Yesterday, I spent much too long working on changes to my website. I was enjoying it, so time shot by. I ended up sending out for a big Chinese meal late in evening. A vast quantity of spicy food was washed down with several glasses of wine. If you want to lie awake half night, just do as I did. The remedy is simple and obvious. Time to get a grip on lifestyle.

Self-inflicted insomnia is easily cured. What I call "real" insomnia is a beast of a much deeper hue, debilitating and much harder to defeat. Even so, it is not impossible to overcome and there is a whole range of things you can do to get upper hand.

Here I should state that I do not pretend to have any special medical or therapeutic knowledge and I would not advise anybody to stop taking their prescribed medication. I am just sharing my experiences in hope that they might help other people who are struggling through wakeful nights.

The following tips for getting off to sleep are pretty well known but I think they are worth repeating.

1. Keep bedroom just for bed with no reminders of daytime activities like work or study. Decorate room in restful colours and use soft lighting. Make sure temperature is comfortable and ventilation adequate. Hang curtains which are heavy enough to block out early morning light.

3. Have a bedtime routine. This does not involve doing anything special, it is just a matter of doing same things in same order each night. We all have things we do regularly: empty dishwasher, put out cat, lock front door, set alarm, brush teeth etc. These routine things are our steps away from activity of day, towards restful night.

4. Make a soak in a warm bath part of your nightly ritual. Adding a few drops of aromatherapy oil to water makes it doubly relaxing, soft background music makes experience positively decadent.

5. Don’t drink alcohol late at night. A nightcap might make you feel drowsy but it will disrupt your natural sleep rhythms and exacerbate your problem.

6. A warm milky drink is best thing to have last thing at night. (Yes, our mothers were right when they made us drink cocoa.) There are tons of instant milky drinks available and most ranges have low fat options. If you don’t like this milky, chocolatey type of drink, try out herbal teas but avoid anything containing caffeine.

7. Exercise is important but should be performed several hours before bedtime otherwise adrenaline will still be pumping around your system and keeping you awake.

As dangerous as this addiction is, however, recent studies suggest that it is actually much more frightening than it first seems. According to one notable study, human brain can release dopamine, which is a neurotransmitter linked with feelings enjoyment, when a person merely sees or smells certain foods[ii]. As such, people who may be sensibly avoiding foods that release serotonin and other chemicals (such as chocolate) may still be susceptible to a sight and smell-based addiction to unhealthy food.

Understanding this complex problem begins with understanding word addiction. Defining a clear-cut definition of addiction is in itself a challenge and a rather hotly debated pursuit at moment. Still, there is enough unity among credible social and biological scientists to say that a person who is powerless to stop an action is addicted[iii]. When applying this rather grave concept to eating, it becomes starkly clear that choosing an extra slice of pizza or bar of chocolate may be expression of a very serious addiction to unhealthy food.

Remarkably, unlike how addictions to things like alcohol, drugs, and sexual activity viewed biological and psychological illnesses, addiction to eating is often ignored or, at very least, diminished to be something that is based on willpower. The insulting advice of “just don’t eat it if you don’t want to get fat!” that some obese people actually hear from their doctors, relatives, or colleagues is one of most common manifestations of this often well-meaning, but potentially harmful, ignorance.

The bottom line fact – and one that more medical professionals are accepting based on scientific evidence – is that obesity and related eating disorders are often results of an addiction they are a serious health condition that must be approached methodologically like other diseases[iv].