 1 hour later each day, then waking up an later, and so on. And it would get to the point where I'd be staying up till 5 or 6 AM and sleeping in till around 1 or 2 PM. And it would just keep going like this later and later unless I did something drastic to try to "reset".
Some people even try to keep that cycle going — later to sleep, later to wake — or to stay awake all night to "reset" and get back to a normal bedtime, but it doesn't seem to work because you still have the problem of not being able to get to sleep when you want to.
The Cure
Now when I intend to go to sleep, I eliminate as much EMF (aka "Electrosmog") as possible by cutting off all electrical power (except to my refrigerator and AC/furnace) at the main circuit breaker and turning off or physically distancing myself from all battery powered electrical devices like phones and tablets and laptops.
I recommend trying the circuit breaker method rather than just manually unplugging and turning things off because A) you don't always realize the EMF being generated by various devices or appliances and B) and some devices are putting out EMF even when you think they are "off".
To wake me up, I left the curtains of a window open so that the natural sunlight would be my alarm clock. Within a few days and for a few weeks now, I have gotten tired around midnight and have woken up slowly around 9 or 10 but not later than 11 AM — and this in mid-winter and the time the sunlight wakes me up tends to correlate with how sunny or overcast it is (just as you'd expect: the brighter the day, the early it wakes me).
This may not seem like "getting up early" to some, but for a former "night owl" insomniac this is a huge improvement. I consider myself cured.
In the past, I've tried using sunlight to wake me up in the morning, and it worked in terms of waking me up, but I'd feel miserable because I did not get enough sleep. And it was not a cure because I'd still have trouble getting to sleep at night (because I still hadn't addressed the original cause of the problem: the "Electrosmog" of EMF).
Considerations
Here's a video of a guy measuring magnetic fields generated by various devices in a home:
Some examples of things generating magnetic fields that you may not realize:
Magnetic fields can be generated by electrical current running through the wiring in your home which can happen even when devices are switched off or not being used.
Example: The AC to DC power supply that charges my MacBook generates a strong magnetic field even when the charger is not plugged into the computer (but is still plugged into the electrical outlet, of course).
You may be surprised to discover which "background" technologies in your home generate magnetic fields, including: refrigerators (the compressor), air conditioners, furnaces (the fan), electric fans, dishwashers, dryers, ovens, dimmer switches.
So, for example, you could remove all computer-like devices from your room, but then not get the full effect if there is a fridge on the other side of the wall from your bed generating a strong magnetic field.
The other kind of EMF to consider (aside from the magnetic fields) are the radio/microwave type. Examples within your household being: wireless routers, cordless phones, cell phones and baby monitors.
I turned off the WiFi feature of my internet router and just use wired internet at all times. And I used aluminum foil on the inner wall adjacent to my home's "smart meter" to hopefully reflect away the radiation it emits. These additional steps or may not have been essential to preventing this problem.
Also, on the outside of your house there could be "smart meters" for your household utilities, which are a bigger problem, because you can't (easily/legally) turn them off.
Other sources outside your home include: nearby cellular towers, nearby WiFi from neighbors or other hotspots, broadcast television and radio signals from towers and satellites.
If just addressing the EMF sources inside your house doesn't work, you may have to do further research and address all of these sources of EMF.
The Theory
I think the biggest problem was the exposure to the strong magnetic fields being generated by my laptop and/or iPad (often held right on top of my torso while lying in bed waiting to get tired).
I've been avoiding visible blue light at night for years but that alone never did the trick. I used red light bulbs and the flux app to turn my device screens to red light, and even covered my device screens with physical red filter gels (for theater lights), and even though it was easier on my eyes, it never solved the insomnia problem (not getting tired or being able to fall asleep).
Some have suggested that it's the mental stimulation of the act of using these devices but I don't think that alone explains it.
I can still use my laptop at night, but I use a wired mouse and keyboard and keep the laptop as physically far away from my body as possible (3 or 4 feet from the screen). This seems to be enough to avoid the insomnia-producing effect, and does not prevent me from getting tired.
The theory for why this works is that the invisible EMF being put out by our electrical devices are causing an effect similar to the "awakening" effect of visible blue light, and there are some studies about the effect of EMF on melatonin production to back this up. Here's one:
Static and extremely low frequency electromagnetic field exposure: reported effects on the circadian production of melatonin. - PubMed - NCBI
The proximity to your body is what really matters because the strength of the field correlates with distance. The strength of the magnetic field can drop by an order of magnitude in a matter of inches.
One of the keys may actually be the local effect of EMF on your skin — so if you keep your face/eyes away from the screen, the magnetic field may still being having a biochemical effect if your hands are holding a phone/tablet or resting on a keyboard (where the laptop's magnetic field is strongest).
It seems like a very plausible theory to me. Visible light is just EMF of a certain range, and light is nature's alarm clock (it's both the wake-up clock and, with its absence, the go-to-sleep clock). So why shouldn't or couldn't invisible EMF have a similar biological effect? In my experience, it does.
P.S.
If you're new to all this EMF stuff, here's a good introductory video:
