How did you sleep last night? This question seems to be on everyone’s mind. When we ask ourselves about sleep, it’s almost as if we’re taking stock of our overall state of mind: How do I feel? Am I 100 percent here?
And no wonder! It can be frustrating and frazzling when all we want is the soothing balm of sleep to heal the stress from our day, but infuriatingly, when we lie down to sleep, we can’t turn off our brains. Paradoxically, sometimes the more stressful our days are, the harder it is to quiet the brain for sleep at night.
Insomnia is “in fashion” these days
If this happens to you, you’re certainly not alone. Over 30 percent of people have bouts of insomnia in a given year, and the overall rate of insomnia has been going up in recent years.
Even if you’re one of the lucky people who usually have no problem with falling or staying asleep, I bet there are nights when you toss and turn, unable to turn your brain off while it nags at you with to-do lists, worries, fantasies, plans, doubts, replays of embarrassing moments, and replays of songs that make you want to bang your head against a wall.
Your brain is always busy
Struggling to turn your brain off is actually very normal. Your brain is a busy bee! That’s because it is designed to be buzzing all the time to help you remember, anticipate, analyze, plan, problem-solve, and do all the things that make you human. So we can’t blame the brain for being active even when we’d really like for it to be quiet—it’s just doing what brains do!
Your brain is also very persistent. It takes its job of helping you to stay safe and perform well very seriously, so if it thinks something is important, it won’t simply say, “Oh, it looks like you’d rather not be disturbed right now. I’ll come back later with this urgent stack of tasks to be completed and decisions to be made.” If only that were the case!
We can’t blame the brain for being active even when we’d really like for it to be quiet—it’s just doing what brains do!
Instead of fighting against your brain’s well-intentioned and persistent effort, what if you work with your busy brain to protect your sleep? I’ll share my 5 favorite tips for quieting the mind so you can snooze.
Chronic insomnia requires a different approach
But before we review those, I have a special disclaimer for those of you among the 10% of people who have chronic insomnia disorder. That means:
... Keep reading on Quick and Dirty Tips
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