The Meditation Awareness Training program has wonderful suggestions on how you can get a better night’s sleep. Below are tips that are based on this advice.
1) Know The Workings Of Your Mind
When your mind is full of thoughts accumulated over the course of the day, it can overwhelm your attempts to get rest. When you have stressful thoughts during the day, your mind tends to keep those thoughts active into the night. Just by being aware of this can motivate you to try to stay calmer during the day. During the course of your activities, practice relaxation exercises. Take walks and calm your thoughts. Not only will this help you deal with your daily demands better, but it will help your mind calm down enough at night to allow you to get some rest.
2) Label Problems and Let Go
A couple of hours before you go to bed, spend a little time on this mind exercise. Think about what problems worried you the most during the day, then put a label on them. Write this down on a piece of paper. This is not intended to be a time for you to problem-solve, but merely a chance for your mind to acknowledge that these problems are causing a burden on you. Once you acknowledge these problems, you can let them go for the night. You know that you can go back to seeking solutions to these problems the next day or whenever you feel up to it, but you do not have to carry these burdens with you to sleep. In this way, you create objects from these troubling thoughts that you can remove or pick up whenever you like. You have control over them instead of allowing them to control you. You can remove yourself from these objectified problems when you want your mind to be freed and unencumbered at night so you can rest. Spending around 10 minutes on this very effective exercise will do wonders.
3) Practicing Deep Breathing
After you have unburdened your mind of your daily thoughts, sit on the edge of your bed and do some deep breathing exercises. Slowly and mindfully, inhale and exhale, feeling the air going through naturally, breathing out the troubling thoughts with each breath. Avoid doing this breathing exercises lying down because sitting upright improves your ability to meditate and become more aware. Concentrate on each breath and stay centered. Try not to let your focus drift away, but if does, try to bring your thoughts back to your breathing.
4) Do Not Let Sleep Become An Obsession
You read a lot of information about how everyone should get plenty of high quality sleep for better physical and mental health. However, there are times when you are unable to get the number of hours of sleep that you want to get. When you have trouble falling asleep, the worst thing you can do is to keep thinking and worrying about it because that will keep you awake even more. If you cannot fall asleep, sit up and do the breathing exercise described above. Do that for a little bit, then lie down again. It is not the end of the world if you cannot fall asleep this one night because you know that the next day, you might have a chance to take a nap. Just accept that when your body wants to sleep, it will. Release your mind from thinking about why you are not able to fall asleep. The point is, try not fight and obsess over it.
5) Wake Up and Get Up
When you wake up in the morning, this is actually the time to start preparing for high quality sleep at night. If you rely on an alarm clock to wake yourself up, avoid using the snooze button when your alarm sounds. This only prolongs your mental fight of waking and sleeping. A better approach is to get yourself up as soon as you wake. Slowly remove your blanket, then sit up at the side of your bed. Ensure that your bedroom is clutter free since your brain translates clutter as things to do therefore causes stress. This is the last thing you want to see first thing in a morning (or last thing at night). Get yourself some furniture with ample storage. Read these reviews regarding Ashley Furniture’s quality concerns to make an informed decision. Take a few moments to breathe in slowly, then breathe out. Be aware and mindful that you are starting a brand new day. Take in the freshness and enjoy it. Then, move slowly to the bathroom for your morning self-care routines while staying in this peaceful and calm state of mind. Prepare a hot breakfast drink and sip it slowly while enjoying the morning. Instead of rushing, allow yourself time to keep this pace because it will set the right tone for the rest of your day. It will put you in the right frame of mind, help you go through your day’s activities with less stress, and result in a better night’s sleep when you go to bed.
