If you have difficulty falling asleep at bedtime or staying asleep through the night, you don't have to reach for the sleeping pills. There are numerous simple solutions available to you, many of which rely on resources that are right at your fingertips. And one of your greatest resources for deeper, more restful sleep is...your mind!
How you use your mind while you're lying in bed, waiting for sleep to come, can have a tremendous impact on the depth and restfulness of your sleep. Thoughts and feelings, memories and expectations: all these things can make or break your good night's sleep.
Here's an example: What do you think about at bedtime, while you're lying in bed, waiting for sleep to come? Do you review the previous day's events or anticipate what might happen on the day to come? Do you mull over all the challenges in your life, searching your mind for solutions? Do you entertain thoughts of worry, anger, frustration or fear? If so, you're doing yourself a great disservice. That way of using your mind can actively prevent you from falling asleep. Troubling thoughts cause you to secrete stress hormones like cortisol and ACTH, which are far more stimulating than any cup of coffee!
Of course we all know that we can't always choose what to think about. A mind, especially a worried mind, has away of directing itself our most troubling thoughts, especially once we've flicked the lights off. What is to be done? How can we temporarily suppress those disturbing thoughts that keep us awake, so that we can address them during waking hours, when we can actually do something about it?
In my work as a sleep coach and educator, I've encountered this problem many times over the years. One of my favorite solutions is "the verb technique." Get yourself one of those books designed to help you learn the verb conjugations in a foreign language. I like "Barron's 501 Verbs"; of course you can get it in any language that appeals to you. (You can find verb lists online, too. Just be sure to print them out so you don't have to read from a computer or other device. Even brief exposure to the light from the screen can keep you awake!) On each page, there's one verb with all of its forms: past, present, future, subjunctive, etc. Just before you get into bed, commit one verb to memory, as much as you can do happily. Then, as you're waiting for sleep to come, say the verb in your mind over and over again. (It's best not to move your lips and tongue, since that tends to have a stimulating effect.)
The "regular" verbs are the easiest, so start with one of those unless you're already well along in your study of the language. If you're a rank beginner, you can just start with a few forms of the verb: for example, present, past, future. Later, you can tackle all the tenses of each verb, and you can attempt more "irregular" verbs that require more acute memory. Don't push yourself too hard, but don't go too easy, either. You want to give your brain's memory-acquisition circuits a a light, easy workout. As a result, the thinking parts of the brain will go offline, so you won't keep yourself awake with all those troubling thoughts.
If, after falling asleep in this way, you should wake up again, don't be discouraged. Just repeat the same technique, with the same verb, all over again. You might do that several times over the course of a night; there's no harm in that. You'll find that with regular practice, you can return to sleep very easily and peacefully.
The beauty of this technique is two-fold. First, I've found that it works like a charm for many people, enabling them to banish overstimulating thoughts and fall asleep with ease. Second, it's a very effective way to improve your language skills.
Who knows? You might take your next vacation in a country that speaks "your" bedtime language! Okay, that's benefit number three.
Want the real insomnia solution? The Sounder Sleep System is an ingenious set of gentle mind-body techniques that you can use to reprogram your brain for deep, more restful sleep. To learn more, click here....
[Painting: Torreon Night by Janet Pfunder]
