Often we find that something keeps us from sleeping at night. It could be a tough battery of tests we face, a parent’s worry for their children overseas, business concerns or domestic woes. Whatever. Often enough we eventually adjust to the problems facing us, or even solve those problems, and then we suddenly discover that we have slipped into the naughty habit – for a habit is what it really boils down to – of insomnia. Again, at some point nothing is keeping us awake, – neither physical pain nor emotional distress, – except the very fact that we have become habituated to not sleeping at night. This can be a very serious, maddening, frustrating and damaging situation.
Getting right down to action, we do know what is the problem – a bad habit. How do we eliminate a bad habit?
The truth is that the habit of not sleeping is a lot more difficult to break out of than most habits. Ordinarily there are many devices and drills to break bad habits, but the habit of not sleeping is part that the body has accustumed itself to a different schedule, and part that you have lost the knack of sleeping. This is much more a natural body proccess not working than something like smoking or nose-picking, for instance.
Alright, what are my suggestions?
Number one, I would say, is to accept the fact that you may not sleep much at night, and that if indeed you lie awake muck of the night you may be tired tomorrow. I promise; worrying about it will not make you sleep. So for now, just accept that as a possibility and quit fretting about it.
Point two is, even if you do not fall asleep, you will have the benefit of a relaxing meditation session to invigorate you and give you the energy you need to make it through tomorrow, if you will just lie still in bed. This ought to be glad news to all insomniacs, and knowing this will defuse your anxiety about your situation.
Number three; prepare your mind. Tell yourself in your brain “I will sleep well tonight”. Visualize yourself actually resting and sleeping deeply. Choose a quiet time to focus on these thoughts and review them again and again. Make it a practice to think these thoughts often, until you begin to convince yourself of their truth.
Four, prepare your body. If you succumbed to the urge to nap and just snoozed for an hour at eight p.m., you are not allowing your body’s sleep mechanism to work. Make sure you are nice and tired when sleep time rolls around, so avoid any naps. Take a walk or exercise (well in advance of your scheduled sleep hour) to increase your fatigue. This stuff is great!
The number five; be alert to moments of opportunity when you are more sleepy and feel yourself drifting off. Grab those moments and even if you are in middle of a chapter, put down the book and cash in. You may have to wait long hours until the feeling strikes again, so don’t hesitate.
Six is – Assume the position; lie comfortably. Close your eyes loosely. Secret tip; roll your eyeballs upwards. This seems to affect our minds and predispose us to sleep.
There are many great ideas out there on getting your entire environment moving towards sleeping like darkening the home, keeping to a regular schedule, eating valarium and so on. These ideas are tried and tested, do search the internet for them and use them. And in conclusion, the problem began when insomnia turned into a habit. The resolution therefor, will be to turn sleeping into a habit. This will not take years. In thirty to forty days you will have not only broken the insomnia habit, but replaced it by a powerful sleep habit, that will guarantee you happy and restful sleep. And it gets easier as it goes along – day one will be harder than day five, and so on.
So take heart, for indeed you will overcome this challenge.