how to cease thought before sleep

[Viking]

Often times when I go to sleep I start thinking, and sometimes that prevents me from sleeping. What I usually do is try to let it be, because trying to stop it will only make it worse, but still it reduces the amount of time I sleep, which is very bad for my mental health the next day. How do I go about preventing this in the first place?

[LastThursday]

Over thinking at bed time is something I really used to struggle with. It would easily take me 1-2 hours to get to sleep every night.

I did two things which turned that around for me:

1. Gave up ALL caffeine. I eventually worked out that I'm highly intolerant to it, and it wasn't allowing me to sleep.

2. Every night. I religiously listened to a recording from Paul McKenna's Change Your Life In Seven Days. This was a kind of hypnotic style relaxation CD.

I'd like to elaborate on those two points. 

Firstly, what you ingest during the day can greatly affect your state of mind and your ability to relax enough to get to sleep. It's very important that you experiment with your diet to see if any particular foods or drink is affecting your alertness at night. Of course this applies to other areas of your life and health in general.

Second. It's important to train your mind/body that the bedroom is for one thing only: sleep (have sex somewhere else!). Your mind works by association and it does that very very well. If it associates lying in bed with thinking and ruminating, then you'll have trouble sleeping. You have to retrain the mind to associate bed with relaxation and sleep.

The point with the hypnotic CD was that it was nearly impossible for me to think while I was listening to it.

Apart from those two things, there are a million other things that can improve your sleep and ability to get to sleep. Here are some highlights:

• Block all blue light entering your eyes from about 8pm onwards (i.e. two hours at least before sleeping).  This will shift your body clock.
• Ensure the bedroom is slightly cooler than other rooms. You will not sleep as easily if you're too warm. Take a shower if it helps you cool down before bed.
• Get bright sunlight or daylight as soon as you can after waking up. Talk a walk outside! Don't stay indoors in dark rooms. Again, this will shift your body clock.
• Do exercise (walking, running, gym whatever) very regularly several times a week. This will reduce your alertness in the evenings.
• Find time to do your 'thinking' during the day and not at night. Do your thinking at the same place and time each day.

Good luck!

Edited October 4, 2019 by LastThursday

[RobertZ]

1) band-aid help (in a pinch): I take 25 to 50 mg of diphenhydramine HCL (Benadryl). Even 75 mg on rare occasion, if insomnia started.

   -This remedy does NOT support good-quality sleep!

   - this remedy can cause a groggy-hangover! The higher the dose, the worse the grogginess, for me

3) boil milk. 

4) Sometimes I take 3 to 5 mg of slow release melatonin. That supports falling asleep if insomnia has not kicked in. I still feel a bit more tired the next day if I take melatonin, but that tiredness might also depend on total sleep hours.

5) 15+ minutes of unstructured time (e.g., journalling,  walking, or sitting). Unconscious material comes up outside of bed.

6) eye shades and ear buds help if external stimulus might wake me up right when I am falling asleep.   

 

Caffeine keeps me awake. Intoxication keeps me awake (e.g., a  tiny bit of high CBD-low-THC-cannabis gives me terrible insomnia). 

[Commodent]

Do you spend a large portion of the day distracting yourself? Because the brain needs some time to settle down. 

[Bill W]

I think of sleep difficulties as a sign that I haven't worked on enough of my day time shit. 

I used to fall into a trap that if I just have a good routine 1 hour or 2 hours before sleep that all will be right. Wrong.

Speaking as an ex sleeping pill addict the best thing I've ever done for my sleep is two fold and in this order of importance.

1. Mindfulness meditation on and off during the day and evening. My specific technique is to bring my attention to sound in my immediate environment. This has really helped my monkey mind.

2. Once in bed I slow my breathing right down. Especially the out breath. If you ever listen to how someone breaths when they are in a deep sleep, and model your breathing on that. 

[Viking]

2 hours ago, Commodent said:

Do you spend a large portion of the day distracting yourself? Because the brain needs some time to settle down. 

what do uean by distraction?

[Commodent]

@Viking External (mental) stimuli. Your brain needs time to process what it has experienced throughout the day, and if you're just constantly jumping from one distraction to another it won't really have the opportunity to do that until you put your head on the pillow. And thus insomnia will naturally arise.

Going to bed is basically enforced do-nothing meditation.

Edited October 6, 2019 by Commodent

[Viking]

11 hours ago, Commodent said:

@Viking External (mental) stimuli. Your brain needs time to process what it has experienced throughout the day, and if you're just constantly jumping from one distraction to another it won't really have the opportunity to do that until you put your head on the pillow. And thus insomnia will naturally arise.

Going to bed is basically enforced do-nothing meditation.

i see, that's actually very important, thank you.

there go all the people who are constantly "busy" and wonder why they cant sleep

what do you recommend to do in that downtime though? just nothing? meditate? meditation isnt really about that, its more about not focusing on thoughts and putting awareness on something. maybe journaling?

Edited October 6, 2019 by Viking

[Ry4n]

I wear these blue light blocking glasses 1-2 hours before bed, works like a charm to help me sleep as it helps your brain produce more melatonin before bedtime

[Commodent]

12 hours ago, Viking said:

what do you recommend to do in that downtime though? just nothing? meditate? meditation isnt really about that, its more about not focusing on thoughts and putting awareness on something. maybe journaling?

• Going for long walks, preferably in nature. Aim for at least 45 min per walk. This one is my favorite
• Journaling
• Conscious breathing. Stretching. Focus on relaxing tensions in the body
• Do-nothing meditation
• Enjoy a tasty meal in quiet. Relax on the couch
• Draw, play an instrument, write poetry. Create something special for someone you love

Those were just a few examples. A common theme in all the things I mentioned is solitude (that is, time spent without input from other minds). Try different things, and pick the ones you like