Sleep is a pretty amazing thing. You turn out the lights, lie down, and
close your eyes. At first your mind is probably active, thinking about all kinds of things – memories from the past day, from weeks, months, even years ago, may drift through or linger. But gradually (if all goes well), the thoughts
become quieter and more transparent, the memories become hazier, you
become drowsier, and with luck, you lose all awareness of your day, your
mind, your body, your bed, and in fact, your self.
Kind of interesting isn’t it? We look forward to this state of oblivion. But why? Why is it such an attractive thing?
Let's think about it for a moment.
Many
of the things we long for most in life involve what we've been calling
"core qualities" – peace, joy, tranquility, contentment. Being in love,
the oblivion of intoxication, the ecstasy of orgasm, descriptions of
near death experiences, all have one thing in common – they take us
"outside ourselves," giving us a respite from our busy minds, stressful
emotions, and difficult life situations.
Ultimately, all the
problems we have with regard to sleep involve the opposite of core
qualities. Whether your problem is painful thoughts or emotions during
the day, insomnia or nightmares at night, the essence of the problem is
the same. It’s that your attention is caught up in conflicting things
on the rim of your wheel of awareness. And to the extent you’re lost in
those things on the rim, you've lost touch with your core.
Normally, for much of the day, our attention is caught up in many different things. Often these things compete for our attention, pulling
and pushing us this way and that. We’d like to spend time talking to
someone but we have to get on with our work. We’d love to have an extra
piece of chocolate cake but we want to lose weight or eat less sugar.
We’d like to tell someone we’re angry at them but we’re afraid of how
they’ll react.
This way and that . . . "do this, don’t do that;
try this, but maybe it’s not a good idea; should I ask someone, but who
can I trust . . ."
Exhausting, isn’t it?
What does this have
to do with sleep and the core? When you’ve had a really, really good
night’s sleep, you feel relaxed, refreshed, peaceful, yet energized and
alert. You're more likely to have a feeling of ease, and a sense that you’re ready to take
on whatever challenges the day might bring.
Sounds a lot like the qualities of the core.
In
fact, good sleep provides us with an experience of core qualities –
peace, contentment, energy, relaxation . . . So perhaps it makes sense
that cultivating those qualities during the day and deliberately evoking
them when you go to bed, could be a helpful aid to drifting gently into
a sleep that is both restful and restorative.
If you look at any website on good sleep habits, you’ll soon see there are a number of suggestions that are pretty nearly universal:
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If you’re having sleep problems, there could one of three reasons:
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If you haven’t been doing any of these things, check out the Healthy Habits page of the site, and get the support you need to start applying some of them. They work.
If you have been doing all these things and are still having problems with sleep, perhaps you’ve not been . . .
Remembering to breathe.
If that’s the case, you’ve come to the right place. This entire website is devoted to giving you the techniques that will develop your mid-prefrontal cortex, give you access to your core of calm, ease, and contentment, reduce your stress level, and make it easier for you to do whatever you need to do – including sleep.
In this section, you’ll learn how to make better use of the standard sleep techniques by combining them with “remembering to breathe.”
We don’t mean to imply that all sleep problems can be solved without medication. But unless your sleep problems are causing a crisis in your life, we strongly recommend you spend at least a few weeks trying the methods we describe above. And even if you do feel that you need to try medication – either prescription or over the counter – it will be more effective if you combine it with developing the skills described here. The medical field that specializes in treating sleep disorders is known as Behavioral Sleep Medicine. To find a specialist in your area, you can check out the websites for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the National Sleep Foundation. |