4 ms·

My biggest issue is that I can't lie down in my bed and stop thinking. I'll be awake for hours with these random thoughts assaulting my head. Even if I do fall

My biggest issue is that I can't lie down in my bed and stop thinking. I'll be awake for hours with these random thoughts assaulting my head. Even if I do fall asleep, I'll then wake up 3 hours later and feel worse. Another weird thing is that I feel sleepier during the day than I do at night.

eigenspace 7y ago
There could be many things related to this but it seems like two main issues 1) You're being blown about by discursive thought 2) Your circadian rhythm is out of sync For 1), I'd recommend taking up mindfulness meditation and practicing before bed. This will reduce stress and out you in a better mental state for sleeping. 2) could be caused by any number of things ranging from drugs (caffeine, alcohol, cannabis, sleep aids, etc.), insufficient exercise, not enough light in the morning, too much light in the evening, shifting bedtimes, noisy sleep environment, snoring, etc. Most of the comments around here will help with this problem though I'd be skeptical of anyone telling you to use medication or drugs for it. (I'm not anti-drug, I just think we don't understnad sleep or the brain well enough yet to effectively improve or induce sleep with drugs yet and most existing treatments seem to make you unconscious, but not necessarily asleep).
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
mattmanser 7y ago
What helped me immensely is simply writing it all down. By writing them down, I think my mind felt it could stop replaying them all because they were stored somewhere. I used to replay them in bed, when I was out walking, in the shower. It was exhausting and took up so much of my time. The same thoughts over and over. And on top of that, as I moved around my flat, I would see things that would remind me of unfinished projects, things I'd need to fix, and then I'd think about them. So I made two lists. One for projects, one for worries. The list of all the projects was for things I wanted to do. Things like learn piano, visit Moscow, floss more regularly, literally every project. I saved that on dropbox. It had over 60 or 70 projects on it. I added 50 on the first day, then as I thought of more things or saw the visual triggers (that cookbook I bought to learn to cook more meals, the light that doesn't work because it has a weird bulb), I would add them to the list immediately over the next few weeks. And another list of all the things I was worried about. Might be things like the client is 3 days late on payment, does he have the money? Did I make a fool of myself at X's birthday? Why does Z keep shooting my ideas down so savagely. I put these all in a temporary tab in notepad++, mixed in with other tabs I tend to have open. It persists between turning the computer on and off, but if you close the tab without saving, it just gets deleted. As it was temporary, I felt I could put embarrassing or even mean thoughts on it. I think this had 7 or 8 things. With the projects I soon realised I couldn't do 60 things at once and focused on 4. The list is there to find more projects to do as I finish stuff. With the worries, next time I look at it, most of them are gone. And I just close it, gone forever. First time I closed it, it was so liberating. After doing that every now and again over a month or two, I only have to do it once every blue moon, it's a useful trick when I start feeling a bit overwhelmed. Might not work for you, but worth a shot.
nf05papsjfVbc 7y ago
This is an exercise that I recommend: https://drcolleencarney.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Constructive-Worry-Worksheet.pdf https://drcolleencarney.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Const... This is called "worry time" and it has helped me in the past. Another article describing it is here: https://healthypsych.com/psychology-tools-schedule-worry-time/ https://healthypsych.com/psychology-tools-schedule-worry-tim... It's not a silver bullet but it's a useful tool to have in one's toolbox.
godot 7y ago
Have you paid attention to what your thoughts are at night? I've had similar issues before and I've noticed that if I think about work, projects, my day, etc. I could go on for a long time without falling asleep. I began to notice that if I think about generally fiction/stories, I can fall asleep much more quickly. In my case I think about plots of movies I've recently watched (or a long time ago), whether it's Avengers or Dragon Ball etc. Perhaps you could give that a try.
gshdg 7y ago
Getting lots of exercise always seems to fix this for me.

eigenspace 7y ago

There could be many things related to this but it seems like two main issues 1) You're being blown about by discursive thought 2) Your circadian rhythm is out of sync For 1), I'd recommend taking up mindfulness meditation and practicing before bed. This will reduce stress and out you in a better mental state for sleeping. 2) could be caused by any number of things ranging from drugs (caffeine, alcohol, cannabis, sleep aids, etc.), insufficient exercise, not enough light in the morning, too much light in the evening, shifting bedtimes, noisy sleep environment, snoring, etc. Most of the comments around here will help with this problem though I'd be skeptical of anyone telling you to use medication or drugs for it. (I'm not anti-drug, I just think we don't understnad sleep or the brain well enough yet to effectively improve or induce sleep with drugs yet and most existing treatments seem to make you unconscious, but not necessarily asleep).

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

mattmanser 7y ago

What helped me immensely is simply writing it all down. By writing them down, I think my mind felt it could stop replaying them all because they were stored somewhere. I used to replay them in bed, when I was out walking, in the shower. It was exhausting and took up so much of my time. The same thoughts over and over. And on top of that, as I moved around my flat, I would see things that would remind me of unfinished projects, things I'd need to fix, and then I'd think about them. So I made two lists. One for projects, one for worries. The list of all the projects was for things I wanted to do. Things like learn piano, visit Moscow, floss more regularly, literally every project. I saved that on dropbox. It had over 60 or 70 projects on it. I added 50 on the first day, then as I thought of more things or saw the visual triggers (that cookbook I bought to learn to cook more meals, the light that doesn't work because it has a weird bulb), I would add them to the list immediately over the next few weeks. And another list of all the things I was worried about. Might be things like the client is 3 days late on payment, does he have the money? Did I make a fool of myself at X's birthday? Why does Z keep shooting my ideas down so savagely. I put these all in a temporary tab in notepad++, mixed in with other tabs I tend to have open. It persists between turning the computer on and off, but if you close the tab without saving, it just gets deleted. As it was temporary, I felt I could put embarrassing or even mean thoughts on it. I think this had 7 or 8 things. With the projects I soon realised I couldn't do 60 things at once and focused on 4. The list is there to find more projects to do as I finish stuff. With the worries, next time I look at it, most of them are gone. And I just close it, gone forever. First time I closed it, it was so liberating. After doing that every now and again over a month or two, I only have to do it once every blue moon, it's a useful trick when I start feeling a bit overwhelmed. Might not work for you, but worth a shot.

nf05papsjfVbc 7y ago

This is an exercise that I recommend: https://drcolleencarney.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Constructive-Worry-Worksheet.pdf https://drcolleencarney.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Const... This is called "worry time" and it has helped me in the past. Another article describing it is here: https://healthypsych.com/psychology-tools-schedule-worry-time/ https://healthypsych.com/psychology-tools-schedule-worry-tim... It's not a silver bullet but it's a useful tool to have in one's toolbox.

godot 7y ago

Have you paid attention to what your thoughts are at night? I've had similar issues before and I've noticed that if I think about work, projects, my day, etc. I could go on for a long time without falling asleep. I began to notice that if I think about generally fiction/stories, I can fall asleep much more quickly. In my case I think about plots of movies I've recently watched (or a long time ago), whether it's Avengers or Dragon Ball etc. Perhaps you could give that a try.

gshdg 7y ago

Getting lots of exercise always seems to fix this for me.