What are you dwelling on these days? The fall and rescue of AIG? The reality that your bank WAMU is on the auction block? How much mercury you've absorbed from fish? How many pesticides you've been exposed to - you fruit lover, you? How many plastic bottles and containers in your home have a #7 on their bottom and possible BPA leaching out onto your food? Shall I go on?
There are plenty of things going on - truly important, life impacting situations - that can worry you enough to disrupt your sleep. It's no longer just job performance and balancing the budget - these issues pale in comparison to the new world issues rocking our daily equilibrium. And who indeed will be our president and lead us deeper into debt and war or finally give us some security and financial relief?? No wonder we toss and turn and pop pills.
"If you can't sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there and worrying. It's the worry that gets you, not the loss of sleep"- Dale Carnegie. Ain't that the truth. And experts do recommend that if you don't fall asleep within 15-20 minutes of your head hitting the pillow - get up and walk around a bit, read near one soft light, play some soft music but don't toss and turn. You cannot force sleep to come. Of course, there are the things you should do to set up sleep and one is to use the 30 minutes before bedtime to jot down reminders, notes, your to do list, so that you don't dwell on things while lying in bed in the dark.
So the next time you can't sleep -don't get caught up in the worry but rather transfer the worry to a pad and then....ge some shut eye!!
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Im 64 yrs old. I have sleepApena. My problem is caused by the muscles in my throat. I use a CPAP machine. I took a two night sleep test( 2 parts). They said that,I quit breathing six times per hour. To say,I was scared would be an understatement. I have had four heart attacks and eleven TIA's. I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes six years ago. Since 2002,I went from two hundred-eighty five pounds to two hundred -twenty eight pounds. My blood sugar count fell in line with my weight. However, I still dozed or fell asleep in my chair reading a news paper,reading a book or watching TV. So my Cardiologist order a sleep test. I was diagnosed with sleep Apena, I now use a Cpap machine. Needless to say, I now get a great nights sleep in six to seven hours. I only get up maybe once per night or none at all. However when, I read diiferent things on this site that can be associate with Sleep Apena,I was shocked. Im glad,I found this site. Its quite informative. Keep up the good work. John