This post was inspired by the novel A Well-Tempered Heart by Jan-Philipp Sendker, this month’s From Left to Write book club selection.
Sometimes I feel like my brain is on speed. My thoughts jump from topic to topic, sort of how my four-year-old acts when he’s been cooped up for too many snow days. If you were to document my thought processes, it would look like a jumble of random ideas. Thankfully the ideas make sense to me, even if the connections between them aren’t linear. All this jumping around inside my head makes it hard to fall asleep at night.
Every night I lay down and try to quiet the thoughts racing through my mind. I keep a notebook on my night stand to jot down ideas, inspiration, reminders. Anything to get them out of my head. I’ve tried different relaxation apps. I’ve tried meditation apps like Leonie Dawson’s Divine Dreaming Meditation. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t.
I’ve also cut back on coffee. (Nobody freak out, I’m still me.) Well, I try not to drink any coffee after 6PM. I even switched to tea, which is a teeny bit better. I’m also ending the night by reading for 15-20 minutes. Sometime’s it’s more than 20 minutes, but reading seems to calm my brain and helps me relax.
Sometimes I wish I could fall asleep anywhere like my husband. He tells me he’s not tired and BAM! He’s snoring less than five minutes after his head hits the pillow. I can only do that if I’m utterly exhausted.
Do you have trouble falling asleep at night? What do you do to help quiet the thoughts in your head?
This post was inspired by the novel A Well-Tempered Heart by Jan-Philipp Sendker. Feeling lost and burned out, Julia drops her well paying job at a NYC law firm. After hearing a stranger’s voice in her head, she travels to Burma to find the voice’s story and hopefully herself as well. Join From Left to Write on February 4 we discuss A Well-Tempered Heart. As a member, I received a copy of the book for review purposes.
I'm trying to meditate more, too. Sometimes I do it at bedtime, which doesn't improve my meditation skills but I do fall asleep quickly with that. And I have notebooks, post-its and phone reminders everywhere. If nothing else is working and my husband the night-owl hasn't come to bed yet, I'll use my vibrator – it helps quiet my brain, plus it's very relaxing. 🙂
I usually fall asleep too.Glad the vibe works for you! Doesn't always for me, but it never hurts to try. 🙂
If I'm having difficulty falling asleep, I get back up and "do". Pick up the house and write down a list of things that will need done in the upcoming days, ideas for projects, or go ahead and get an art piece that's pestering me started. Sometimes just doing or getting started on doing will be enough to allow my mind to settle so I can go to sleep.
My recent post A Heart Out of Tune
Janin, I've tried that and I just end up staying up late "doing, doing, doing." If I didn't have kids, I'd still stay up super late and sleep in. Not a morning person I am.
I have a very strict bed time routine that I try to follow so my body sends Pavlovian signals to my brain to shut up 🙂 it works, some times 🙁
Lucky you!
I'm one of those people like your husband that falls asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow! But my sister is exactly like you. Her mind is racing a million miles per hour and it's so hard for her to relax! Sometimes she says these off the wall things to me and I just don't understand where she's coming from but that's only because she has 100 different conversations and situations running around in her head. I'm kind of glad my mind is more relaxed…lol. Great post Kim!
My recent post Would you leave Comfort for Dirt Floors? – From Left to Write
It's hard for my husband to follow my conversations too because of that very reason! I have to slow down for him.
I'm a very tangential thinker during the day – I find I'm constantly bouncing from one idea to another. Sleeping, though, is almost never a problem for me. On the rare occasions that I do have trouble turning off the internal dialogue, one strategy I've found helpful is to listen to an audiobook (with earbuds, so i don't bother my husband). It's handy that most players allow you to set a timer. 15 minutes usually does it for me. The one downside is that I often find that I wake up at about 3am, with the earbud cord twisted around my neck!! I wonder if bluetooth headphones would solve that problem.
My mind races and jumps all over, all day long, and like you, I have a hard time shutting it off at night. I find that quiet prayer helps me to slow my thoughts and focus my mind on positive thoughts. I like praying a rosary, because it's repetitive and soothing. I can usually fall asleep fine, (ok, I collapse from exhaustion!) but I wake up at night frequently. That's when I pray.
My recent post A Well Tempered Heart
Usually I just collapse from exhaustion!
I feel ya on the constant hyperactive thought activity… Some days it is really bad!
However, I can and do fall asleep with no qualms at the drop of a hat. I can sleep anywhere, and it takes basically a natural disaster to wake me up unless it's time. I don't know if that's a blessing or a curse!
YOU cut back on COFFEE?? REALLY?? I could never do that. Kudos to you. I have my own personal form of insomnia. Usually, I am asleep by 10:30-11 at night. And then BAM! 4am hits and I am WIDE AWAKE listening to my own voices. They never seem to quiet down. And nothing works. I am very very tired. Sigh…
I know, it's sacrilege! I find that I sleep better if I have my last cup before 6PM. It doesn't always happen, especially if I have a lot of work to do, but I try.