I have a hard time sleeping…

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Hey Nita and Josh! Thanks for all this stuff. My question is about sleep.

Sometimes I have a hard time sleeping at night. It takes me a few hours to go to sleep. I know you said in the Brain course that sleep is really important, and I really can see that it’s true. The days I don’t sleep well I feel like a zombie. But I can’t always shut my mind off at night, relax and go to sleep… even when I’m tired.

Do you have any suggestions for sleeping better, or relaxing at night more?

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Posted by Sam Maxwell (Questions: 1, Answers: 0)
Asked on February 12, 2015 8:40 pm
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Totally! This is an area that Nita and I both have struggled with a lot, so I’ve got some ideas for you.

Here’s a few things to remember about sleep:
You have to ease into sleep at night. I used to try to work until 8 or 9 at night, because I’m more of a night owl anyways so my mind is more active at night than in the morning.

The problem with working late, and especially doing screen work like on your computer/Ipad/phone, is that you’re asking too much of your brain to slow down and relax quickly so you can go to sleep.

Do you remember the brain frequencies from video one of the Brain Boosters course..? When you have insomnia, your brain is usually in a high beta frequency–spinning on all the things you didn’t do that day, what you have to do the next day, etc.

What you want is to be in a relaxed alpha/theta state before you go to bed.

A few things you might try to do:
1) Stay off all screens up to two hours before you go to bed. TV’s not as bad because you’re usually not as close to the screen, but reading your computer and looking at an ipad late at night stops the production of melatonin in your brain, which is crucial for sleep.

2) Try to do some activity that takes your mind off work at night that’s not too stimulating, like reading.

3) Try a daily practice of meditation. I wasn’t a big meditator until I started having major problems with sleep. Then out of desperation, I started meditating and I noticed that on the days I meditated at least once (only for 15 minutes), I was able to sleep a lot better. When I meditate in the afternoon too, it’s a pretty sure bet I’ll be able to sleep.

There’s tons of ways to meditate, but I want to point you to one free resource you can check out: omvana.com. You can download their tracks and try it for free. Then if you like it you can sign up for a subscription.

That or you can experiment with different meditation tracks on Amazon.com or Itunes if you’re not an experienced meditator.

Hope that helps!

Josh

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Posted by Josh Matthews-Morgan (Questions: 1, Answers: 3)
Answered on January 20, 2015 4:25 pm
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