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SHUT OFF AND GO TO SLEEP
Dear Les,
Can you suggest any non-medical ways to fall asleep? I have a hard time “shutting off” even when I’m tired and I just lay there getting even more frustrated that I am unable to close my eyes and forget about everything. Once I do fall asleep (sometimes it takes hours), I am usually good until the next morning. Thank you.
Can’t fall asleep
Dear Can’t fall asleep,
Lots of factors can contribute to “fast-forward brain” whether this frustrating occurrence is occasional or a regular bedtime story. As with many predicaments, pinpointing the sources of your sleeplessness may enable you to find faster relief. However, investigating and quieting this night noise can be challenging because its causes often vary over time thanks to our changing schedules, diets, life events, age and much more. So, put some patience in your pajamas and consider these sleep-inducing tips—they cover a wide range of reasons and remedies for trouble falling asleep:
Ease on down the road
If you’re driving and want to go from a freeway’s frenetic fast lane to the silent stillness of your driveway or garage, you must reduce your speed, go easy down the off-ramp, slowly park, and shut down the engine. You may need to similarly approach sleep by reading for pleasure, watching mindless re-runs, or engaging in some other low-intensity activity for a while rather than abruptly exiting from the web, work or studying, to dreamland. Sleep experts also caution against using mattresses for anything other than rest and intimate relating.
Actively relax
Try some guided imagery, self-muscular relaxation, yoga or stretching to relax and distract you into sleep. Imagery and muscular relaxation exercises are available in thestresscoach.com’s relax now! section under Instant Vacation and The Tranquilizer, respectively. Audiobooks and music can also yield similar mind-slowing results.
Exercise and eat early
With many workdays ending at 7:00, 8:00 and later, exercise and dinner have also been pushed back. Aerobic and other high-exertion activities done too close to bedtime can be brain-energizing nightmares, as can consuming stimulating foods and drinks.
Write to sleep
Instead of just laying there awake with a laundry list of worries, revelations and tomorrow’s to-do’s swirling around in your mind, enter them in a journal, PDA, or on a scrap of paper as a way to clear them out of your head so that sleep can move in.
Manage stress
Stress management strategies including meditation, exercise, massage and breaking up nonstop and straining days with walks, hobbies, prayer or just sitting still, can reduce your overall stress level and even the need to use the suggestions above..
Good night and good luck,
Les
2/07
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