Can someone please give me techniques to sleep at night

[Donal]

Hi. Yesterday I woke at 7am, yet I couldn't get to sleep 21 and a half hours later at 4.30 am, even though I was in bed in a dark room with my eyes closed for about 3 hours.

I missed the 3rd day of my college because of this, and I have woking up at 1pm today, so I doubt i'll be able to get to sleep at around 11pm tonight. How can I make/force myself to go to sleep?

[Tombo]

You can not force yourself to sleep! I repete: YOU CAN NOT FORCE YOURSELF TO SLEEP! Any act of trying to sleep will disturbe your sleep circle further which may lead to sever insomnia. Which is no fun, believe me.

The only thing that you can do is trusting your body that it takes care of things itself. You are now in the lucky position that your sleeping problems are just a couple of days old which makes it fairly easy to get out of them. Do not think about sleep. Thats is the key, Do NOT think about sleep. just go to bed and get lost in thought patterns which leads you naturally to sleep. If you cant fall asleep stay calm dont think about sleep. your body works toward sleep your mind/fears work against it. The more you manage to step out of the way the sooner you fall asleep. It is quite simple.

Take care Tom

Think about this my friend it may save you alot of suffering.

[AndrewTheSinger]

I would say finish your day. Do all you have to do, make sure everyone is alright with you and you're alright with everyone around, don't bring your worries to bed. Think of your room as a shelter, a peaceful resting place where you can isolate yourself from everything. Just lay down and say: I surrender!

They say talking a lot, laughing and listening to music are good tips to have a nice sleeping night. Jasmine essence is also good.

[HoFeR]

maybe your getting excess energy from something? having a high carb diet, and not using a fraction of the energy you take in, so if that were to be case, i would say start running or working out

otherwise sleep loss also comes from being stressed out, or you have alot on your mind, and you can't stop thinking about it, causing your brain to stay too active for sleep

[RooJ]

The methods i use to get to sleep fast (usually 5 - 10 mins):

*Blank my mind, think of nothing for a good 10 seconds.

*imagine my whole body relaxing into the bed.

*imagine falling through a black abyss, just falling deeper and deeper (dont concentrate hard on it, just let it come naturally and if you cant see it, just feel it). I also add in layers, like i hit water, sink to the bottom into the mud, sink slowly through the mud, then drop out the bottom back into the blackness. Or i hit a huge pile of giant sized balls of wool, ill hit the top one, then slide down between 2 or 3 and hit another, just keep falling through the gaps (might sound weird but it works for me).

It may also help to write anything thats on your mind down on paper before bed, then you know you can forget them and they'll be there in the morning, It just helps you to let go.

Best of luck,

>RooJ

p.s. I do have other visualisation and imagination tricks for sleep, so let me know if you want more.

[AndrewTheSinger]

I liked your advices Rooj, thanks.

[pxr87]

purchase melatonin tablets from the pharmacy ( widely available in US pharmacies and I hope it is available in ur country ). It really works.  it produces melatonin needed for sleeping and also natural melatonin increases some  psychic ability.

[greatoutdoors]

I"ve tried the melatonin and it works to some extent. You can't use it every night, however, or it will lose its effectiveness. You've had some good advice here already, so I'll recap that and add a couple of my own.

You can't force yourself to sleep. (Tombo is right)

You need to be physically tired. (Runlola is right) My only addition here would be not to do the exercise just before you go to bed. End the exercise at least an hour before you even think about sleeping.

Rooj has the key, but it is way easier said than done. Once you master the art of stilling your mind, then the problem is not how to sleep, it's how to stay awake!  

Now, here are my suggestions:

Use your bedroom only for sleeping -- no TV, no games, no homework, nothing! This way, you train your mind to expect only sleep in that area.

Also, the darker you can keep things, the better of you are. It's okay to have a nightlight if needed, but make it low and absolutely not shining in your eyes.

When you are laying in bed, pay attention to your thoughts. It's okay to give your mind a free rein for a few minutes. I think this sort of lets it unwind, but then take charge. The idea is to clear your mind and still all thoughts.

Have you ever found yourself rehashing a situation that occurred during the day, or perhaps something that might happen the next day? When that happens, stop the thought and mentally say, "I cannot control that event at this time. I wll deal with it in the morning, but for now I am putting it aside." Don't say it out loud, but do say it forcefully and consciously in your mind. Then go back to watching your mind. Gradually, your thoughts will slow and you should just fade out. This is actually a meditation practice, but don't try to hold yourself awake, just let go.

Lastly, if your mind just won't settle down, and maybe you have itches and twitches in your body, then get up and take a couple of aspirin -- just plain aspirin. If you can do this without turning on any lights, so much the better.

If you incorporate all of the advice you have received, you should be in dreamland very soon!  

[GeKKo]

Very good advice indeed.
I also have some sleeping problems,
and my experiences stroke with what you guys describe here.

For some people it also helps to keep a strict sleeping pattern (to some degree): always go to bed at 11pm, always get up at 7am; stuff like that.

The sleeping problems I deal with are mainly because my sleeping pattern is wildly random, and i tend to get stuck in associative what-if reasonings (way too long thought patterns, as greatoutdoors mentioned).

Also make sure you are sleeping in a relatively cold room.
This is quite important for me, if I'm sleeping too hot, i cant really sleep very well.
I'd rather sleep in a 5° room with loads of blankets on me,
than in a 28° room.
But i also like to have something covering me (dunno must be psychological thing, force of habit ).

Anyways, nice posts all!