Problems Sleeping Due To Stress and Worry

When you wake up in the morning do you feel rested, awake, and ready to start the day or are you like most people, plagued with restless nights and fitful sleep? Sleep patterns have a lot to do with stress in our lives. What we live through and are worried about will often carry over into our sleep, keeping us up and unable to fall asleep. Our dreams can reflect our lives, also leading to unrest. Our minds are cluttered with so much, trying to solve problems, worried, going over and over the day or the day to come. It is no wonder that when we lie down our mind doesn’t stop. We think and worry our way into such a fitful state that our body can not relax. We may even wake up in the middle of the night and begin it all over again. We all know how it feels and yet missing sleep hurts us all; we feel more ungrounded, stressed, and agitated for it. So of course getting a good night’s sleep is necessary, but what do you do when your mind keeps you awake? The best and most promising method when falling asleep or trying to go back to sleep is to seriously tell yourself to let it go. You have to be stern, for in this state of tiredness our awareness is low. You may have to repeat it a few times and remind yourself this is not the moment to solve this issue and that “I will be in a better place to deal with it tomorrow if I get a full night’s sleep.” Of course you know this, but putting it into action is about taking it out of your mind, relaxing your body, and letting yourself actually fall asleep. You are in charge; your thought patterns are there by choice which means you can stop them. You need to decide what is most important. Is it running circles around the issue or letting it go so you can rest? Have you ever solved a problem in the middle of the night as you were trying to go back to sleep? Do you even remember fully what it was that kept you awake? That is how unimportant it is the next day. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you have to figure it out before you can let it go and fall asleep. Instead, let your mind rest, your body will follow, and then you too can get a full night’s rest.