Do you ever think compulsively while trying to sleep?

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I used to have this problem every night and now I only rarely do. The difference is I learned to disassociate myself from the thoughts like I was watching them on a TV. It's actually the resistance to the thoughts that are keeping you awake I think. Eckhardt Tolle talks about this in The Power of Now. Also what Titangeeks says about the imaginary candle. Sometimes I will put all my concentration into listening to my breath going in and out.

My brain does this all day everyday. It's tiring.

uh huh, self medicating... me too... although I dont have much time left before I dont get to any more... then comes the melatonin...

I even sometimes will be asleep, and my brain start going full blown so much that it wakes me up... those nights are super-miserable... cause it feels like you never really hit deep sleep since all the steps to and from were interrupted by brain racing

Yup, which counters the whole purpose of sleeping.

And next thing you know, I have panda eyes!

Lol.
skribble

All the time - It is natural.

I am better at going to sleep now. I have learned to let my mind go and not talk back to it. If my mind is on a keep awake subject, then I'll talk to myself about a good dream idea.

My routine is set, sleep and wake within within 20 windows. It has been work to get it worked out.

The thinking just before I go to sleep really influences my dreams. Socail mistake are re-lived and practiced over and over.. Practice makes perfect. Activties, like skating, also benifit. When thinking is thinking, it can lead be enlightening and more of the "puzzle" is solved.

My normal situation. I usually have to take a PM medicine or Benadryl to combat this. I do go back to sleep easier these days if I get awakened during the night.
Funny how doing nothing bu being still is an open invitation for my mind to wander all over the bloody place!

Sincerely,
Matthew

I've always struggled with this. One technique I have found that works reasonably well is to have music playing for about half an hour to an hour after going to bed. Something with lyrics is best because hearing speech tends to break your concentration a bit. Listening to the lyrics will tend to break you out of the thought loop you get into while worrying about a problem.

After listening to the music for a little while, concentrate on relaxation exercises like these. As soon as you notice your mind straying back to the problem, force your thoughts back onto the exercises. When the music stops keep on with the exercises, especially your brain still wants to go round in circles. The combination of relaxing your body and concentrating on simple repetitive exercises will tend to switch your brain into sleep mode.

In the beginning it will be very difficult to keep the distracting thoughts out but with practice it gets easier.

If you can't sleep, then don't.

You'll eventually get tired enough, and then you'll sleep without any trouble. It works every time.

It happens to me often, especially if I'm going through something stressful.

Yes, my solution is audiobooks and chewing gum (I do both in my bed and the gum is still in my mouth the following morning)

I listen to the same set of audiobooks over and over again, this takes my mind off my thoughts, but I don't feel that I have to follow the entire story. So I drop off pretty quickly, although occassionally I'll listen all the way through to the morning.

Of course this has now become a ritual in itself, I have to religiously keep my iPod charged and take it with me when I stay away from home. the wife does get annoyed when I come home from the pub late and drunkenly try to find my headphones.

My bed time prayer is that I won't choke on the gum or strangle myself on my headphones.

Jason

yes. i hate it. sometimes i am so damn tired and just can't get my mind to slow down. ugh. it's especially bad if i have to wake up by a certain time in the morning...i stress out thinking about how i'm not getting enough sleep, and that keeps me up longer. bah.

My brain is always too full of thoughts. Although when I'm about to sleep I'm too tired to think about anything useful. I have this "racing thoughts" which pop random images and sound into my mind. It's like watching very fast slide shows and kinda fascinating, because I can never know what will pop up next, I only have a little bit control over it. As I drift off to sleep the thoughts become dreams, which are random, but loads more logical than the "racing thoughts".

I never seem to stop dreaming during my sleep. So when I wake up my brain is full of thoughts again. I also seem to suffer some compulsion regarding dreams. If I dreamed about something I liked, say eating a particular kind of food, I get a strong urge to go buy that kind of food. It's almost like a primitive desire. You can bet I don't get the same urge when I dream about cleaning the toilet.

All the bleeding time

Even worse since I got a smart phone. Something pops into my mind, no matter what the time and I just pick up the phone, google whatever is on my mind and off I go. can be up for hours after that.

another thing that keeps me up for ages when I'm trying to sleep is music. a song will just pop into my head and no matter how hard I try it just keeps repeating over and over again. It doesn't have to be a whole song either, just part of a song. what's worse, when I do drop off, if i happen to wake up (which is frequently) the tune will be the first thing that pops into my mind and we're back to the beginning again. Very frustrating.

Does anyone else get the music thing when they're trying to sleep?

Oh yes, all the time. I love singing so it doesn't bother me very much. Sometimes I can't even figure out what music it is, though. Might be from a movie I watched eons ago and never seen again. Trying to remember what it is was kinda annoying.

Oh yes, all the time. I love singing so it doesn't bother me very much. Sometimes I can't even figure out what music it is, though. Might be from a movie I watched eons ago and never seen again. Trying to remember what it is was kinda annoying.

Actually, bedtime is the only time my mind starts to calm down. It does all the chattering and worrying in the day, and it finally settles down at night time.

But, saying that, if I don't ''wind down'' before going to sleep, my mind can still chatter (well, in the day I think in words and if my mind is still chattering at night, I think in pictures). Every night I watch a film in bed, before I go to sleep, then after the film I switch the TV off and my mind shuts off too. But if I just got straight into bed and tried to go to sleep straight away, my mind still wouldn't be switched off.

Thankfully caffeine doesn't work on me. I could drink a whole bottle of coke in the evening, and still have a good night's sleep.