Two more tips -- "It's curtains" for insomnia

Need help getting back to sleep in the middle of the night?

These tips were contributed by Natalie McCullough. See earlier posts for others, and feel free to add your own below:

-- The best remedy for me is to imagine either two big stage curtains falling and closing, like at the end of a very long play and there are no more curtain calls. Corny, but it really works for me.

-- Another solution is to imagine perfect whiteness. Nothing above, nothing below, just warm comforting whiteness. It relaxes my mind and clears my thoughts. It is like wiping the screen clean and starting over. Not quite meditating, which requires more effort. This is more like putting everything on pause and hitting the clear button.

New Insomnia Tips

Here are this week's tips for getting back to sleep in the middle of the night (from my upcoming book):


When my mind is racing and I’m having trouble falling back to sleep, I try to picture a beautiful lake... I focus on the surface of the water and imagine that all my thoughts are drops hitting the water. At first, it's like a hard rain, and the surface gets really rough. Then, I watch as the rain slows down and the surface becomes very still.

--April Biddle


If you’re having a hard time turning off your mind, repeat some of the following phrases over and over and over and over...Say them slower each time, while imagining yourself drifting off into a dewy fog…

“My head is very heavy.”
“I’m very tired.”
“I’m going to sleep now.”
“I’m very sleepy.” (Try to yawn each time you say it.)
“I’m so tired.”
“I’m a good person.”
“Everything is going to be OK.”

-- Tracy Ivie

Got any tips to share? Please add below, and thanks.

Insomnia 101 --Tips for getting some zzzzzs

This week's tips -- (Let me know if they work for you.)

From me: Count numbers.

Did you ever see those old black and white TV newsreels, where the numbers zip down from 10 to 1 in a big fuzzy circle? OK, now picture that screen, with a new number from 1 to 300 each time, changing the numbers v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y.

Or just imagine the numbers and no circle, from 1 to 300, excruciatingly s-l-o-w-l-y. Try puffy white clouds or pink, polka dot numbers, if you prefer -- whatever you feel like watching that night.

Contributed tips:

When insomnia raises its ugly head, I just lie there and listen to my cat Miro purr. I get my breathing in sync with his purring and before long I am back to sleep.

-- Pablo Solomon
pablosolomon.com

My husband is an aural kind of buy, very into music. When he can't sleep, he grabs his CD player, which has a Delta sleep CD in it and plays it.

I am a visual woman so I grab my flax and lavender eye pillow and cover my eyes. At the same time, I do a deep breathing yoga/meditation exercise.

-- Jill Nussinow, MS, RD
www.theveggiequeen.com