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| Issue #39, December 22, 2006 |
Inspirations
Sweet Dreams
by Emily J Weitz
What do you do when you can’t sleep and the hours between this moment and your alarm’s shrill call are dwindling before your eyes? It’s a problem that rarely haunts me, as most of the time I fall into a catatonic slumber as soon as my head hits the pillow. But on those lazy Sundays when I do nothing but sit around and drink coffee all day, I sometimes have a hard time shaking the caffeine. Or if I have something looming the following day, I may not be able to free my mind from thoughts of possible outcomes and everyone knows that sleep hides from the racing mind.
Such is tonight. 12:09 a.m. on Monday morning and my alarm is set for 6. I should be in comfy REM sleep right now and instead I am watching hyperactive thoughts fill a blank page on a computer screen. I am ridden with anxiety about meetings and plans for tomorrow, and I know that the more I think about them, the less I’ll sleep. I know that the less I sleep, the more frazzled I’ll be. And I know the more frazzled I am, the less successful I’ll be. And yet, this knowledge does me no good. It only adds to my anxiety to try to force sleep upon myself, while thinking “If I don’t fall asleep now, I am screwed!”
So how do I usher in sleep? The first leg of the journey is writing this column. Once you’ve achieved a level of fluency in writing, it can be one of the most calming activities there is. You let the thoughts out of your brain and onto a blank page, so they don’t have to bounce around inside any more. Another similarly calming method, for the more visual learners, is drawing or painting. Relaxing the mind and releasing the thoughts is key before heading off to dreamland. Lying in bed haunted by unexpressed thoughts is torturous. At best, they’ll manifest themselves in freaky dreams and at worst they’ll keep you up at night.
Another way you can calm your mind and escort yourself to dreamland is some restorative yoga. By simply laying on your back and extending your legs up the wall, you are bringing your circulation to a more concentrated area of the body and releasing the strain on the feet and the legs. Increasing the blood flow to your core is grounding, soothing and gets your breath steady, which will help make a more easeful transition into sleep.
Herbal tea (not the cappuccino that I had at 8:30 a.m.) is calming to the senses. The process itself can become a great bedtime ritual. After you slip into comfortable sweats and a t-shirt, it’s nice to boil water in the kitchen and relax. Even do some of your restorative yoga postures as you’re waiting for the kettle to whistle. Then drop a chamomile or a Sleepytime tea in hot water and inhale the aromatic blends. This cheap version of aroma therapy opens up the nasal passages and soothes the thoughts and mind.
The key to sleep is stillness. Calming the breath, quieting the mind and relaxing the body are all vital as you seek sound sleep. In our intensely stimulating culture, where the senses are always piqued, it can be difficult to turn the power button off. We are on the go all day, trying to be as attentive and awake as possible for all the many obligations we have and then we hit the hay and demand our bodies to obey. And for many people, sleep comes accompanied by late-night television and video games. These are not the healthiest ways, because they keep over-stimulating the mind until we pass out from mental exhaustion. When our bodies need to be cajoled, warmed up, and eased in, there are plenty of ways to arrive at stillness. As I write down all the ways in which sweet dreams can be attained, I am feeling my fingertips slow, my head fall to the side, and my eyes droop……. Good night!
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