Fairy-tale Ending for Sweet Dreams

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​There are nights when you think that Sleeping Beauty knew what she was doing when she pricked her finger on that spinning wheel and fell into a deep sleep. There was no tossing and turning. There was no staring at the ceiling hoping sleep would come soon.  She didn’t spend the time she was waiting to fall asleep thinking about the very things that were keeping her awake.  So what if she had to sleep until Prince Charming came along and kissed her. What a tough life for her and, to top it off, she got a movie deal out of it. Life can be so unfair.

Personally, I would prefer not to have cameras rolling while I’m sleeping. It’s not a pretty sight. Take my word for it.

The Ironies of Sleep
When you need to sleep the most that’s the time when it is most likely to elude you.

• It could be that you’re sick. You need to get lots of sleep so that you can get well again but sometimes trips to the bathroom or coughing fits get in the way.
• You could be going on a trip the next day. You may be the driver so you need to be well-rested. Unfortunately, part of you can’t sleep because you’re excited about the trip and the other part of you is worried about sleeping in. 
• There could be a lot of stress in your life. People tell you to go to bed early so you can relax but, as you try to relax, your mind starts racing. Now that you are someplace quiet and there aren’t any distractions, you can now fully focus on the things that keep you awake at night.  Perfect.
• You could believe that a little peace and quiet is all you need to fall asleep (racing mind aside). Suddenly, it’s too quiet. This silence is foreign to you and you can’t deal with it. You swear you can hear the clock ticking on the wall downstairs. You turn on the fan for a little white noise. It works for a while until you hear snoring. It could be you snoring or it could be your spouse. It doesn’t really matter because you’re awake now. You were so close.
• It could be that the tea you had to relax you somehow relaxed your bladder. It doesn’t matter that you finally got to sleep. Your body decides that this is wrong. In retaliation, it shrinks the size of your bladder (at least you swear it did) and now you have to get up to go pee. You’re so close to getting a good night’s sleep, but now it may be over. The very thing that got you to sleep was the culprit that betrayed you.

Potential Solutions
The following are some potential techniques that may help to remove some of the hurdles associated with getting to sleep:

• Have the right attitude about sleep. Once you’ve had trouble falling asleep, you can start to dread going to bed because you know what will happen. Part of you makes the very thing happen that you don’t want to occur. Instead of thinking, “I can’t sleep. I can’t sleep,” you need a bit of the Little Engine that Could with, “I think I can. I think I can.”
• Make sure you are ready to sleep. Personally, when something is bothering me, I make sure that I’m good and tired when I go to bed. I’m a head-hit-the-pillow kind of sleeper. If I don’t fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow (possibly on the way down to the pillow), I feel a sense of panic. This has hardly ever happened because people get irritated with me for not getting enough sleep. By the time I go to bed, I have been sitting downstairs on the couch or in front of my computer and fallen asleep. I’m talking about the walking dead tired. My husband tells me to go to bed and before I can push myself into a standing position I’m asleep again. This level of sleep deprivation is not good or recommended, but you get the idea.
• Try to find a way to empty your mind before you go to bed. You may want to write in a journal to help with the things that bother you. Use this technique to put everything on paper (or on your computer) so that those thoughts are less likely to run through your mind when you try to sleep. You may want to meditate so that you can mentally let everything go. I’m not saying that it’s easy to do. I tried to do it as part of yoga class and my mind started thinking of all the things I could be doing if I wasn’t in this yoga class. It takes practice, but it is awesome when you can develop that discipline.
• Tire yourself out with exercise. It’s possible to have too much time on your hands. If you exercise, you give yourself the opportunity to relieve some of the stress that may be building up inside you. If you are exercising at night, make sure you aren’t doing it too close to your bedtime or you will feel energized at the wrong time of the day/night.
• Take a warm shower. To help get rid of the day’s stress, take a warm shower at night an hour or so before you go to bed. In addition to helping you relax your body it can be a way to cut down on one of the activities you scramble to get done in the morning before you go to work. 
• Find a happy place to go before you go to bed. Was there something good that happened during the day? Is there a recipe that you found online that you want to try? Did you get to spend some time with someone that made you feel good about yourself and your relationship? Try to find the good so that you are less likely to be overwhelmed by those things that are driving you crazy. Maybe stepping out of your own world and into a book is more your speed. Depending on the book, this could also cause you to stay awake all night as you try to find out who committed the crime. Choose your book wisely.
• Find something to laugh about. It doesn’t have to be something earth shattering. Some of the littlest things can cause the largest amount of laughter. Sometimes trying not to laugh can cause the most laughter. Find a video online that you find funny and then try to keep from laughing. If you want to cross a few things off this list you may even want to combine exercise and laughter by finding a class in your area that teaches laughter yoga. Yes, there is such a thing.

• Break the pattern. It may mean sleeping in a different room from time to time or changing something about your bedroom to make it different than what you’re used to. Go to bed at a different time. Complete a different activity than usual before you go to bed.

The End
Even a good bedtime story has to end. The good thing is that you can read it over and over again. The trick is finding the book/technique that meets your needs and makes you want to go back to it over and over again.

All of us have something in our lives that may make it difficult for us to sleep (for example, sickness, debt, a looming decision, or just bad sleeping habits); however, that very sleep is what we need to help keep things in perspective so that we can figure out a way to deal with it rather than letting it overwhelm us.

Sleep should be more than a fairy tale to you. With the right technique, dreams can come true.
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Sweet dreams!