Give me ENERGY!

Research suggest that the mind associates different places with different activities and feelings. You get in the shower, your body knows “Time to wake up!”. You sit down for a meal, your mouth knows “Prepare for food!”. The same applies to your sleep, your body needs a set routine to train your mind into relaxing.

If you are like me, you have tendency to think the most at night. As soon as your brush your teeth, the mind starts ticking over. You get ideas for things, you worry and stress, you remember things your should have done during the day. That all leads to wanting to stay up a little longer, to reading, maybe even watching TV in bed (if you are lucky enough to have that
set-up in your bedroom).

The problem is that when you get into bed, your mind will associate your routine with those actions: watching TV, worrying about things, writing letters, etc. It’s even worse if you spend portions of your day in bed to rest, but not sleep.

So wherever possible, get out of bed unless you plan to sleep. Grab a blanket and pillow and go to the couch if you want to watch TV, write letters on the couch, or at the dining table, talk to people on the phone anywhere else, and reserve your bed for sleep.

That way, once your mind is retrained, you will get into bed and your mind will get the message “Send the body to sleep now. It’s time to rest”.

Does anyone else find this helps?

PS. I’ve read the research, I just can’t find it now! So if you have any more details, let me know!

Filed under: tips