The #1 Way to Train Your Brain For Better Sleep

I have this issue myself, and more as I’ve gotten older … racing thoughts about work deadlines, overdue blah blah blah, a family member’s recent health issue, etc. And OMG if I forget literally anything, my brain instantly thinks “so if you forgot that, what else did you forget, HMMM???“.

Honestly, it’s like your mind wants to settle into an endless spin-cycle of mental churn, and will just grab anything to perseverate about. 

But the bottom line for us is that this makes it hard to get to sleep, and to get back to sleep should we wake up in the night.

By the way, keep in mind that this is perfectly normal behavior for your brain. It’s not only normal, but it’s actually very common.

But there are ways short circuit the churn, and cut off the spin-cycle.

Train your brain

Your brain is a genius at association. And, even better, it can be trained! This is good news for you because you can basically teach your brain to associate the bed with sleep.

Here’s what you need to do. Consistently do these things each night of the week.

• only use your bed for sleep and intimacy.
• only go to bed if you are feeling sleepy (when your eyes are heavy and you could easily fall asleep).
• if you are still awake after about 15 minutes in bed, get out of bed and go to another room. Do something else relaxing until you are feeling sleepy again, such as reading a book, listening to the an audiobook, etc.
• repeat the above two steps until you are asleep within about 15 minutes. This may take several cycles of getting in and out of bed, so have patience with yourself. But during this time, you body’s natural need for sleep will increase, and you will eventually fall asleep within 15 minutes of getting into bed.
• get out of bed at the same time each morning, no matter how much you slept the night before

Over several nights, this therapy builds your brain’s association between the bed and sleep, and reduces the neural linkage between bed and feeling alert and having racing thoughts.

Original Article Here.