There’s nothing worse than not being able to sleep. All sorts of thoughts swirl around your brain as you lie there, unable to drift off at night. Your mind plays tricks on you, saying things like:
- You won’t have enough energy to get through work tomorrow
- You’re going to give yourself some sort of awful disease if you can’t sleep
- When you’re tired tomorrow, you’re going to let everyone down
- You’re going to look tired and ill when you should be at your best
- You’re never going to be able to get a proper night’s sleep again
And on and on it goes.
The mind isn’t always your friend. Yes, it’s a great tool, but when it comes to sleep, it’s just something that seems to make the agony of insomnia worse. It never gives you a break.
The trick here is not to panic. Instead, it’s to allow sleep to just happen naturally.
“I’ve tried that,” you might say. But have you really?
Remember, sleep isn’t something that you can force. Just like you can’t force yourself to not think about something, get rid of constipation or make your heart beat, you can’t force yourself to drift off into slumber. That’s not how it works. Instead, you have to let go.
If you can’t sleep, do the following:
Get Yourself A Decent Bed
First, consider your basic bodily comfort. People tend to sleep better when they can lie on a mattress that suits them with a soft duvet over the top. The https://thesleepshopinc.com/best-adjustable-bed-frames/ has some good examples of the type of products you might consider.
Don’t Make Sleep An Objective
Sleep isn’t a goal. You can’t turn it into an objective. When people say that they “prioritize sleep,” they’re not really talking sense.
Sleep is just something that happens when you let go. It’s where your consciousness goes to retreat to give you a break from incessant thinking.
Do Something Else
If you can’t sleep, tell yourself “so what?” Then, go and do something else. Don’t just lie there in bed hoping for it to happen. After a while, you’ll get the impression that it’s not going to, so you’re free to do something else.
In doing something else, you help to take your focus away from sleep, according to https://health.clevelandclinic.org/5-tips-to-sleep-better-when-you-worry-about-not-sleeping/. You’ll then notice that you start feeling relaxed and calm, as if you were about to drift off.
Take Advantage Of Sleep Waves
Your body won’t make you feel tired the whole time, just as you don’t feel hungry all the time when you fast. Instead, it reminds you that you need to sleep in waves. The first wave usually arrives at around 9 pm. This is the first time people usually feel tired and ready for bed during the day.
A second wave often comes along a couple of hours later, and then at regular intervals during the night. At your normal wakeup time, your body will replace these waves with wake-up hormones, getting you ready for the day. Try, if you can, to ride these waves instead of allowing your lifestyle to work against them.