you are getting sleepy...

I just read that sleep problems are so common that 1 in 4 people have them! Get this: sleep deprivation cost the nation $15 billion in healthcare expenses and $50 billion in lost productivity.

Whoa!

I occasionally have some sleeplessness during the night. What happens to me is I wake up once or twice during the night, and once in a while, I just don’t fall immediately back to sleep. This may happen at a time of high stress, when it is hard to shut off the worry tape in my conscious mind. At 3 in the morning I prefer to be asleep, so I need to quiet the conscious mind. I use self-hypnosis to relax every part of my body. By focusing on the progressive relaxation of my body, my mind isn’t yet quiet, but it has a task and this task is somewhat boring and repetitive, so I usually fall asleep pretty quickly. Basically I use the self-hypnosis to trick my mind. It wants to ruminate on anxious thots and worries and what might go wrong. I make it focus attention on each part of the body in a slow and deliberate order. I postpone worrying for a more convenient time for me. I am just so crabby and inefficient when I don’t get at least 7 hours of sleep!

Good night.