No wonder!
When we want to relax to relieve the stress of the day, it is even more frustrating and exhausting. The most annoying thing is that when we lie down and sleep, our brains just don't stop working. Paradoxically, sometimes the more nervous we are during the day, the more difficult it is to calm our brains and have a good sleep at night.
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Insomnia is an epidemic today.
If you have insomnia, I tell you, you are not alone. Statistics show that more than 30% people suffer from insomnia at least once a year. And in recent years, the proportion of insomnia has been on the rise.
Even if you can sleep effortlessly at ordinary times, I bet you will toss and turn on some nights, unable to calm your mind, and you will repeatedly think about some to-do items, worries, fantasies, plans, problems and other issues, and you may even have an impulse to hit your head against the wall.
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Your brain is always busy.
It's normal for everyone to try to calm their brains at night. Because your brain is a busy little bee! It is designed to buzz all the time to help you remember, predict, analyze, plan and solve problems. So we can't blame the active brain, even if we really want it to be quiet, but it's just our brain doing what it should do!
I want to have a good sleep, but what if my busy brain doesn't cooperate? Here are five tips to keep a good sleep, which can make your brain calm down quickly and sleep peacefully.
However, before we learn these tips, I have a special disclaimer for 10% people with chronic insomnia (or long-term insomnia). First of all, see if you meet these three conditions.
You have trouble sleeping at least a few times a week.
It's been going on for over a month.
It will seriously hinder your function or cause you pain.
Whether these situations sound like you, of course, you can also try the following techniques, but you should also know that these methods are not enough to solve your insomnia problem. It is very likely that you have tried to get rid of your chronic insomnia by following the health guidelines for healthy sleep, meditation and aromatherapy, but failed. Therefore, the following five techniques cannot be used as a method to treat long-term insomnia. Instead, you should talk to your doctor in time and treat it with medicine and physical therapy.
Of course, for some people who occasionally suffer from insomnia or have difficulty falling asleep, trying these skills from tonight will make us embrace a good sleep.
Tip 1: Give yourself a "trouble period" during the day.
This technique sounds counterintuitive, because it means that you must set aside a part of your day to deal with anxiety.
But please hear me out. During this time, you will only worry. Do not even do housework or other tasks. Instead, all you have to do is concentrate on worrying about things that you can't control.
It will take too long. Just set aside 15-30 minutes during the day to deal with your troubles. Remember: don't think about these questions when you sleep.
Outside this worrying period, if you find that your mind has sneaked into all the things related to you, all the things you can't do, you just need to tell yourself, "I solved this problem in the time I was worried about today" or "Thank you, brain! Let's put this problem aside and solve it tomorrow. "
The purpose of this special period is to build a home for your troubles. Leave a space for the brain, not let it work day and night. Undoubtedly, it is not always easy to get rid of troubles, which is like telling the brain, "Don't think about that pink elephant anyway!" " "What's your first thought at this moment?
So, don't tell your brain not to worry, but give it a chance to get rid of it while you are focused on worrying. Outside this period, you can put off any lingering worries or troubles until the next worrying period.
Tip 2: Transfer the lingering thoughts in your mind to paper.
If you are worried that the time period is not effective, or you are particularly busy or nervous during the day, it may help to divert your thoughts. Because your brain has been processing those ideas and trying to make them work normally, you may forget some important things you are worried about.
I like to use this transfer technology to catch all the problems that are still bothering me before going to bed. Sometimes, if inspiration comes and some good ideas are worth exploring, I will write them in my diary. But you don't need a special diary or a complete sentence. In these sentences, you don't need to be profound, poetic or grammatically correct. You can write down the scattered fragments of thoughts on a napkin casually, which is just as good as playing. Remember: the key is to write down your thoughts and reassure your brain-you won't forget them. You can tell yourself, "Don't worry, brain! I have written it down, and I can solve this problem when I go to work tomorrow. "
Tip 3: Let the senses enter the imaginary scene.
Have you noticed how fast your thoughts are? You know, our brain is a high-precision language machine, and it is very good at telling stories in words. All our thoughts are just stories told by the brain to help us understand the world. If we allow the brain to do this, it can finish these stories quickly at the speed of 100 miles per hour, which makes it difficult for us to jump off the train of any stories.
The good news is that there is another way of thinking, which is much slower than the default storytelling mode of the brain. This mode is that you talk to yourself through the scenes in your mind, so it is much easier to slow down and control the rhythm.
Tip 4: Let consciousness leave your brain and enter your body.
Letting consciousness enter the body is similar to entering an imaginary scene, because it can make your consciousness leave the high-speed racing thinking and enter a space connected with your senses.
Here, you are not walking in an imaginary scene, but walking in your body.
Start by paying attention to breathing. You don't need to change it (or judge it) in any way. All you have to do is let nature take its course and pay attention to your feelings. Use this rhythmic breathing as your anchor point, and then slowly shift your attention to the whole body, from the soles of your feet to the top of your head like a scan. Whenever you are distracted by your own thoughts, gently let yourself go back to breathing and fix your consciousness here.
In fact, if you want, you can focus on breathing first. As long as you are ready, you can focus on your toes. Similarly, there is nothing to change and judge, just pay attention to your toes. Are they warm? Is it cool? Is it tight? Relax? Twist it and see what it feels like. Take your time … Now, turn your attention to your other foot, stay there for a while, and then let your consciousness move to your ankle, calf, knee, thigh and waist. Then gently shift your attention upward like this and let it pass through every part of your body as long as you want.
Tip 5: Listen to audio books or podcasts.
Sometimes, you may feel very tired, or you may feel that the brain's automatic thinking is too stubborn, and it is difficult for consciousness to scan the body or enter the scene thinking. If your brain insists on telling a story at this moment, you can indulge it and let it distract itself by telling a different story.
Audio books and podcasts are very helpful for this. When choosing them, generally speaking, they should be very stable, and there should not be too many strong sound effects, or radical voices and fast-paced songs. Before listening, set a sleep timer on your audio or podcast application for about 30 minutes.
Don't know what to listen to? Listening to the radio is also an option, and it is free. There is always something playing, and the voice of the host is often soothing. When choosing a radio station, don't worry about choosing "perfect" things to listen to. The program you choose is not necessarily boring or peaceful. The key is that it is interesting enough, and your brain would rather listen to it than listen to your own annoying thoughts.
Perhaps, on the worst night, none of these skills can tame your escape thoughts and call you to sleep. It doesn't matter. This situation often happens to any of us, but it doesn't mean that you are doomed to suffer from insomnia for a long time, nor does it mean that you will suffer serious consequences the next day.
At this time, it may be more beneficial to give up the goal-oriented sleep style. For example, get up and do something else, enjoy your favorite program, read a few chapters of your favorite book, call your friends (if they are free), or listen to music ... Congratulations! You will have more extra time tonight. Eventually, your body's drowsiness will overwhelm your busy brain and your eyelids will start to droop. Then you will go back to bed and enjoy your dreams.