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.
