A Simple Trick for Beating Insomnia

Insomnia can become a vicious cycle. If you can't fall asleep, you might begin to worry that you'll be awake all night. Worrying will make you tense, and that tension will make it even harder to doze off.

To beat insomnia, you need to break the cycle. This simple breathing and visualization exercise soothes the mind and relaxes the body. While doing this exercise, don't rush yourself. Don't feel that the exercise has failed if you don't fall asleep right away. Take your time and enjoy the feelings of relaxation.

Step 1: Inhale. As you inhale, mentally scan your body, searching for any spots that feel tense.

Step 2: Exhale. As you exhale, let go of the tension that you discovered in Step 1. Imagine that the tension is leaving your body, falling through your bed, through the floor, and then deep into the earth.

Keep on repeating step 1 and step 2. Let your breath become slow and deep. Each time that you let your tension go, relax just a bit more than you did the last time.

If your mind starts to wander, bring it back gently to the exercise.

If you start to worry that you won't fall asleep, say silently to yourself, "I am worrying," and then bring your attention back to the exercise.

Keep on breathing slowly in and slowly out, and becoming more and more relaxed.

The restfulness of the exercise will do you a great deal of good, whether you fall asleep right away or not.

Don't push it. Just focus on the steps, breathing in, breathing out, gently bringing your attention back when it wanders. You are likely to drift into sleep without even realizing that is happening. Next thing you know, you'll be waking up after a refreshing night's sleep, thinking, "Oh, yeah. I guess I did fall asleep after all."