i have always had a difficult time getting to sleep. i always had to go to bed early, because i needed at least an hour to relax and get to sleep. nothing has changed now that i'm an adult. well, except for a few years there when i was so exhausted from taking care of the children. these days i rarely fall into bed exhausted and asleep within minutes. as i have done all my life, i have to daydream myself to sleep.
sometimes, though, i am not ready to dream. at the end of the day i am tired, sleepy, ready for sleep, but my brain needs to relax into it. so i think about stuff. sometimes i think about what happened that day. sometimes i think about what i need to do the next day. but sometimes i think about stupid things, like all the embarrassing things i have done in my life. i really hate that. why think about stupid things that you cannot change? it may have been embarrassing at the time, but thinking about it and getting embarrassed all over again doesn't help. it doesn't even help getting me to sleep most of the time. *sometimes* i start daydreaming about what i might have done differently, or, if i remember someone i used to know, i wonder about how that person is doing and if they remember me. but mostly i am embarrassed and stressed out of sleep mode. i think my brain works too hard.
Kaigenji Temple 78 Kyushu pilgrimage
8 hours ago
7 comments:
It's horrible, isn't it? I'm exactly the same, I dredge up embarrassing shit from months, years ago that everyone else involved has likely forgotten long ago and let it churn away in my head, making me feel awful.
I have to trick my brain by imagining something nice, some scenario where nothing can go wrong and after a few times it becomes so familiar that I seem to just slip into sleep as soon as I start to think about it. Maybe something like that could work for you too?
Ditto. Takes me ages to fall asleep - unless its the middle of the day and I'm meant to be doing something!
Let's make it worse by meeting up for loads of coffee on the 2nd ??? with our shrieking children in tow. We can try our best to not do anything embarrassing so as not to have more things to think about before sleep at night!
I know you feel. I *have* to read before bed and then fall asleep naturally. If i finish a book before getting sleepy, or worse, don't have a book i'll be up tossing and turning and thinking for hours. *sigh*
Would reading help?
Ugh. Same here. My brain shifts into overdrive the minute my head hits the pillow. There's no feeling worse than not being able to sleep, tossing and turning all night. Then you start to dread going to bed every night because you know what's coming. I've never been able to mangage it and finally resorted to pharmaceutical assitance. Ambien is my friend.
I find it difficult to get to sleep as well- very rarely would I drop straight off which is why I never seem to be able to "nap" since it would take to long to switch off my brain in order to get a good nap.
I also think about embarrasing things from my past & people I once knew who I haven`t seen or heard from in years. Wonder what they are doing.
Counting sheep doesn`t work either- I have tried. I even tried to make the sheep multi-coloured and that didn`t work either- instead it just sent me off on a tangent where I imagined a sheep dying factory.
Yes, my mind works in mysterious ways.
It never worked for me- but have you tried lavender?
I rarely have trouble falling asleep, but when I do, I always seem to dwell on embarrassing things I have done in my life too. Sometimes I even cringe and make horrible faces and sighs at remembering it all. Like on the last day of 7th grade when I gave the 8th grader I had a crush on for years, a set of about 10 or 15 love letters I had written to him over the course of the last year, stupidly thinking I would never see him again and that he wouldn't tell anyone. He read them on the school bus right in front of me, and at the end he said "You're weird". I often wonder if this single incident isn't responsible for my preference to living in Japan. Feel free to think about my embarrassing moment while trying to fall asleep and have a good laugh!
Huh, and here I thought it was only me. I found all of those classical music tapes you used to play before going to bed; should I copy them to CD or iTunes and send them over? I know they used to help you relax, maybe they still will!
Post a Comment