How to Cure Your Insomnia

It's bedtime and you're awake again. The more you think about needing to go to sleep, the longer you stay up, it seems. Maybe you take a pill or two, or a drink or two or three. And maybe you're wondering if you can ever get to Slumber Land without an artificial aid. Worrying is a major culprit of sleeplessness. Racing thoughts are like poison for someone who's trying to snooze. But knowing that gives you ammunition for warding off those cognitive interrupters of sound rest. Because when the worries start, and the thoughts race, there's something you can do about it! You can change what you think about. You can set up an imaginary "worry box" next to your bed. With this technique, you can imagine there's a box with a heavy, locked lid. Every time you start worrying you can imagine yourself physically grasping that worry with your hand, taking it out of your head, and putting it inside the locked box where it will stay until after it's time for you to be awake. You can consider all worries during sleep time to be off limits. Every time a worry tries to creep into your mind, you can remove it and put it in the worry box. Instead of allowing worries to take up your mind space, you can replace those worries with thoughts that are more conducive to sleep. Visualization is another method you can try. Visualize yourself in a relaxing place, like on a warm beach on a beautiful day, feeling completely comfortable and at ease. If a warm beach isn't your idea of comfort, picture yourself in whatever space makes you feel utterly content. Staying in the here and now is an additional tactic. Exist in the present moment. All other worries of the day have already occurred and the future has not happened yet. Don't think about the past or the future. Stay with the present moment. You are just lying there, breathing. Stay with your breath. Breathe deeply and focus on your breath. By taking deep breaths and luring your thoughts toward that process, the very action of this can draw your thoughts away from whatever was bugging you and lead you to a relaxed state of mind. Your mind will start to wander. And each time it does, you can bring it back to your breath. And bring it back to your breath again. And again. Until you are so relaxed that you dose off. Often times when we have bottled up thoughts that keep us up, we build up a tenseness throughout our body. The good news is that we can control the tightened muscles. We can unclench the jaws we didn't even realize were clenched until we tried to relax our muscles. You have the power to let your mind relieve you of the physical tension in your body. To do this, you can direct your thoughts to the top of your head. Let your mind release pressure from your head down, relaxing your forehead, your face muscles, your jaw. Position your tongue on the roof of your mouth to facilitate the release of tension. Then move your thoughts down your body, relaxing your neck, your shoulders, your back, your stomach, your legs, your feet. Then allow your mind to re-check the body, finding any tense spots that haven't been relaxed and relax those areas. Breathe deeply. Relax. Hopefully some of these tactics will help you. And maybe-- even if it seems like a bunch of hogwash to you-the sheer boredom of it all may put you to sleep. Good luck, and pleasant dreams!