It happened again last night. I was laying in bed, 1:30 in the morning, awake. My hubs wasn't snoring so I couldn't even be mad at him. Side note-has your partner ever done something so idiotic in your dream that you have a hard time not being mad at them the whole next day? Is that just me?
Luckily (?) I have quite a bit of practice with trying to woo myself back to sleep in the middle of the night, so I started in at the top of my list of strategies. Halfway through that, it occurred to me that perhaps this is something my peeps struggle with too? These are things besides the obvious ones like reading, warm milk (gross), or drinking until you blackout (which I don't recommend).
So I have put into words five of the forces I employ When Sleep Won't Come:
The "Chillax Briana, Your Sphincter is Puckering"
Yes, I gave them all names. Lots of times, especially when I am in the first hour or so of trying to drift off to Lalaland, it's really just my body that needs to catch up with my eyelids. My Auntie Gwen was my high school physical education teacher, my studio dance teacher, and she is was way ahead of her time teaching this stuff to high schoolers in the mid nineties (I mean, who needs sleep help more than an anxious fifteen year-old girl!?).
What I do--Start with your facial features and one by one tense them up, keep them tight for a couple breaths and then release. I start with scrunching my forehead, then eyebrows, then make my whole face into a raisin (my twins call it the "mad momma face"). I usually do my neck and shoulders a few times because that's where a lot of the tension is, down to the abs, the butt muscles (tmi?) and so on. To finish off I do a whole body stiff-as-a-board, every single little muscle all bunched up, then a couple deep breaths and done. The whole thing takes maybe five minutes.
It's cool showing this to students because there is always this "aha" moment when they realize what muscle they didn't know they were keeping tensed up. My Auntie Gwen didn't tell us about the "science" at the time, but there is actually a lot of nerdy reasoning behind this if you want to look more into Progressive Muscle Relaxation".
The "It Can Wait 'til Tomorrow"
Relaxing the physical muscles is great, but what about the biggest pain-in-the-ass-muscle= my brain? Wait, is the brain a muscle? Hmm, in any case, it is often the racing thoughts, not the puckering of the sphincter, that keep me from a good R.E.M. cycle. I have my awesome boss, principal Mike Martin (who knows a thing or two about losing sleep over stressful situations) to thank for this tactic.
What I do--I have a closet in my brain with folding doors that open and close from the middle (it is important for the brain imagery to be specific in detail). In my mind I take a situation that is churning in my brain and I write it down on a notecard. Then I put the notecard in a blue box with grey lines and red geraniums across the top cover. I open the closet, put the box on the middle shelf, and close the folding doors back up.
Believe me, the situation will still exist tomorrow, and it can wait. Pray about it, then put it in the box. To keep myself from returning to the closet I usually move on to the next strategy:
The "Chocolate Chip Cookie"
It is best to keep nighttime thoughts as happy and mundane as possible. What could be more of both of those things than making chocolate chip cookies?
What I do--I make chocolate chip cookies. In my mind I make chocolate chip cookies. I don't actually get up and make chocolate chip cookies, that would be ridiculous. Ok, ok, I have, perhaps, once or twice actually gotten out of bed and made chocolate chip cookies. Maybe I should make raisin cookies instead, or fruitcake...Anyway, I go through the very simple and neutral steps of measuring out the ingredients, blending, dropping onto a baking sheet, and I'm usually asleep by the time they go in the oven.
The "Lullaby"
I'm not sure why grown-ups think that they are so different from babies (I'll resist the urge to do a side-by-side comparison to my husband...) but the lullaby method works.
What I do--I typically choose a Sunday school song or super simple praise song (We exalt thee, we exalt thee, we exalt thee oh Lord) and sing it over and over in my mind to the Lord. Keep in mind, if the goal is to get to sleep, you should not be taking the Heavens by storm in prayer or trying to exorcise your cat--simple worship songs to God the Father. This strategy is closely related to the next one:
The "Sahara Desert"
What I do--Pretty straight-forward, I get a picture of the Sahara Desert in my mind and just watch the wind blow across the landscape, moving the sand from mound to mound. It started out with me picturing a nice sandy beach and being on vacation but that usually led to frustration that I was not actually on said beach and lengthy mathematical calculations predicting the next time I would be on any beach-which was not conducive to sleep. So, like the cookie example, I chose a happy but neutral place and simply observe what is happening there. A cornfield, a lumberyard, a gravel pit, etc.
Sleep is so important, you guys. And it's pretty much universally known in the social circles I run in that we don't get enough of it. Well that and water (gross). It literally impacts every area of our lives. What kind of glass ceilings would we be breaking if we could just get some shut eye? Well, obviously, the glass kind I suppose...
