How to clear your head before bed

Fall asleep faster with mental tricks to calm your mind

Editor’s Note: Sleep Awareness Week is March 13-19, and CNN’s Life, But Better Sleep section will have daily tips and facts you need to get a better night’s slumber. Join us!

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You’re exhausted, your body yawning for sleep. Yet once your head hits the pillow, your mind is flooded with worry, making sleep elusive, at times impossible.

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Don’t fret, experts say: There are relaxation techniques you can use to calm that racing mind.

“Think of these relaxation exercises as tools in your tool kit for better sleep,” said sleep specialist Rebecca Robbins, an instructor in the division of sleep medicine for Harvard Medical School.

“Practice them, and you’ll get better and better at falling asleep, which is the holy grail, right? No one wants to spend time tossing and turning at night.”

Deep breathing is a science-backed method of calming the body and mind that can be done easily before you get into bed and when you wake during the middle of the night.

Changing the rhythm of your breath slows your heart rate, reduces blood pressure and stimulates the body’s parasympathetic “rest and digest” system, which can take worry and anxiety offline.

“Consciously focusing on the breath can help you separate yourself from the darting thoughts that fly through your brain,” Robbins said.

There are a number of deep breathing techniques you can try. Diaphragmatic breathing, also known as belly breathing, focuses on relaxing the diaphragm, the main muscle of respiration. Start by taking a deep breath through your nose to a slow count of six, making sure that you can feel your stomach rise with your hand as it fills with air. Count to six again as you let the breath slowly escape.

The young woman is disturbed sleep from snoring husband sleeping nearby on bed in night time, then she used a pillow off the ears with a nuisance

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“Strive for effortless inhales that are soft and soundless while treating your exhales like gentle, extended sighs of relief,” suggested CNN contributor Dana Santas, a certified strength and conditioning specialist and mind-body coach.

Stay in the moment, Santas said, by focusing on the sounds and sensations of your breath: “Direct all of your senses to follow the path of air in through your nose, down your throat, into your lungs and out again. If your mind wanders, bring it back to your breath, happening in the here and now.”

Meditation is a centuries-old method of calming the body and the mind. Studies show it can help perfectionists stop judging themselves and can assist in the treatment of smoking, pain, addictive disorders and depression, among others.

Using direct measures of brain function and structure, one study found it only took 30 minutes a day of meditation practice over the course of two weeks to produce a measurable change in the brain.

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“When these kinds of mental exercises are taught to people, it actually changes the function and the structure of their brain,” neuroscientist Richard Davidson, professor of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the founder and director of the Center for Healthy Minds, told CNN in an earlier interview.

There are many resources on the internet to help someone begin to meditate. Davidson and his colleagues have created a free, science-based app designed to help people practice meditation and mindfulness.

Visualization is another sleep aid. Picture a calm and peaceful spot in your mind’s eye and fill it with specific objects, colors and sounds. Researchers have found that people who visualize in detail were able to push unwelcome thoughts more successfully from their minds.

If you have trouble populating the scene, the researchers suggest asking yourself questions about smell, touch and light, such as “Can I feel the sun on my skin? What do I smell in the air?”

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You can also visualize your body relaxing, experts say. While breathing deeply and slowly, imagine your breath is a wind coursing through the body, easing stress and relaxing tension as it moves through each part of the body and then escapes.

“I like to think of the breath as a light in your mind’s eye that grows when you inhale and gets smaller as you exhale,” Robbins said. “Those tangible strategies where you visualize something and match that to a breath are really powerful.”

Most of us aren’t even aware of how much tension we carry in our muscles until it shows up in backaches and headaches.

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Progressive muscle relaxation is a way of relaxing those muscles, thus making it easier to fall asleep, experts say. You tense and release muscle groups in the body in a certain order, starting at the head and working your way down to the toes and feet.

Each section of the body is tightly tensed and held for 10 seconds as you breathe in. Strive to squeeze each muscle hard, but not to the point of cramping or pain. Then, as you breathe out, relax the muscle suddenly and all at once. University of Michigan Health recommends you do the exercises in a systematic order that you can find here.

There’s an added benefit to the exercise, experts say: There’s no room in your brain for anxious thoughts.

Here’s a way to stop your mind from repetitively listing all the things you need to do (or haven’t done), but it only works if you do it before you hit the sack.

“Don’t worry in bed. Schedule a ‘worry time’ – a period of time outside of the bedroom, outside of sleep, to worry about the things that naturally creep in your mind at night,” said sleep specialist Dr. Raj Dasgupta, an assistant professor of clinical medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California.

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“Write down a list of things you need to do tomorrow,” suggested Dr. Vsevolod Polotsky, a professor of medicine and director of sleep research at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

“You can even email it to yourself. It gives you satisfaction and the realization that it is night and there’s nothing you can do with your list, but you can attend to it tomorrow,” Polotsky said.

