On average a person needs about 7 minutes to fall asleep. Anything less than 5 minutes is actually a sign of being sleep deprived! Anything more than 10 minutes and your sleep could be in jeopardy.
How long does it take you to fall asleep? Do you put your head down on the pillow and wait for sleep to stroll towards you? Then lose patience and roll over to the other side…after a minute try fluffing up the pillow and lie down frustrated.
By now all the sleep has disappeared. You stare at the ceiling and count the number of cracks on it. Soon the cracks start to form faces and shapes. You wonder if there is a water leakage problem. You are wide awake and forcing sleep…but you have no idea how!?
Isn’t falling asleep supposed to be easy. So why is this so hard!
Falling asleep is hard because no one has taught us how to deal with the sleepy restless mind!
This sleepy restless mind will eventually turn to negative thoughts. Thoughts that haunt us. Things that make us feel bad. This is because the mind has been let loose. The cracks on the ceiling will make you wonder how much it would cost to paint the house. But you don’t have that kind of money. You feel like a loser. All this from not being able to sleep.
The tossing and turning is endless. Left side, right side, stomach, back! Turn the pillow over to the cooler side…blanket on, blanket off! Does this happen to you?
The restless mind has now made a restless body. Best of luck if you are sharing your bed with someone.
But the worst effect of a restless mind is the lack of sleep. Both in quantity and quality. You followed the Habit coach sleep alarm and are in bed on time for your 7 and a half hours of sleep.
45 minutes later you are still waiting for it. An hour later a mini panic attack.
All this from a sleepy restless mind.
The best way to deal with this is for you to create a sleep dream or a sleep primer.
A sleep primer is a thought you plant in your mind just as you lay down on your pillow. The primer is the beginnings of a dream. It prevents the mind from getting restless.
Not a dream of Ferraris and yachts on the caribbean. But a very specific dream you follow every single night. A dream designed to shut your mind and plant the seeds of sleep.
My favourite sleep primer is to think of myself as a big fuzzy bear getting ready to hibernate for the winter. I picture stretching and laying down on the floor cuddled into a ball. If you are a mumma, think of yourself as a mumma bear with her little cubs getting ready for the winter.
When I was trekking up Kilimanjaro, sleeping in a freezing cold sleeping bag, my dream was that of a worm creating a cocoon ready to sleep and wake up transformed.
So your habit to deal with a restless mind is get into bed, stretch, release a big sigh of relief. Cuddle up. And with a smile of your face start a sleep primer dream.
