Trouble Sleeping

I read - but it has to be something that kinda bores me. In the old days it used to be catalogues of small household appliances (Consumers Distributing here in Canada). Two or three pages of detailed descriptions of kettles or irons and I was snoozing.

Working on breathing techniques helps me as well. Focussing on my inhaling and exhaling and getting the rhythm right can knock me out.

Thinking about things with patterns - knitting, swimming ... <zonk>

Playing the double letter word game in my head also knocks me out.

Being at the computer keeps me up too late - too many interesting things to allow my brain to unwind.

ahhhh... hun... wishing I had an answer for you for that one. I guess you have the computer.... but it becomes kinda lonely looking at a screen in the early hours - can you get your hands on any more books. I look at a lot of photographs/images - videos online - just started playing word games - mindstein etc - but of course, that gets the little grey cells moving around. Music... did you get you're Ipod back???????

Sure someone will come along and give you some tips here Seed, will read along with ya. x

Do you know any foreign language, but not very well? What I would do was to count in French, as s-l-o-w-l-y as I could. I would bore myself to sleep.

I know a little spanish. Can only count up to like twenty. Problem is I have a really hard time staying on one thought wave. When I lay in bed my mind tends to jump from thing to thing.

That's part of the process, Seed. You have to work on focusing enough on one thing that you sort of relax yourself into sleep.

for example the counting thing:

(in Spanish)

one
one two
one two three
one two three four
one two three four five
one two three four five six
etc and etc up to twenty and then start over

~~~

It definitely is easier for some people than others. I studied with a prof some years ago who was doing research on people who can self-hypnotize. He found that people who were artistic could self-hypnotize best, and that people could train themselves to do so - it was about focus.

Im sorry, you were saying? There was a butterfly, and then I had to get something to drink... :-D

I put on a set of headphones to block out other sounds and listen to classical music on the radio and focus on hearing and identifying every single instrument and every single note each of them are playing.

pffffffffft

i listen to bob marely and stevie ray vaughn to relax sometimes. its great but it just relazes me, it doesnt seem to make me go to sleep. but I guess that is the first step

haha

I use one of those white noise machines set to play the sound of gently flowing water (make sure you pee before bed). Like ehBeth I focus on patterns as well -- I "practice" various forms of t'ai chi in my head.

i like to make sure i'm laying down, and then i close my eyes

I go along with ehBeth - I use reading, but am selective. None of those novels where you can't wait to find out what happened. Hey, history could be good..

I admit I fall asleep reading the New Yorker magazine, preferably a well written article on something I've little interest in. So, I have all these crumpled New Yorkers lying around.

Banishing worry at all costs - or postponing it.
I used to work on some intricate things at work, and also go to school at night, and come home wired. What did I do, I stopped at 7-11 and got a Newsweek and some ice cream (hah, milk again). I could usually shut my mind up by that distraction. Thinking about work (or the equivalent) could obliterate sleep.

But that stop to get a treat and something to read was a kind of trigger for my mind to shut down. Not so much the individual things, but a shutdown routine.

smart ass :-D

For me, getting a relaxation tape works...it bores the crap out of me, and I think I go to sleep to escape.

Can you get enough exercise to really get tired?

Some meditation tapes seem to help me, too.....

haha yea I work out every day and twice on Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays I am always tired at the end of the day, trust me, I just dont seem to be able to unwind and have my mind let go of things to fall asleep.

Yeah....I know that feeling.

Seriously, if you try a proper relaxation regime, and get yourself physiologically into the "relaxation response" it does seem, gradually, to have an effect on all that.

I have been reading all these old posts trying to find solutions for my "can't sleep problem". A lot of the suggestions seem to require concentration which I'm horrible at, the minute I can quiet my mind it's like princess and the pea syndrome. I can feel every lump and bump in my mattress, I notice it's too hot or too cold, I can hear the refrigerator running. Any advice for a hypersensitive girl who really really wants to get to sleep at night?