Thread: tips on getting to sleep please?

Hi there my friend,
I think the reason here why you can't sleep is because there's a lot of things running inside your mind, am I right? It would be really helpful if you meditate first before going to bed. It'll clear up you're mind from the things that happened that day. Listening to Binaural beats would also help in sleeping. The main thing here is, go to bed, think of nothing, and just sleep. I've ran to that kind of problem back when I was 7. But I was able to overcome it, and now, I can sleep at ease. I'm sure that'll also be the same for you. Hope this helps

I have the same problem. I usually do a tense-relax exercise when trying to fall asleep to relax myself.

It basically means you have to first tense a muscle group (for instance your right hand) for 5-10 seconds, and relaxing it, take a short break while taking some deep breath and try not to think of anything other that how relaxed the body feels. Move to the next muscle and repeat it for every major muscle group in the body, Works wonder for me at least.

Btw, your focus on WILD's with that problem should probably be more about trying to sleep than to maintain conscience. For some reason I have no chance in hell to succeed a WILD if I stay up for more than 5 minutes or so, as I'm simply too awake to fall asleep consciencly. In all my succesfull WILD's (about 10), I have been staying awake for between 30 sec to 5 minutes. Just saying that you don't necessarely have to follow 'protocol' to succeed, it's different for everybody.

Originally Posted by weakamon

Hi there my friend,
I think the reason here why you can't sleep is because there's a lot of things running inside your mind, am I right? It would be really helpful if you meditate first before going to bed. It'll clear up you're mind from the things that happened that day. Listening to Binaural beats would also help in sleeping. The main thing here is, go to bed, think of nothing, and just sleep. I've ran to that kind of problem back when I was 7. But I was able to overcome it, and now, I can sleep at ease. I'm sure that'll also be the same for you. Hope this helps

Meditation sounds like a good idea. Because I just can't stop thinking.
Il try it tonight. Any specific types of meditation best?

Btw, your focus on WILD's with that problem should probably be more about trying to sleep than to maintain conscience. For some reason I have no chance in hell to succeed a WILD if I stay up for more than 5 minutes or so, as I'm simply too awake to fall asleep consciencly. In all my succesfull WILD's (about 10), I have been staying awake for between 30 sec to 5 minutes. Just saying that you don't necessarely have to follow 'protocol' to succeed, it's different for everybody.[/QUOTE]

I have never succesfully done a wild. But I am starting to try them more now.
And I am the same as you. If I am up for 5 minutes it's not keeping conscious that is the problem, it's getting back to sleep.

Meditation before bed is helpful. You may also want to avoid sugar, caffeine and any other stimulants at least an hour before bedtime. I know this one might be hard, but you might also want to avoid TV, video games and the computer before you go to bed. Try to do something relaxing. If all else fails, you can try a supplement like melatonin. Just be careful of some of the over-the-counter stuff because it can be habit-forming. If all else fails, you should go see your doctor...he or she will be able to ask you the right questions and help you figure out why you're having trouble sleeping.

Originally Posted by Qwer

Meditation sounds like a good idea. Because I just can't stop thinking.
Il try it tonight. Any specific types of meditation best?

I actually don't know much when it comes to the types of mediation. but I know this common/basic variation of meditation. First, go to a place/spot where there's no distracting elements. A silent dim-lighted room would do(if you can, try adding aromatic candles in the room). Secondly, sit on the floor or any flat surface, and make sure your back is straight. If this position is kind of uncomfortable to you, you can change your position into any comfortable position you want. And lastly, start meditating. Breath in, breath out. Just focus on your breathing. But don't focus too much, make it balanced. Just go with the flow, and you'll suddenly find out that you're mind is cleared up of stressful things. Hope this helps

Useful link
How to Meditate - wikiHow

Moved to sleep and health

and when it comes to do with meditations, don't be stressed that you do it incorrectly and don't feel compelled to believe that there is a "right" way to meditate.
Meditation is different for everyone, there is no right or wrong way.

Before bed, just try to clear your mind and focus on breaths, i do this to fall asleep. Another thing that is good to do, imagine yourself in a white room and a chalkboard, anytime a thought or something pops into your mind, it appears on the chalkboard, go up to the board and erase it. You are "erasing" that thing from your mind, usually when i do this, i just end up drifting to sleep.

I agree that there is no "right" way to meditate. I used to be really turned off by the idea of meditating because I thought it meant trying not to think of anything (impossible, subsequently frustrating and leaving me less relaxed then before). Now my meditation is rather visualization. There are lots of audio tracks for this or you can just do it yourself. A favourite is starting out picturing yourself walking downstairs, then lying on a beach or some nature place you create for yourself and noticing all the sensations, sounds, smells etc.

Originally Posted by FancyRat

I agree that there is no "right" way to meditate. I used to be really turned off by the idea of meditating because I thought it meant trying not to think of anything (impossible, subsequently frustrating and leaving me less relaxed then before). Now my meditation is rather visualization. There are lots of audio tracks for this or you can just do it yourself. A favourite is starting out picturing yourself walking downstairs, then lying on a beach or some nature place you create for yourself and noticing all the sensations, sounds, smells etc.

Isn't that more self hypnosis,
And you should try this, do what you normally do relax and walk down the stairs relaxing as you go.
And then imagine that at the bottom of the stairs they keep going down into the water. Relaxing and numbing your body as you go. Feel the wet feeling of water.
It feels so cool and helps me alot.

yeah, a lot of self-hypnosis starts like that although I usually think of hypnosis as having more of a goal, like after you've relaxed with this imagery you make whatever suggestion you are using the hypnosis for, overcoming some fear etc. etc. If your message to yourself was explicitly "falling asleep is easy" then yeah, that's definitely self hypnosis. Without the suggestion, I'd just call it a visualization meditation. All this stuff really blends together though. I like your idea of the stairs going right into the water. I'll definitely try that sometime.

As a person who's NEVER had a regular night sleep, i've found that a spoon full of honey, and a spoon full of peanut butter, helps your body fall asleep

Originally Posted by howlsathemoon

As a person who's NEVER had a regular night sleep, i've found that a spoon full of honey, and a spoon full of peanut butter, helps your body fall asleep

Yum, that's my favourite snack (that I keep in the house that is, even chocolate chips don't last )