What are some things everyone else does to enable the doze-off?
Luckily (?) I have quite a bit of practice with trying to woo myself back to sleep in the middle of the night, so I started in at the top of my list of strategies. Halfway through that, it occurred to me that perhaps this is something my peeps struggle with too? These are things besides the obvious ones like reading, warm milk (gross), or drinking until you blackout (which I don't recommend).
 |
| Obviously, drinking the Elixir of the Gods at 7 p.m. needs to go... |
The "Chillax Briana, Your Sphincter is Puckering"
Yes, I gave them all names. Lots of times, especially when I am in the first hour or so of trying to drift off to Lalaland, it's really just my body that needs to catch up with my eyelids. My Auntie Gwen was my high school physical education teacher, my studio dance teacher, and she is was way ahead of her time teaching this stuff to high schoolers in the mid nineties (I mean, who needs sleep help more than an anxious fifteen year-old girl!?).
What I do--Start with your facial features and one by one tense them up, keep them tight for a couple breaths and then release. I start with scrunching my forehead, then eyebrows, then make my whole face into a raisin (my twins call it the "mad momma face"). I usually do my neck and shoulders a few times because that's where a lot of the tension is, down to the abs, the butt muscles (tmi?) and so on. To finish off I do a whole body stiff-as-a-board, every single little muscle all bunched up, then a couple deep breaths and done. The whole thing takes maybe five minutes.
It's cool showing this to students because there is always this "aha" moment when they realize what muscle they didn't know they were keeping tensed up. My Auntie Gwen didn't tell us about the "science" at the time, but there is actually a lot of nerdy reasoning behind this if you want to look more into Progressive Muscle Relaxation".
The "It Can Wait 'til Tomorrow"
Relaxing the physical muscles is great, but what about the biggest pain-in-the-ass-muscle= my brain? Wait, is the brain a muscle? Hmm, in any case, it is often the racing thoughts, not the puckering of the sphincter, that keep me from a good R.E.M. cycle. I have my awesome boss, principal Mike Martin (who knows a thing or two about losing sleep over stressful situations) to thank for this tactic.
What I do--I have a closet in my brain with folding doors that open and close from the middle (it is important for the brain imagery to be specific in detail). In my mind I take a situation that is churning in my brain and I write it down on a notecard. Then I put the notecard in a blue box with grey lines and red geraniums across the top cover. I open the closet, put the box on the middle shelf, and close the folding doors back up.
Believe me, the situation will still exist tomorrow, and it can wait. Pray about it, then put it in the box. To keep myself from returning to the closet I usually move on to the next strategy:
The "Chocolate Chip Cookie"
It is best to keep nighttime thoughts as happy and mundane as possible. What could be more of both of those things than making chocolate chip cookies?
What I do--I make chocolate chip cookies. In my mind I make chocolate chip cookies. I don't actually get up and make chocolate chip cookies, that would be ridiculous. Ok, ok, I have, perhaps, once or twice actually gotten out of bed and made chocolate chip cookies. Maybe I should make raisin cookies instead, or fruitcake...Anyway, I go through the very simple and neutral steps of measuring out the ingredients, blending, dropping onto a baking sheet, and I'm usually asleep by the time they go in the oven.
The "Lullaby"
I'm not sure why grown-ups think that they are so different from babies (I'll resist the urge to do a side-by-side comparison to my husband...) but the lullaby method works.
What I do--I typically choose a Sunday school song or super simple praise song (We exalt thee, we exalt thee, we exalt thee oh Lord) and sing it over and over in my mind to the Lord. Keep in mind, if the goal is to get to sleep, you should not be taking the Heavens by storm in prayer or trying to exorcise your cat--simple worship songs to God the Father. This strategy is closely related to the next one:
The "Sahara Desert"
What I do--Pretty straight-forward, I get a picture of the Sahara Desert in my mind and just watch the wind blow across the landscape, moving the sand from mound to mound. It started out with me picturing a nice sandy beach and being on vacation but that usually led to frustration that I was not actually on said beach and lengthy mathematical calculations predicting the next time I would be on any beach-which was not conducive to sleep. So, like the cookie example, I chose a happy but neutral place and simply observe what is happening there. A cornfield, a lumberyard, a gravel pit, etc.
Sleep is so important, you guys. And it's pretty much universally known in the social circles I run in that we don't get enough of it. Well that and water (gross). It literally impacts every area of our lives. What kind of glass ceilings would we be breaking if we could just get some shut eye? Well, obviously, the glass kind I suppose...
What are some things everyone else does to enable the doze-off?
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