I’ve had slight problems with sleeplessness and an overactive brain in the past. My method of dealing with it has been 4fold.
Don’t use the bed for anything other than sleeping. Reading, computer use, conversing are all done on other pieces of furniture so that when I’m in bed, my body knows it’s time to sleep.
Like others have said, just lying in bed thinking, I may not be asleep but I am relaxing and resting can be calming.
My dad taught me a trick that I call the sleepy light maneuver. You imagine a colored light, whatever color you find most calming, mine is a deep blue, starting at your toes and as it slowly creeps up through your body, the parts it passes through become very heavy and sink deep into the mattress. By the time I get to my head, I’m usually half asleep already.
My heaviest artillery is the Enya on my mp3 player. I only use it in times of dire need because I fall asleep by the time I get to Tempus Vernum and I fear someday I’ll strangle myself in the headphone cord. But when it’s 4 in the morning and I just want to sleep, that seems an acceptable risk to take.
I’m jealous. I’ll bet we have many more “racers” on this board (being smarty-pants ignorance-fighters ‘n’ all).
I’d never get to sleep if it weren’t for my iPod. My brain’ll be re-hashing the day, worrying about the next day, or re-creating every mistake I ever made…
…if I didn’t have an audiobook (with a soothing, usually British, reader… no shouting); or a podcast with amiable soft-spoken hosts.
Then I drift right off, thinking about something besides my life.
Wow. I have problems sleeping, and often wake in the middle of the night with thoughts whirling around. I usually just come here when that happens. Sometimes I go right back to sleep. Other times I say awake and work.
I tend to work the physical effect. Can’t remember who taught me this method.
You assume a sleep position other than the one you sleep in normally. So if you’re a side sleeper, like I am, you lie on your back. And you lie there, for as long as you can bear it, feels like hours, but really 5-10 mins is usually enough. Then, when you cannot stand it any longer, you change to the position you normally sleep in, I roll onto my side and get all comfy and cosy. At the same time I actively remember my last holiday, or some other warm memory.
This usually works for me. The physical effect seems to overpower the mental static, as it were. Next thing I know, it’s morning.
I read a suggestion on line once and I found it very helpful: if you are having trouble sleeping, don’t think of words or imagine conversations you had or may have. Picture silent images. Picturing images only helped me relax and quiet down and drift off to sleep.