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How to Fall Asleep
In this article you will discover
some simple tips and advice on how to fall asleep. The
most common complaint from
insomniacs is the ‘racing
mind’ syndrome at night. Those racing, relentless
thoughts seem never ending and by the time the mind
starts to quieten, it’s the morning.
Most of us have probably experienced
at least one night of this. However for the insomniac
it has become a nightly routine. So what can be done
about this frustrating problem?
Well for 40% of insomniacs,
medicating themselves to sleep with either prescribed
or over the counter sleeping pills seems to be the
only solution. But how effective are sleeping pills at
tackling the cause of insomnia?
Put it this way, if you continually
suffered from back pains at work and knew that the
cause of it was due to an unsupportive chair, what
would you do? Sure you would treat the pain by taking
some painkillers, but it would be silly to continue
suffering and treating the symptom right?
Obviously the underlying cause of
the problem is the chair. So the sensible thing to do
is either replace the chair, or fit a lumbar support.
Eliminate the underlying cause and
the symptoms will eventually go. Although insomnia is
a far complex issue, the same principals can be
applied. Most of us think that if we deal with the
symptoms, the problem will go away.
Taking a sleeping pill is about as
effective as taking a baseball bat to the head. Sure
it will knock you out, but it won’t eliminate your
insomnia and you’ll probably feel like you’ve been
knocked over the head when you wake up.
Sleeping pills are generally bad
news as they will break down your body’s natural sleep
cycle and make sleep very difficult in the long term.
It may also affect the amount of deep sleep you attain
during the night as most major sleeping pills
interfere with normal brain wave patterns. Taking
sleeping pills is a crude way to tackle insomnia in
the long term.
You may find that you wake up
feeling groggy, drowsy or tired. Other Side effects
include urinary retention, blurred vision, dizziness
and palpitations. Sleeping pills may help you get to
sleep but with continual use your body will build
tolerance, and you may find that you need to ‘up’ your
dose to attain the same affect.
Using prescription or
over-the-counter sleep aids to catch up on your sleep
is generally ok, but should be avoided. You should
consult your doctor before taking sleep medication.
You should also avoid taking them for more than 2 or 3
nights in a row, as prolonged use can cause
‘rebound’
insomnia.
There are far more effective ways to
deal with insomnia which do not require medication.
You see, insomnia is a learned habit. In this day an
age, stress, worry and anxiety are increasingly common
problems.
Financial problems, relationships
and redundancy are common factors. We often ignore our
body’s signal that we are under too much stress. But
by doing this it can have detrimental effects on our
emotional behavior; being stuck in traffic, having a
bad day at work and something as little as burning
toast can build up stress during the day.
Again we only seem to treat stress
when it becomes a symptom, a headache, migraine or
stomach upset. Yet stress is the major
cause of
insomnia.
We get up, rush to work, spend the
day rushing around trying to stay on top of work, go
pick up the kids, go to the supermarket, rush home,
slave away on the stove, do the dishes, put the kids
to sleep and collapse on the couch completely burnt
out. At this point we switch on the TV, eyes glazed
with a million thoughts of the day and the next
whizzing around our heads.
We go to bed carrying these thoughts
which seem to trigger a domino effect of thoughts,
inevitably keeping us awake. It may be worry or
anxiety, but more often they’re just random thoughts
spiralling out of control. My mind’s racing just
thinking about it! So what can be done?
Well fact is, everyone has the
ability to sleep, it’s like breathing, it’s the
subconscious part of the mind that knows how. So if
you know how to fall asleep, why can’t you? Through
bad sleep habits, negative sleep thoughts and stress
you’ve reconditioned the mind, your conscious mind
becomes too dominant at night.
You find that it’s even more
difficult to pass the buck and let the subconscious
mind to take over and do its job. You end up trying to
will yourself to sleep with the conscious mind (this
is obviously impossible).
This in effect becomes your new
sleep routine. By taking sleeping pills you are only
reinforcing this, because you are no longer relying on
your natural ability to sleep. But don’t worry, just
like learning to ride a bike or drive a car, the
subconscious mind is able to learn how to sleep. More
accurately you reawaken and reinforce your own natural
ability to sleep.
How do we do this? Well first off we
need to tackle the cause and improve our sleep habits.
You need to take a step back, maybe even write down a
list of causes and work to eliminate them. There are
far more advanced techniques and therapies such as
hypnosis, EFT, NLP and acupuncture which are
completely drug free which work to remove the
underlying cause.
For now these are some basic tips
you can start applying to begin the process of
establishing a good sleep routine:
Step 1: Get up and sleep at
the same time everyday.
Step 2: Wind down an hour or
so before you sleep.
Step 3: Relax with some
soothing music or some chamomile tea.
Step 4: Leave your work at
work.
Step 5: Expose yourself to
sunlight in the day.
Step 6: Ensure that your bed
is comfortable and supportive.
Step 7: Ensure your bedroom
is quiet, dark and not to warm.
Step 8: Talk about your
problems and don’t let your emotions build up.
Step 9: Remind yourself that
bedtime is for sleep and not a time to worry.
For a more detailed look at more
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