The Mattress Secret

Fighting Sleep-Anxiety

Another important cause of sleep deprivation is anxiety. Often it is hard for people to get to sleep due to the myriad of thoughts that flood through your mind when you are finally at peace and have a chance to think. These restless ideas, emotions, feelings, and thoughts make it hard to relax and even harder to get a good night's rest.

But how can you learn to ignore these nagging thoughts that escort you to bed? Here are a few tips that might help you:

  1. Go to bed at a reasonable hour, not too early and not too late.
  2. Lie down on your bed and relax your body.
  3. For 2-3 minutes pay attention to every muscle in your body from head to toe. If you find any tense muscle, relax it.
  4. For about one minute, let thoughts come freely into your mind.
  5. Watch these thoughts as they come and go.
  6. Tell your mind that if it has any important thoughts that require attention, you are willing to discuss them tomorrow.
  7. If one of the thoughts is too persistent, write it down so that you can remember to think about it the next day.
  8. Now try to look at the thoughts with lack of interest. Lack of interest is the magic word when it comes to controlling and silencing thoughts. Do not let your feelings to be aroused and manipulated by your thoughts.
  9. If thoughts still come, and they probably will, it is all right. Don't fight them, but just try to ignore them by losing any interest in them. An ignored thought ultimately goes away. Don't worry if you fail at first. Keep on trying and the situation will improve.
  10. Watch the thoughts that enter your mind as if watching a boring movie and they will lose their power.
  11. There is another thing that can be done, and that is to practice meditation every day.