All these mental tricks and relaxation tips serve a purpose beyond that night’s sleep, experts say.

“They are extremely beneficial from a classical conditioning standpoint,” Robbins said. “If your body knows what comes after the end of these activities is sleep, then you start to condition yourself, and after a bit of time, your body will more easily slip into a state of relaxation, which increases your chances of sleep. ”

How to Clear Your Mind So You Can Sleep

Medically Reviewed by Poonam Sachdev on February 22, 2022

While it’s a good idea to go to bed at the same time each night, there will be some nights when your brain is buzzing and not ready for sleep. If so, don’t lie down just yet. Your racing thoughts could lead to insomnia. Instead, do something to relax until you feel tired. Take a warm bath, for instance, or sit in a comfy chair and listen to soft, calming music. You’ll spend less time in bed but more time asleep.

Stressful subjects, like work or your finances, can make your thoughts churn. Take care of the bills and emails tomorrow. Also, turn off scary or action-filled movies and TV -- even the news. Log out of social media, too. Whether you engage in, or just watch or read a heated back-and-forth, your mind revs up and makes it harder to relax.

Work projects to finish, calls to make, kids to wrangle. It’s hard to drift off when you’re trying to remember every last thing you need to do when you wake up. Let go of this mental load by putting it down on paper. Take 5 minutes before bed to jot down every task you need to take care of in the a.m. You’ll get it off your mind and be able to fall asleep faster.

Release tension from your body, and you’ll find it easier to let go of stressful thoughts. Lie on a flat surface and allow your body to go limp. Take a breath and deeply exhale. Then, squeeze and release one section of your body at a time. Start with your toes. Your heels can come next, followed by your knees, thighs, belly, and so forth. Let your forehead be last. Notice how relaxed your body feels -- and enjoy it!

With your breath, you have a ready-made tool to relax your body and slow down the thoughts that keep you awake. Try this: Place a hand on your heart and feel its rhythm. Breathe in deep for 4 seconds, then take a long, slow breath out. Repeat this pattern until you can feel your heartbeat slow down. Your thoughts should soon ease up as well.

Your phone, tablet, and other screens can mess with your sleep. The reason? They give off blue light, which signals your body to stop making melatonin, the hormone that controls when you feel sleepy. Instead, this light tells your brain to stay alert. Not to mention the late-night dings and buzzes that can jolt you out of peaceful slumber. The best bet for better sleep is to keep computers, TVs, and, yes, your phone out of your bedroom.

Learn to calm your mind on demand, and you’ll find it easier to drift off at night. If you’re new to meditation practice, it helps to find a point of focus. It could be the sound of your breath or a simple phrase that you repeat in your head, like “I am at peace.” At first, you may struggle to tune out your thoughts. It’s OK to stop after a minute or two -- but try again the next night. Over time, you’ll be able to meditate longer.

If they’re stuck inside your mind, worries and “What ifs?” can grow unchecked. Say them out loud, and they might just vanish. You can test this tactic first: Start to recite the letters of the alphabet in your head. When you get a few letters in, say something out loud. Notice that your ABCs came to a halt? That’s what can happen when you give voice to your worries.

Many people say yoga helps them sleep better. Try “child’s pose” at bedtime. Kneel on the floor with your big toes together. Separate your knees the width of your hips, and sink your chest to your thighs. Let your forehead touch the ground. Have hip or knee issues? Try “corpse pose” instead. Lie on your back, legs apart and arms relaxed at your sides. Exhale and feel yourself sink into the ground. Stay in either pose for 3-5 minutes.

Spoiler alert: You won’t be able to get rid of all your worries for good. In fact, the more you tell yourself not to stress, the more you probably will. What can help is to schedule a “worry time” during your day. Choose a small window of time to sit quietly. Let yourself go over all the things that have you concerned, as well as some ways you might solve them. You may find that this allows you to worry less -- and sleep better.

IMAGES PROVIDED BY:

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5) WebMD

6) AndreyPopov / Thinkstock

7) YakobchukOlena / Thinkstock

8) George Doyle / Thinkstock

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10) pixelheadphoto / Thinkstock

SOURCES:

Mind.org: “How to cope with sleep problems.”

Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust: “Jacobson’s progressive relaxation technique.”

Anxiety and Depression Association of America: “Sleep Disorders.”

National Sleep Foundation: “How Does Anxiety Affect Sleep?” “Scary Ways Technology Affects Your Sleep,” “How to Meditate Before Bed.”

Journal of Experimental Psychology: “The effects of bedtime writing on difficulty falling asleep: A polysomnographic study comparing to-do lists and completed activity lists.”

The Sleep Council: “Seven Steps to a Better Night’s Sleep.”

