How to sleep well

Sleeping well seems to be a problem for some people. I was one of them in the past. The after effects are black eyes patch, easily irritable, tiredness, bad breath, aches, heavy headed and many others. It happens especially during the times when something big or serious that is going to happen the next day. For example, before an exam, going to new places, going on a date….

What is the reason behind it? I believe the main issue is due to the unnecessary amount of effort that we made to fall asleep. Sleeping is not about doing something. It is all about not doing anything. The motion of trying to fall asleep is actually the culprit keeping us awake. You may say that “But I have to sleep! Tomorrow is an important day for me!”. Yes, I understand, but I will like to say that this is where things go wrong.

In the action of trying to sleep, many activities run through our mind. Such as reminding ourselves of the importance sleeping well now to face tomorrow’s event and what may happen if I don’t get adequate sleep now. At best, it will only makes us feel unrest as we start to blame yourself and body for not being able to quiet down, while not knowing that it is the motion of thinking that is keeping us awake. Then you start to feel itchiness all over your body which is actually a sign of unrest, start turning here and there and eventually woke up feeling pissed. I even know people who go to bed expecting that they are not going to sleep well (Insomnia).

So how do you sleep? The formula is to just lie down and relax. Focus on your breathing and just clear your mind. It is actually like meditation. Many of us thought that we need to ‘sleep’ to recover our body. That is not true. Our body will recover by just staying in inactivity. You don’t need to sleep to rest.

For example, I was unable to fall asleep yesterday. Probably due to me messing up my own sleeping patterns as I had been sleeping at 2 am for past 2 days. As a result, I was pretty awake for the whole night. In the past, I would have been irritated and try to force myself to sleep. But this time, I assure myself that my body will recover without me “sleeping”. All I need to do is to lie down and relax. Focus of my breathing and be aware of what is going through my mind and clear them. In the end, I woke up at 5 am and feeling afresh which I sit on the motion and went down for a morning jog. It is an amazing experience. ^_^

Hope you will find it useful

P.S. For better effect, stop watching television at least 1 hour before you sleep as the scenes usually stay on in our mind and it will inhibit our sleep