It’s 2:30am in the morning. It’s warm in bed, it’s quiet and dark outside, and the people of your community are sound asleep and happily snoring… except, it seems, for you. You are wide awake thinking about ‘that thing that happened’ or ‘that thing you forgot to do’, or ‘that thing you need to do’. And this goes on until 5am… Mind whirring; not switching off; and thoughts going around in circles.
This is not uncommon! There can be complex and multiple reasons why this can happen, and the regularity of this happening varies from person to person. I am not a sleep expert, but as this used to regularly happen to me, I would like to share a practical breathing and visualisation technique which, with practice, allowed me to drift back off to sleep.
· Close your eyes and visualise a square, in a colour of your choosing, in your mind.
· Visualise tracing or drawing the edges of the square with your mind: start at the bottom left corner, move up the left side to the top left corner, go across the top to the top right corner, go down the right side to the bottom right corner, and then go across the bottom back to the bottom left corner.
· Repeat this a few times, drawing the edges of the square with your mind.
· Now, add your breathing to this visualisation: when you draw the left side of the square and along the top, breathe in a deep breath for 4 seconds. When you draw your square down the right side and along the bottom back to the beginning, breathe out for 4 seconds.
· Continue breathing in this way: breathe in for 4 seconds up the left side and along the top, then breathe out for 4 seconds down the right side and along the bottom.
· Continue with the practice keeping the coloured square clear in your mind, and always keeping your breathing gentle, comfortable and not strained.
This technique can not only produce a relaxing and stress-reducing response in the body but can keep the mind focussed and concentrated on one thing so it’s not flitting between lots of different thoughts.
I can’t guarantee it’ll work for you, and this technique may not be for everyone, but perhaps give it a try the next time you find yourself awake when you want to be asleep to see if it makes a difference.
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