Can't Sleep? Breathe!

[MA-Caver]

Sleep, while still a mystery as to why we exactly need it, is still important. Yet sometimes life intrudes and prevents us from getting the rest we need by troubling us as we lie in bed trying to figure out the next day or week or even year.
This article offers some helpful hints on how to at least fall asleep faster.

Trouble Sleeping? Just Breathe


by LIVESTRONG.COM, on Mon Aug 24, 2009 4:27pm PDT
http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/health/trouble-sleeping-just-breathe-505000/
If your mind is racing and you are having difficulty falling asleep, a few minutes of simple but effective breathing exercises can help calm your nervous system on a chemical level and lead to greater success in hitting the sack. The awareness and control of breath has been a central component of yoga, martial arts and Taoism for thousands of years. There are dozens of different methods and exercises you can explore through a good teacher or book. The practice of breath control in yoga is called pranayama. I'll detail a simple pranayama exercise here that is particularly effective for falling asleep called alternate nostril breathing (that's "nadi shodana" for the Sanskrit posse out there).

Alternate nostril breathing is a great way to clear obstructed nostrils, balance the yin and yang energy of the body and focusing the busy mind on the present for a deliberate and calming exercise. When our nostrils are unobstructed, we involuntarily alternate breathing through one or the other about every two hours. Breathing through your right nostril stimulates the left side of the brain (intellectual, analytical, rational thought) and prepares the body for physical action (yang energy). Breathing through your left nostril stimulates the right side of the brain (creative, emotional thought) and prepares the body for passive mental activity (yin energy). If both nostrils are not clear, breathing will become imbalanced and so will the energy in your body.

I tend to do breathing exercises when I know I'm not going to sleep well and also I distract my mind by playing a piece of soft music. I don't listen to it because the mind will still be awake trying to hear/decipher it. But the mind being focused on the music in my head helps eliminate all the other thoughts trying to intrude and vie for attention which would otherwise keep me awake.

What about you? what are your best methods of falling asleep to get that good night's rest?

 

[Sukerkin]

Strangely enough, what used to work for me in the past when I couldn't sleep was to write a story in my head i.e. actually construct a plot and a narrative without actually writing anything down.

Worked very well ... tho' I often wonder what literary masterpieces I've wasted that way :lol:.

 

[MA-Caver]

Strangely enough, what used to work for me in the past when I couldn't sleep was to write a story in my head i.e. actually construct a plot and a narrative without actually writing anything down.

Worked very well ... tho' I often wonder what literary masterpieces I've wasted that way :lol:.

Alas poor Mark, I knew him, Sukerkin, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. What stories haft we been bereft from his imagery?

 

[Flea]

In the short term I'm tempted to say "pharmaceuticals," but I always build up a tolerance to the point that I'm not comfortable using them. With the last one I tried I octupled the dose over a couple years and still couldn't sleep. And nobody knows the long-term effects of using the stuff. Creepy.

Getting lots of exercise seems to do the trick.
Boring reading.
Soft music through headphones.
Chamomile tea.
Snoring and purring pets commandeering my pillows helps too.
And more pillows, of course. :uhyeah: I gotta sleep on something.

 

[Big Don]

Strangely enough, what used to work for me in the past when I couldn't sleep was to write a story in my head i.e. actually construct a plot and a narrative without actually writing anything down.

Worked very well ... tho' I often wonder what literary masterpieces I've wasted that way :lol:.

I've done that... a lot... if only any of them looked good on paper...

 

[Big Don]

lately, I've been drifting off imagining specifics of how I'd spend my lottery winnings...
one of these days, I HAVE to remember to buy a ticket...

 

[Hawke]

I also do breathing exercises.

Regular exercises throughout the day.

Daydream in my head as I fall asleep.

Put on a CD with soft music.

 

[Flea]

How do people go to sleep? I'm afraid I've lost the knack. I might try busting myself smartly over the temple with the night-light. I might repeat to myself, slowly and soothingly, a list of quotations beautiful from minds profound; if I can remember any of the damn things. ~Dorothy Parker

Several years ago I saw a film short from the Vaudeville era. It showed a man going through his bedtime routine, drinking a glass of water, changing into his pajamas and cap, closing up the house. Finally as he climbed into bed he pulled a rope and a giant boot swung down from the ceiling, clocking him in the temple. Zzzzz .....

I have a contractor coming in on Friday to make some small renovations. I wonder if I could talk him into installing one of those while he's here?

At least there's poetry:

Sleep is perverse as human nature,
Sleep is perverse as legislature....
So people who go to bed to sleep
Must count French premiers or sheep,
And people who ought to arise from bed
Yawn and go back to sleep instead.
~Ogden Nash