Tips for Restful Nights: Navigating the Wandering Mind
How is your relationship with this space?
Introduction
Is falling asleep difficult for you? Do you find your mind is busiest when you go to lay your head down at the end of a long day? This post will offer some ideas to help your mind and body settle so you can get some much needed restful sleep.
Begin your nightly wind down with an evening walk.
Bedtime Routine
It’s important to establish a consistent bedtime routine. What that may look like for each individual/family can vary greatly. It’s all about finding what works best, which may take some trial and error.
Some things to consider or give a try when winding down with a bedtime routine are:
An evening walk. Check out a previous post to learn about the benefits of an evening walk with the family: Reviving Tradition: The Necessity of the Daily Family Walk.
Avoid blue light an hour before bed. Put down your phone, turn off the television, set the tablet aside and any other devices that emit blue light at least 60 minutes before getting into bed. Blue light can interfere with circadian rhythm, impacting sleep (1).
Find your favorite “sleepy time” beverage. It could be a glass of warm raw milk, hot organic chamomile tea, or organic tart cherry juice (2).
Take a warm bath. When time allows, or for a special treat, take a warm bath with epsom salt and lavender essential oil to really relax the body. Here are the benefits of magnesium/sulfate from epsom salt baths (3) and of lavender essential oil (4).
Leave the phone. Put your charger on the other side of the bedroom, plug the phone in, set it to ‘do not disturb’ and leave it there for the night (don’t worry your alarm will still go off and this will force you to wake up and walk across the room to turn it off in the morning). You won’t be tempted to check for notifications or mindlessly scroll if it’s nowhere near you. If you’re worried about loved ones needing to contact you, you can allow certain contacts to push through the ‘do not disturb’ when it’s set. Check out how to do this on an iPhone here.
Hide the clocks. If you are one to stare at the clock and watch the minutes and hours tick by as you are unable to sleep, get rid of it! It’s not helping and an alarm from your phone will do the trick to get you up in the morning.
Set the mood. Turn off all the lights, use blackout curtains if needed. Make your space as dark as possible. Turn the thermostat down to a cool temperature (5). Set your sleep space up for success.
Allot as much time needed for your unique routine so it ends with you getting into bed at the same time (or as close as possible) each evening. Going to sleep and waking up at the same times are crucial in setting your body’s circadian rhythm.
Finally in bed. Body is tired, but your mind is wide awake.
I’m in Bed, Now What?
You’ve completed your bedtime routine and are winding down. You finally climb into bed in your cool, dark room. Your body is ready for sleep, but as soon as you lay your head down and close your eyes, your mind is wide awake and super busy.
You might find it’s off in multiple directions. It could be thinking about the past; as recent as the day you just had, or as far as a few weeks, months or even years ago. It might be jumping ahead to the future; trying to predict how tomorrow may go or how an upcoming event may unfold.
We can’t do anything to change what has already happened, and we cannot predict the future. Our mind is not helping us in any of these scenarios as we try to go to sleep. It’s only keeping us up, lost in thought.
So, now what?
Aim your attention to something specific.
Focus on The Two P’s: The Positives and the Present Moment
Like anything we do, the more practice we have with the following, the better we will become at them. You may find some of these present moment techniques to be helpful right away and some may take a little more effort. It’s all about finding what works for you. As you are first trying these, your mind may wander off, thinking about various things. That’s OK, just notice when this happens and return it back to the present, focusing on one of the following:
3 Good Things. End your day on a positive note, no matter the day you had. This is crucial especially on the “bad” days. Think of 3 good things that happened. This could be something as small as “the sun came out today” or as big as “I got that promotion at work!” If you are religious or spiritual you might end your day with prayer or another type of ritual reflecting or giving thanks. A gratitude example to help get you started if needed: Gratitude Journal: Three Good Things.
Deep Breathing. I’m sure we have all heard of or tried this at some point. There are many different ways to do this. The main goal is to focus all of your attention on your body and/or the counting that you may do with it. Noticing how it feels for the air to enter your body and lungs, and what is feels like as it leaves your body as well. When all of your focus is inward like this, it quiets the mind and does not allow it to wander. Here are some helpful tips on how to get started: Deep Breathing.
5 Senses Grounding. This is one of my personal favorites to do at night when my mind is busy; connect to the space around me. Using all of your senses, focus on the present by naming all that you can see, hear, touch/feel, smell and taste. (I really like to focus on the sounds and what I can feel as I lie in bed with my eyes closed.) This technique along with other grounding techniques: Grounding Exercises.
Progressive Muscle Relaxation. This technique will allow you to focus on the body and tension. You will go through, from head to toe, tensing various muscle groups for a short period of time and then relaxing them afterward. While doing this, you may notice a part of the body where you hold tension. One that you may not have noticed before. This can allow you to become more aware of that area and force relaxation each time you notice the tension. Here you will find the Progressive Muscle Relaxation technique along with other Relaxation Techniques.
Find what works for you and catch all the zZz’s.
Conclusion
Sleep can be difficult when your thoughts are racing and your mind feels out of control. A good night’s sleep takes work and intention, and needs to be prioritized. Sleep plays such a strong role in our recovery, and therefore our overall mental and physical health. Start with getting a routine going for winding down, then prep your sleep space. Once you are in bed, try some positive thinking or present moment work. Practice each night and see if your sleep improves over the course of a few weeks.
Let us know if you’re able to give some of these a try or have tried some in the past and how they’ve worked out for you. Leave us a comment on this post with feedback or any questions/concerns!