How to go the F&%# to sleep

There is a hilarious adult children's book out there that I highly recommend. It captures the frustration of lack of sleep, whether it's someone else's or our own.

You know the feeling when each passing minute adds another spoonful of anxiety to your mental soup? The more the clock ticks, the closer you get to your alarm going off. The less sleep you get, the worse tomorrow's going to be, and so on.

Let's just take that logic for a second. Can you hear the predictive mindset?

Predictive mindset is one of the major killers of sleep. Our mind is so geared up for tomorrow that our body actually thinks it's tomorrow. We are already dealing with the stress of an exhausted day before it has even happened.

Try reminding yourself that this is not the time to get a jump on coping with tomorrow.

Remind yourself that you will know what to do if tomorrow brings challenges at that time. Right now, your duty to yourself is to actually stop coping ahead in order to help yourself prepare through rest. Checking out from those tomorrow problems is the best service you can give to yourself today. So let that $#!& go!

You can even visualize a silly way of letting those people and problems bounce out of your happy place so you can clear a path for rest.

Oh, and turn your clock around so you don't see how much time is passing. That will save you from the very un-fun how-much-sleep-am-I-losing game.

Still wide awake?

Some of our best ideas and strategies for handling future events come to us while we are "horizontal" aka hanging out in the in-between space of awake and asleep. Don't let those good ideas go to waste! Write them down in a place you will remember to look tomorrow (preferably without using blue-light).

Is the washing machine of your mind still turning?

Give your brain a job to do that has 0 emotional charge. Revisiting the conversations you wish had gone differently that day is going to recharge your emotions and keep your body awake.

Try picking a category and then going through the alphabet, naming something in that category for each letter. Take a deep breath for every item on the list if you can.

I like picking a category that isn't so hard that it will frustrate me, but isn't so easy that I'm going to fly through the exercise. I like using these categories: animals, adverbs, countries/cities, first names, and foods. I spend 5-10 seconds on each, skipping the extra hard ones. I sometimes change categories halfway through if I get stuck or bored. The most important thing is that you stick to the exercise and return to it if tomorrow-thoughts come crashing in.

You can do other mental activities too, such as counting. I like to visualize drawing each number in the sand with a stick, and watching an ocean wave wipe away the last number.

The last tip came from my grandmother in a lullaby.

When you're worried

And you can't sleep

Just count your blessings

Instead of sheep

This is a great one to do to initiate positive feelings in your body, which can pave the way for sleep to roll in. I'm thankful for my refrigerator keeping my food fresh. I'm thankful for not getting physically hurt today. I'm thankful for the option of socks if my feet get cold. Try to list as many blessings as possible and don't be afraid to make them too big or too small.

Oh, and don't forget to breathe deeply. This activates the rest-and-digest response in your nervous system.

Finally, don't be scrolling your feed before bed, ya dingus!

You got this.

Goodnight and good luck!

With care,

Stacy

#sleepanxiety #relax #selfcare #sleep #tomorrowthoughts