Friday, January 9, 2015

When You Just Can’t Sleep


We have all had those nights when we turn out the light and then we lay there, and we lay there, and we lay there.  We wait for sleep to come, and instead all that shows up is the anxiety and frustration about how we are not falling asleep.  The following are some tips for when this happens.  Of course not everything works for everyone, but try some of them out and see what will work for you.

Occupy Your Brain

There was some reasoning behind the old counting sheep adage.  The idea of it is to occupy your brain so that you aren’t ruminating, thinking over and over about something that is bothering you.  If you find that you are lost in anxiety and can’t sleep, the first question is to ask yourself if there is anything that you can do right now.  If the answer is no, then the best thing you can do for yourself is to get some rest.  In my last entry, I had suggested reading a book and focusing on the characters and story after you turn out the light.  If you have done this and still can’t sleep, try reading some more until you start to feel drowsy.  Another great way of occupying your brain is to listen to a body scan meditation while lying in bed.  You can find these online and they are a great way of focusing on something other than your worry thoughts.  Many people report that they end up falling asleep in the middle of the body scan, and in this case, that is okay!  Finally, you can try listening to some soothing music, or to talk radio like NPR.  Do this in the dark, with your head on your pillow and you may just drift off to sleep.  If you can set a timer so that the device turns off the music or radio automatically, even better.

Don’t Pay Attention to the Time

For many people, part of what keeps them up is the thought that they should be asleep, and they start counting down the hours until they have to get up.  The more you think about time, the less time you will get to spend sleeping.  I suggest not looking at the time at all.  If you have an alarm clock with a clearly visible time illuminating from it, turn it around.  If you use your phone as an alarm, don’t look at the time on it.  Morning will come whether you are counting down the hours or not. 

Don’t Use Your Bed for Anything Except Sleep

This is a tip that you need to have done before the sleepless night occurs.  Beds should only be for sleep (or for the reading that leads up to sleep).  Some people think that their beds are so comfortable that they are great places to do their homework, their studying, pay their bills, watch TV, etc.  The problem with this is that in doing so, we start to associate our beds with being awake and doing stuff.  What we want is our bed to only be associated with sleep.  There is a phenomenon called conditioning in which we make pairings and will have responses to things without even realizing it.  Just like how the kitchen can become paired with being hungry, we want the bed to be paired with being tired.  If you have a hard time sleeping at night, you may want to assess whether you are using your bed for things other than sleeping, and then consider finding another place to do your work or watch TV.