How do you fall asleep? Suddenly without any momentous ritual besides resting your head on a pillow? Slowly while muttering to yourself that you can’t believe you’re now wide awake when only moments before struggling to keep your eyes open? Or do you count the snores of your loved one beside you?
Reading a friends blog the other day gave me insight into how she falls asleep and I’ve tried it but found myself returning to my own tried and true ways. Although working until 2 AM and up at 8 AM with my son has me not needing much assistance once I lay down, sometimes I do find myself reviewing the day and finding the sleeping sounds of my partner a little too much. Honestly, I get jealous knowing he’s been asleep for sometime and hasn’t even flinched when I touch my cold feet to his toasty warm ones.
So then I try to block out the world around me and go through my nightly routine of sequences to help me fall asleep. Typically I start with “watching clouds go by”, sometimes I pretend I’m floating on a cloud, aimlessly, but then I find a purpose or get too curious about how it works. Then there’s my floating down a dark hallway with the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. Usually candle light that never gets brighter or fades. Or count backwards, see how high I can count, or float on the sea. Sometimes I float on the sand with the sun beating down on me.
Most recently I picture the flame of a nondescript candle as it wavers and never burns out. I don’t see it for long as my thoughts of never being able to fall asleep are always quickly cut short by exhaustion.
Then there are the other people I know who simply fall asleep in the middle of a conversation, never sleep or just rarely get out of bed. I often wonder how these ones process the whole idea of waking up. Is it the same as when we struggle to sleep?
But what I am most curious about is what a young child who can’t yet speak their mind thinks as sleep takes over. Are they reviewing their day? Wondering why they weren’t understood so often? Or planning world domination that we tend to squash with rules and restrictions?
Wondering what you’re dreaming about is too cliche, instead I wonder what has everyone falling asleep?
Thanks for reading,
Sarah Butland
I kiss my wife goodnight, adjust my pillows, lay down on my left side, take two or three deep breaths, and wake up hours later. She’s jealous! LOL
Wow!! So am I 🙂
I have learned to count blessings. I got that idea from Louise Hay’s book You Can Heal Your Life. It helps when I have had a rotten day. I used to lie in bed playing all of the negative experiences over in my head, but now I rewind my day to examine and express gratitude for all of the wonderful things that happen to me. I like to think of it as going to bed with gratitude. It helps a lot.
Beautiful, Karen. Very wise.