Harvard Health Publishing: “Yoga for Better Sleep. ”

Behavior Modification: “A Preliminary Investigation of Stimulus Control Training for Worry: Effects on Anxiety and Insomnia.”

Sleep Health Foundation Australia: “Anxiety and Sleep.”

How to fall asleep when annoying thoughts are spinning in your head

January 25, 2018, 19:16

American psychologist and sleep specialist James Findlay named eight ways to fall asleep quickly when disturbing thoughts bother you.

"Very often people complain that they are physically tired, but they can't sleep because of worries and intrusive thoughts," says James Findlay. According to the expert, there are some techniques that help to cope with anxiety and sleep soundly.

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If you often suffer from insomnia, consider these eight tips:

1. Make a to-do list. If you have disturbing, negative thoughts before going to bed, turn them into positive ones. Make a list of useful things to do the next day, it can be pleasant trips or good deeds. Falling asleep, you will think about your plans. And studies show that writing down tasks helps clear your mind and set you up for a productive new day, which means falling asleep faster.

2. Get out of bed. If you toss and turn in bed for a long time and cannot fall asleep, it is better to get up and concentrate on something else. Psychologists say that frequent, prolonged attempts to sleep train the brain in such a way that it begins to associate the bed in your bedroom with insomnia. If you can't fall asleep within 20-30 minutes, get up and do something: read, do crossword puzzles. Soon you will really want to sleep.

3. Read a book, but not a very exciting one. You can't just stop the intrusive thoughts in your head, but you can take your mind off them by turning your attention to a book. But it has to be a paper book, as gadget screens can further disrupt sleep. When you are distracted from what is bothering you, you fall asleep faster. The main thing is not to choose a book that is too interesting, from which it will also be difficult to tear yourself away.

4. Listen to a podcast or audiobook. An audiobook or podcast acts like a book, distracting from heavy thoughts and calming. After listening, you can sleep peacefully.

5. Or turn on soothing sounds. You can create a sleep-friendly sound environment for yourself. Some people are calmed by the sound of the ocean, others by the singing of birds or the sounds of the evening forest. Just download these sounds and put on your headphones.

6. Focus on your breathing. Deep and slow breathing can slow down the heart rate and relieve nervous tension. Accordingly, it will be easier for you to fall asleep.

7. Meditate. Meditation allows you to find peace of mind and calm down. You can meditate not only right before bedtime, but also throughout the day. If you don't know the best way to meditate, you can use special apps or YouTube videos that show meditation techniques in detail.

8. Download the sleep app. In the modern world, there are useful applications for smartphones that help you fall asleep faster. Such applications contain specially selected sounds and noises that help the brain relax and fall asleep.

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“I can’t fall asleep”: 5 ways to lull the restless brain - try

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Eternal vigil

How did you sleep? This is a very important question. Answering it, we evaluate our general condition: “How do I feel? Am I here or not? Everything is natural. Sometimes the day is so hectic that in the evening we barely crawl to bed, dreaming of falling down and falling asleep, but as soon as we lie down under the covers, annoying thoughts begin to rush in our heads.

What is most paradoxical is that the more we exhaust ourselves in a day, the more difficult it is to lull the brain

If you know this, know that you are not alone. Insomnia attacks regularly occur in 30% of adults, and their number is increasing every year. Even if you are one of those lucky ones who usually falls asleep easily and quickly, you have probably had nights when you tossed and turned from side to side, trying in vain to turn off your annoying brain. But he kept mumbling about business, worries, debts, ideas and plans, scrolling through awkward moments, humming obsessive songs and not wanting to stop, even if you beat your head against the wall.

The fact that the brain refuses to obey is quite natural. He works like a bee. His destiny is to buzz tirelessly so that we remember, compare, calculate, plan, decide, in a word, act like people. No matter how much we want to calm the brain, it is useless to accuse it of violent activity - it cannot do otherwise. In addition, our brain is very persistent. He has an extremely responsible job of helping us stay mindful and productive.

So if he thinks something is very important, you can't just say to him, “Listen, stop fussing. Tomorrow we will deal with all urgent matters and urgent decisions. No matter how! But we can stop fighting the stubborn brain, confident that it is working for our good, and try to lull it to sleep. Here are five tips to help you calm your racing thoughts and fall asleep peacefully.

What is Chronic Insomnia

Before proceeding, a small but extremely important digression needs to be made for the 10% of people who suffer from chronic insomnia. Namely:

cannot sleep or often wakes up almost every night;
this has been going on for more than a month;
this interferes with a normal life and leads to nervous breakdowns.

If this sounds like you, try the following techniques, but be warned: they won't help with severe sleep problems. Most likely, you have already unsuccessfully tried to overcome insomnia more than once: followed the rules of sleep hygiene, meditated, used lavender oil, and so on. Just in case, do not particularly hope that these tips will become a panacea.

