Insomnia

So here I am at 3.35am writing a blog entry when I should be sleeping.  Remember when it was possible to sleep all night and well into the morning?  When the idea of getting up before noon seemed to be a bit of a laugh.  I have several nights in a row when I sleep very badly, and then I just zonk out on another day to try and catch up at least a little bit of the lost time.

Once the brain cell engages I know that there is no point in staying in bed because I will just toss and turn and make things worse.  So frequently I will get up and 'play' on the computer until I get tired enough to need to go back to bed.  Right now I am tired, but the brain cell is buzzing.

Tonight I forgot to put the radio on quietly to help me sleep.  Somehow having the radio buzzing away quietly in the background really helps me to sleep.  I go through phases where this helps, and others when it doesn't and I need complete silence to drift off to sleep.  It really is just a matter of finding what suits you at the time.

If I am very anxious about something I try to use visualisation techniques and Mindfulness to calm my mind down and allow the arms of Morpheus to close around me.  By distracting the mind and taking it to a place and time when I was happy and felt good I can allow the whole of my body to relax more.  A vital part of this is to concentrate on the breath; the cooler air coming in through the nostrils and then the slightly warmer air coming out.  Mix that with the visualisation of a beautiful view from a hill on the North Devon coast and ... well I think I need to go back to bed now ...