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2 practical exercises for falling asleep
Your mind is racing. Or you fall asleep but are jolted awake by stress or anxiety. Is there anything you can do?
Going back to sleep after being jolted awake
Sleep is a very difficult nut to crack and I’ve been where you are. Here are two exercises for falling asleep that you can do. The key to both is to be consistent. Nothing happens overnight. Repeat the exercises regularly for several weeks. Yes, it may take several weeks. Sorry but there’s no magic in life…you get what you put into it.
To stop your mind from racing we’re going to leverage what is ultimately meditation.
But a bit differently. The point of meditation is to quiet the mind. To stop your mind from racing. It’s what we need to fall asleep. Do the following: choose something that interests you and requires creativity or problem solving. A couple of examples:
Imagine you’re moving into your home for the first time and you own nothing. It’s just you and the walls. And a bag of cash. How would you decorate? What furniture would you get? Where would it go? What colors would you use? Would you put anything on the walls? What does the kitchen look like? Living room? Bedroom? Other rooms? Decorate your entire home. From the biggest to the tiniest detail. Picture things in your head. Change them around. Come up with multiple versions. The point is: focus your mind on one thing. One pleasant non-stressful thing. Once you go down that path, your mind stops racing and before you know it, you’ll be asleep.
Not into decorating? Cool. If you’re into woodworking, imagine a wood project in your head? What is it? How will it be completed? Go through each step. Think it through. Try alternatives.
These two examples should give you the gist. Come up with your own if you wish. Write a piece of software in your head. Make a quilt. Write a story. Do whatever is interesting to you. Again, the goal is to occupy your mind with a single focus.
Jolted awake?
Sometimes the stress is too much and our system simply won’t let us stay asleep. We’re jolted awake. It wants us to be ready to face threats at any moment. So what now? This is where we do some logic on ourselves. Here is the logic:
I’m stressed about an event/situation/whatever. I have to be able to deal with it. By being rested, I will be as capable as possible of handling the problem and removing it from my life. So, the quickest way to remove the “threat” is to rest (sleep).
Here’s the thing about stress and anxiety – the antidote to both is to not give a fuck. With the above exercise we give ourselves the permission to not give a fuck. Because like it or not, we know for a *fact* it’s the most productive way to deal with the problem. Want a problem to go away? Give yourself the permission to sleep.
The KEY to both of these exercises (as is the case with any behavioral change) is consistency. Do them every time you have problems sleeping. At first it will seem like just “a stupid thing I’m doing that doesn’t work” but with time, it will work. And you will sleep. And you will be rested and just that by itself will reduce the stress. And you will be better able to deal with the stressor. And when you’re capable of dealing with stressors, you’re able to improve your life. And isn’t that the whole point?