How To Sleep When You Can't
Sometimes I write about Cosmic Things, but not today. Today is about that mundane activity all of us spend one third of our time doing, that is, sleep
(Which we've discovered in the last 40 years or so is actually extremely important. Bad sleep patterns often lead to early death or dementia or both. But that's for another day).
There are a few things you can do to optimize sleep. Loose fitting sleep wear or none, a cool room, as much darkness as you can muster, and a comfortable mattress and pillow. Some folks prefer some white noise (I use a fan) while others prefer none.
But there's another problem not so easily remedied: waking up and thinking. Thinking is valued in daylight hours when we're trying to solve things and take care of our lives. But it's less of a virtue at night when we're trying to sleep and every thought of the previous day invades our bedroom. You might have awakened for a bathroom break or not. But for whatever reason you woke up.
Instead of trying to squish those thoughts and push them away (which seldom works), here's what you can do.
Repeat the following phrase: "go to sleep."
Over and over again until it takes.
Don't try to fight the thoughts, ignore them.
This really does work. Try it and see if those sleepless hours don't reduce dramatically.