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How Can I get to Sleep

Forget expensive gadgets and sleeping pills to send you into a slumber - use your brain to help you switch off.

You know how easy it is for your thoughts to spiral out of control. Well, with a bit of direction, you can rein in your thoughts and think yourself sleepy. Here's how.

First off, you probably need to become more positive about sleep - particularly if you've got to the stage that you dread going to bed, convinced that you're never going to get a good night's sleep again. This mindset will make your insomnia worse. Try to replace any negative thoughts with positive ones - not unconvincing ones that you don't really believe like 'I'm going to have the best night's sleep I've ever had tonight.' Instead go for 'As long as I get some sleep and relax my body, I'll be fine.' So every time you catch yourself with a negative thought about sleep, give it a more positive spin. The idea behind positive affirmations is that if you say them enough, you'll believe them. Writing them down may speed up this process. So if you're thinking 'I can't get enough sleep', the positive spin could be 'I don't need as much sleep as I think. I can function very well on less.'

Another trick is to associate your bedroom with relaxing. Good sleepers cultivate strong mental associations of physical relaxation, mental calm and good sleep with their bedtime, their bed and bedroom, and their bedtime rituals like tooth brushing and setting the alarm clock. You can learn to become a good sleeper by making these same associations. Practising muscle relaxation while you're brushing your teeth, deep breathing while you're putting on your pyjamas. And imagine your bed is a huge white fluffy cloud and that all your worries disappear the moment you step into it.

Take this visualisation further when you're in bed by conjouring up an image of something relaxing. Just lie there with your eyes closed and imagine you're in your favourite, most peaceful place. It may be on a sunny beach, swinging in a hammock in the mountains or all alone in a cave in the Himalayas. Wherever it is, try to experience it in your head - see your surroundings, hear the peaceful sounds, smell the fragrance of the flowers, and feel the warmth of the sun. Just relax and enjoy it - and drift off to sleep. Once you've found a place that's especially peaceful and effective, you'll find that the more you use it, the more you can count on it to help you relax and get to sleep.

f you're finding it hard to think of anything relaxing apart from a beach, which is a bit of a cliché, why not imagine you're standing under a waterfall - recent research says the most relaxing way to drop off is being near a waterfall. A stream of water (warm or cool) gently cascades over your head, running downwards over the outside of your body, taking with it tensions and negative thoughts, which soak into the ground. Repeat three times. Next imagine the water is entering the crown of your head, and running through your body. Use your imagination to visualise its force cleansing your organs, joints, digestive tract and so on. The idea is that the water will drain the negative thoughts and toxins out of your body through the soles of your feet and down into the earth.


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