It is better to ask your doctor to refer you to a specialized specialist who treats insomnia with proven methods. Everyone else — that is, those who have problems with sleep only occasionally — can safely apply these techniques today.

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1.

Give yourself an “anxious break”

Sounds like pretty stupid advice. Who wants to worry about a schedule? But be patient. Set aside 15-30 minutes a day for anxiety — just not before bed! Don't try to do other things at the same time. It is important to focus on everything that you have no control over.

If at the end of the break it turns out that the brain is trying to cling to problems that you can’t do anything about and starts to drive the same thoughts around the second circle, just tell yourself: “That's it, the alarm limit has been reached for today.” Or: “Thank you, brain! Let's put those worries aside until tomorrow's anxious break."

The point is to limit the space for alarms: to settle them in a specially designated corner so that they don’t run around like crazy all day long

You probably know how difficult it is to turn off disturbing thoughts. Try telling yourself not to think about the pink elephant. Now tell me, what did you just think? So, instead of telling yourself not to worry, give your brain the opportunity to take worries out of the general system and place them in a specific time frame. Soon you will learn to put off any problems until the next “anxious break”.

2. Transfer painful thoughts from your head to paper

What if the "anxious break" did not help? Or has the day been so stressful that you can't relax and fall asleep? A round dance of thoughts is spinning in your head without stopping, so that, God forbid, you don’t stop worrying about something important. In this case, they need to be "unloaded". This technique is best used before going to bed, trying to catch everything that is stuck in the head.

For ideas that deserve special attention, it's good to keep a diary, but you can do without it, do not write everything down and do not complete sentences

It is not necessary to write thoughtfully, loftily and competently. Even fragmentary thoughts scrawled on a napkin will work. The main thing is to transfer them to paper so that the brain is convinced that you have not forgotten anything. You can tell him, “Don't worry! Everything is written down, we will deal with it tomorrow, when the time is right.”

3. Act out the scenes

Have you ever noticed how fast your thoughts race? The fact is that the brain is a talking device, trained to instantly select words and compose stories. In fact, all our thoughts are short stories through which we make sense of the world. It is worth losing vigilance, as the brain begins to chatter at breakneck speed, jumping from topic to topic.

Fortunately, we can switch to another type of thinking, not as hasty as the default one, and it is called imagination

It is much easier to adjust the speed by playing the scene in your mind. Imagine walking through the rooms of a large house or walking from tree to tree along a winding forest path. Try to fully immerse yourself in the plot, use all five senses. What does the forest look like? Is it warm and dry or does it have a fresh breeze? What does it smell like here? Look at the leaf - what color is it? Run your fingers over it - how do you feel?

When you do this, the images take up space that the brain would normally rush to fill with messy reasoning. From time to time it will distract you from contemplating the pictures. This is fine! Don't resist the thoughts and don't try to get them out of your head, it's like fighting the proverbial pink elephant. Caught some thought - thank the brain and again direct your attention to the sheet that you were looking at.

4. Travel through the body

This technique is very similar to the previous one. The only difference is that you will not wander through an imaginary forest, but through your own body. Focus on your breath first. No need to change the rhythm and try to breathe evenly. Use natural breathing as a link to the body. As soon as intrusive thoughts begin to distract you, calmly redirect them to breathing.

As soon as annoying thoughts begin to distract you, calmly redirect them to breathing, with which you can “scan” the whole body

Always start with your toes. Again, there is no need to change or think about anything. Just listen to the sensations. Are your fingers warm? Cold? Closely? Free? Move them, feel them. Do not hurry. When you're done with your toes, move on to your feet. Slow down a bit and move to the ankles, calves, shins, knees, and so on. Slowly move your attention higher and higher, lingering on each part of the body for as long as you want.

5. Listen to audiobooks and podcasts

Sometimes we get so exhausted that body scans and visual fantasies just don't have the energy. It's OK! Since the brain insists on the conversational genre, give it such pleasure and take another interesting story to distract from obsessive thoughts.

Audiobooks and podcasts are great sleeping pills. Choose something quieter, without intricate sound effects, harsh voices and fast music. You can set a timer to turn off after about 30 minutes. Don't get too carried away with the "perfect choice" though. You can listen to anything, for example, a detective novel. The main thing is that the recording should not be boring and monotonous. You should be interested, because the point is that the brain is carried away by the content of the audio clip and stops worrying.

If all else fails…

It may happen that none of the above techniques will help calm the overexcited brain and it flatly refuses to fall asleep. Dont be upset. Everyone has nights like this. This does not mean that from now on you are doomed to chronic insomnia, and tomorrow will be deleted from your life. The best way out in this case is to simply stop trying to sleep.

Get up and do something useful. Watch your favorite series, read a book, write a letter.

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