Genuine question.
How do you fall asleep?
I meditate until I am in a really, really deep state of mind. It's almost like sleep paralysis, except I'm not paralyzed. But I can "choose" when to fall asleep when I'm in that deep meditative state.
One of two things.
I visualize a scene in my head. Could be anything.
Or I'm just so tired I fall asleep.
I close my eyes, then ALLOW the natural process of sleep to occur.
Hmm, come to think of it, that's the way I AP as well. :wink:
Lol this thread is interesting. It reminds me of, actually, a decent biological theory. It says that it's possible that we never actually sleep, and the shortage of brain cells and slowing down of processes due to sleep deprivation eventually kills us (hence our very short physical lives). It's just a theory though, I don't know if I believe that yet or not.
I guess I should partake in my own question!
I'm very similar to Lionheart...
I lie there, close my eyes... my mind naturally just slows/stops and then Zzzzzz.
The actual process of me falling asleep is me getting out of the way of remaining awake.
Anyone else?
I stop watching any tv, ipads, and other blue light sources for at least an hour prior til. Then I read. When I'm ready to all asleep, I'll re-enact some scenes from the material that I read in my mind. I'm asleep in no time. I often visit some of the locations in the book. :-)
I lie down, reflect on how comfortable I feel and how great it is to just be laying there not doing anything, then my mind goes blank, sleepy feeling, sleep.
I take my medication and then I pass out. Hahaha No seriously I just get sleepy and let it happen. Though when I was working night shift I was having sleeping problems, so out of desperation I found a trick that helped. I would kind of push my eyes upward. Not actually putting my eye upward, but kind of straining to do that and this would help trigger the chemicals needed to fall asleep. The more I did it the better I got at doing it.
Most nights visualisation or crashing out.
When I am mentally exhausted from work, I just pass out. But few nights a week, I like to go to bed 1/2 hr earlier, so that my mind is still fresh and I can hold on to some visualization as I drift off to sleep. Lately one friend from facebook has been posting photos of beautiful locations from all over the world. Some sceneries are so breathtaking that as I look at the photos, I want to be there so bad, that at night I like to visualize and even pretend that I am laying in bed and I am no longer in my house. For example the other day, I pretended that I am sleeping in a little house in an alpine village in Switzerland. At one point I really had the feeling that I had teleported there and I am laying with my eyes closed in that house. I visualized the surroundings in my room and outside, then I visualized walking outside in the cool air and observing the beautiful snowy mountains.
Quote from: LightBeam on April 25, 2014, 15:19:13
When I am mentally exhausted from work, I just pass out. But few nights a week, I like to go to bed 1/2 hr earlier, so that my mind is still fresh and I can hold on to some visualization as I drift off to sleep. Lately one friend from facebook has been posting photos of beautiful locations from all over the world. Some sceneries are so breathtaking that as I look at the photos, I want to be there so bad, that at night I like to visualize and even pretend that I am laying in bed and I am no longer in my house. For example the other day, I pretended that I am sleeping in a little house in an alpine village in Switzerland. At one point I really had the feeling that I had teleported there and I am laying with my eyes closed in that house. I visualized the surroundings in my room and outside, then I visualized walking outside in the cool air and observing the beautiful snowy mountains.
Everyone should have at least a couple of "Happy Places" that they can visit while in a NP focus. :-)
I'm glad you found yours Lightbeam! :-)
Oh yeah, and I also sometimes will have to let the feeling of sleep relax the body and inside of my head to help drift off once I've been laying down for a while. That can help.