Things that go Bump in the night
Tend to be in my mind. But they wake me up and keep me up just the same.
I’m my own worst critic and my own worst enemy. I get my panties all in a bunch over the stupidest things. And I will lay awake night after night worrying about things I have no control over or situations I have blown up and out of proportion all in my mind. I try to let these things go. I try to remind myself it is never as bad as I think it is going to be. And I try to let a lot of things just go. But on average I never manage to do that.
The hubster says you just have to tell yourself to go to sleep. That never works for me. He also says you just have to stop thinking about those things. Nope, that doesn’t work either.
So, tell me, what do you do to help yourself fall asleep? I’m open to suggestions and ideas. Cause I’m tired of staring at the ceiling at 2 am.
12 comments:
Okay, this is a bit weird. We basically posted about the same thing today.
*cue Twighlight Zone music*
I wish I had the answer to this cause I have the same problem. Sleep problem anyway. Not the worrying about "things" part. Mostly lying around beating myself up. But, you don't want to hear about that.
Anyway, I usually fight it as long as I can then finally get on my laptop or read or ... and this is the part that actually helps ... get something to eat and take some iboprofen. It actually seems to relax me just a bit and I go on to sleep.
One word: Melatonin.
My Mom used to tell me to slowly put my body parts to sleep. You heard that right, PARTS. First the toes. "Go to sleep toes." Then the ankles. "Go to sleep ankles." The theory is that by the time you get to your head you're asleep.
It NEVER worked for me.
Whiskey. Lots and lots of whiskey. Seriously, the trick my Mom always subscribed to was to tense and relax your muscles, one at a time. You'd start with your toes, move up to your ankles, then keep moving North until you reached your head. The theory was that by the time you reached the top, you've spent so much time concentrating on relaxing, you've given your brain a chance to unclench, and you can fall asleep. Of course, it only works about 25% of the time, but at least you don't wake up with a hangover.
If you're staying up till 2am and not falling asleep try staying up til 4am...that's what I do. ;)
Steve~
Two ideas one, the one that Tink said my mom used to do something similar. Basically, just concentrating on relaxing the different body parts. It worked for me. The other one, is if you have something specific on your mind that's bugging you, you can try jounaling it. Evidently the theory is that if you put it down on paper it helps release some of the stress.
I've tried relaxing the body parts, but it usually doesn't work for me, either. I start with the toes and get to about the elbows, then I think, "Wait, did I relax my knees? They don't feel relaxed. Oh, good grief, now my toes aren't relaxed, either. Maybe I'd better start over." By that time, I'm wide awake. Sigh.
I'm going with Ellie's thoughts. Write it all down...in whatever free form random way that you can let it all out. If that doesn't work, you can always try the whiskey! ;)
What IS this? National Nobody Can Sleep Week? Last night I had the worst time falling asleep, and I had all this junk going through my head, and it was cold in my room, and I didn't want to get up and make myself some tea. I finally did though. I drink Yogi (I think that's the brand) Bedtime tea. It has quite a bit of valarian in it, and it really helped me fall asleep last night. So - tea - yeah try that.
I say goodnight to each part of my body, from the little toes all the way up to the hair on my head. If I get distracted thinking about something I start counting back by sevens from random numbers. If I start thinking about something else I have to begin again at a higher number. Since I'm bad at math, subtracting by sevens takes a lot of my concentration. :)
-Courtney
Oh, yeah, and P.S. - I've heard that if you can't fall asleep you should get up and move around or read in another room until you get tired. Then try to go to bed earlier the next night to catch up on sleep you might have missed. This used to work for me until I started staying up all night. Now I have very little problems falling asleep. The counting has helped condition me to not think when I'm laying in bed at night.
-Courtney
1) Get out of bed. You do not want your body to associate being awake with being in bed.
2) Try listening to drumming or relaxing music.
3) Put a couple drops of lavender essential oil on the inside of each wrist before going to bed. Clary Sage essential oil is good added to a bedtime massage oil. (1 drop of eo to 1 tsp of carrier oil) *clary sage is not to be used during pregnancy
4) Would you like me to make a restful sleep dream pillow for you? :-)
Wishing you sweet dreams!
I want to thank EVERYONE for their wonderful sleep ideas. I am going to try them all. Actually I think last night I tried the suggestion where you start at the toes and work your way up, and I don't think I made it past my ankles before I was snoring. But I would like to avoid the waking up part all together.
You guys are the BEST!
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