I don't sleep well. I wake up anywhere from two to four times a night. Sometimes I only wake up once a night--and never get back to sleep. On those nights, I toss and turn, I read, I get up and check my email . . . and sometimes I head to the kitchen for a nice hot mug of Ovaltine. (Sometimes that does the trick--sometimes it doesn't.)
I hate those nights. Thoughts circulate through my head over and over again. I'll think about stupid (usually negative) stuff that happened when I was a child, at my first job, at parties--stuff I haven't thought about in YEARS.
This isn't something recent. I've been like this all my life and I'm sick of it. Anybody got any tried and true home remedies?
And what's bugging YOU today?
As a confirmed member of the wake-up-several-times-a-night club, I know exactly what you mean. My mind, too, spins obsessively on topics that it really doesn't need to. The only way to shut it down is to have something else for it to pay attention to. I listen to Coast to Coast AM to fall asleep (but I really miss Art Bell). If it's a particularly bad night (or C2C is discussing something I'm not interested in), I have a bunch of old time radio shows on CD that I pop in. I also have readings from Librivox.org to listen to.
If I'm still awake after an hour of listening to one of the above, I get up and make a cup of Sweet Dreams herbal tea. I sometimes have this before I go to bed if I'm feeling tense. This usually, but not always, works.
Good luck!
Posted by: Elise | July 30, 2009 at 03:04 PM