Beating Insomnia by Tim Cantopher

Author:Tim Cantopher [Cantopher Tim Dr]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781847092595
Publisher: SPCK

9

How can I sleep better? II: Managing your mind

Because night-time is when nothing else crowds in on your brain, as it does through the day, this is when your mind tends to go into overdrive if you let it, or if you don’t know how to keep it quiet. Getting really good at managing your mind is central to improving your sleep. This means getting expert at a relaxation exercise, at how to be mindful and at how to challenge the unhelpful and unrealistic thinking patterns which keep you awake.

Relaxation

Relaxation exercises can be immensely powerful if persevered with, allowing you to bring your level of arousal down to a level which allows you to drift off to sleep. There are many variations on this theme and the thing is to find the one which works best for you. There are several relaxation exercises commercially available as audio files, on CD or other spoken-word media. Some people get benefit from yoga techniques learnt in a group setting. Others find that following a written set of instructions helps them better, by allowing them to do the exercise at their own pace with their own mental imagery. What follows is just one example of such a technique, but one which many of my patients have found helpful, whether they are affected by insomnia or any other stress-related symptom.

Whichever way you choose, the essential point is that it needs a lot of practice. Though a few people pick it up very quickly, for the majority, relaxation exercises are a total waste of time to begin with. They don’t work straight away, leading many to become disillusioned and give up on them. Some people even feel worse at the beginning, because doing anything and having it fail tends to make you feel tense.

Persevere, because when you really master the technique you will find that it changes your life. You’re doing it not to get benefit from it yet, but as an investment in your future. In the absence of any other strategy, expertise in relaxation may be all you need to get your sleep pattern back. The people who get benefit from relaxation exercises are those who put them top of their list of priorities and practise for at least half an hour every day, come hell or high water. If you hear that a meteor is going to vaporize your town in 24 hours, by all means take flight for the hills, but not until you’ve done your relaxation practice.

Looking back, I did relaxation exercises every day for about three years, not because I was unusually anxious but because I thought then, as now, that everybody can benefit from them. It took me about a month of daily practice for the exercise to be of any use at all. It took me at least three months to get to the stage of being able to use it when I was under strain, such as before an exam, because the most difficult time to do a relaxation exercise is when you most need it, at times of high stress.

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