William Shakespeare said that sleep is "the main delicacy at a night feast," and John Keats compared it to a sweet midnight balm. The romantic English, despite their lofty syllable, very accurately noticed the important role of sleep in the life of every person. But it often happens that as soon as a person turns off the light and crawls under a warm blanket, a whole swarm of obsessive thoughts invades the mind, which does not leave alone and does not give an opportunity to fall asleep. The range of topics covered is large, but one thing remains unchanged: it is completely impossible to sleep with such brain activity.
The morning is wiser than the evening
The famous Russian proverb hits right on target. The evening and especially the night is not the best moment for making decisions and, in general, for any important matters, because at this time fears and feelings awaken in people, disturbing and unsettling thoughts appear. In the morning, such worries and thoughts may seem completely insignificant or even absurd, but at night their importance is so great that a person cannot fall asleep, endlessly thinking about the same thing in a circle.
It's all about stress
According to most psychologists, in particular Harold Bloomfield, professor of psychology at the Union Institute in Cincinnati, the main cause of insomnia is "stress associated with daytime problems." When a person is agitated, hormones that activate the wakefulness, such as adrenaline, enter the blood in large quantities. A person seems to find himself in an extreme situation, the body tenses, the pulse quickens, the heart begins to pound faster. What a dream here! Thus, having lost the opportunity to rest, people begin to scroll the same thoughts in a circle, trying to cope with what could not be resolved during daylight hours. Sometimes such a stressful state drags on and leads to depression, then insomnia becomes chronic, and the problem of sleep disturbance is much more serious than it seems.
Inhale-exhale
Few people are now stress-free. But what can you do so that daytime problems do not interfere with proper sleep at night?
One of the most rational ideas is to set aside time to solve accumulated problems in the afternoon or late afternoon, for example, after dinner. Write down the problems on a piece of paper and try to come up with intelligent solutions to each one. Believe me, 20-30 minutes will be enough for you to find a way out of most of the "unsolvable" situations, over which you will struggle midnight.
Another way to suppress obsessive thoughts before bed is to think about something boring, such as counting sheep or reciting poetry by heart. Some are helped by listing world capitals or dates of historical events.
Most psychologists agree that to lose control over thoughts, you need to relax. This can be both muscle relaxation (tension and then slow relaxation of the muscles of the body), and meditation (for example, breathing), or even auto-training with the visualization of pleasant images that contribute to relaxation.
If you think that your sleep problems have already become serious, it is worth doing an electroencephalogram and contacting the Center for Psychosomatics for the help of a specialist.
