Many insomnia patients were found in recent outpatient clinics, and most of their problems showed a pattern –
1. Long-term chronic insomnia, mostly starting from adolescence. Some people come to the clinic in their fifties or sixties, but they will find that their insomnia has actually been manifested for as long as twenty or thirty years.
2, taking a variety of sleeping pills, the effect is not good, or at first effective, but soon out of effect.
3, many people are the unit of “good comrades” and “backbone of the force”.
If you carefully analyze the character of these patients, you will find that most of them have the characteristics of demanding perfection, this character trait has a relationship with insomnia? The answer is yes! It turns out that insomnia is due to their attitude towards insomnia.
Ms. Liu is such a typical case. She is in her 30s and her insomnia has been worsening for the last five years, which has affected her normal work during the day. When she came to the clinic, she had dark circles under her eyes and her whole body was lethargic. She says she uses many sleep-promoting techniques every day – foot soaks before bed, drinking hot milk, going to bed early, taking sleeping pills …… A little environmental disturbance – such as moonlight, outside firecrackers going off, etc., make her feel more nervous about the noise. She makes up her mind to herself: she has an important task tomorrow and must fall asleep tonight. But it often backfires, the more anxious she is to fall asleep, the more she can’t sleep ……
Analyzing this patient’s problem, it is precisely not that she did not pay attention to the problem of insomnia, but that she paid too much attention to it. Moreover, she overemphasizes the influence of the environment, but neglects her own regulation and adaptability. She overemphasized the harm of insomnia, but neglected the fact that stress and anxiety could be more serious than the harm caused by insomnia. This is the truth of “too much is not enough”. I told her: to get a good night’s sleep is to relax yourself first, you set yourself the mental implication of “must sleep well” before going to bed, then in case it does not meet your expectations, will not make you more nervous, increasing the excitement of the cerebral cortex in vain? Then of course the more you want to sleep, the more you can’t sleep.
As mentioned above, most of such insomnia patients have a “demanding perfection” personality base. In fact, this is also the general social and cultural background of our contemporary society, especially the post-60s and post-70s education is mostly the idea of “man will win”, although it has a positive effect in pushing personal limits and challenging life’s adversities, but also easy to create a stressful mentality for themselves. Especially when it comes to solving problems such as depression and insomnia, this “fight hard” attitude is counterproductive. We know that sleep not only varies from person to person, but also is not constant throughout a person’s life. As a physiological instinct of the human body, sleep has its own regulatory mechanism. Sleepy and tired naturally want to sleep. Sleep is more of a factor of nervousness. This is like eating, of course you want to eat when you are hungry, but if you are in a state of tension and anxiety, how can you eat a meal. So, what is the factor that causes tension in sleep? — It happens to be our worry about not being able to sleep. If you don’t care so much about whether you sleep well or not, and let yourself relax, you may actually be able to sleep well instead. The human brain itself is not as fragile as we think, even if it is busy recently, resulting in too little sleep occasionally, it does not mean that the brain is not rested. It is more important to learn to relax yourself and let your body and mind get enough rest than to fall asleep or not.
So, my advice to Ms. Liu is: if you want to do something to promote sleep can be, but do not set yourself “must fall asleep” rules. If you can’t sleep, close your eyes, relax and rest. At the same time, I also introduced a “body scan” practice to Ms. Liu. This is a method of positive thinking relaxation training (MBSR), which is very easy to learn and master. I suggested her to practice it every night before going to bed, but still not to care whether she falls asleep or not – you see, it is not the method that matters, it is the mind that matters.
I present this method of self-hypnosis to you. It doesn’t matter which case you are in – chronic insomnia, occasional insomnia, reduced sleep quality that doesn’t meet the insomnia criteria (so-called sleep subhealth), or overly nervous about sleep like the woman in the article …… This method can help you relieve it. I suggest this method just before going to bed, lying in bed for practice. Perhaps in the process of practicing, you will go straight to sleep. It is also very effective for long-term stubborn insomnia if you keep practicing it for a long time.
All self-hypnosis exercises need to be preceded by breathing relaxation. Start by taking a few deep and long abdominal breaths, consciously feeling yourself relax and experiencing your own nobility, serenity and peace.
If you feel restless at this point, please do not rush to start the body scan, continue to do abdominal breathing, or do a focused breathing exercise (see my history article “Positive Thinking – A Remedy for Stress Reduction in the Workplace” for the practice method) it can help you relax.
The body scan approach: Give your full attention to the sensations in your body, just to be aware of the sensations in your body – perhaps feeling tight, sore, tense, etc. – but do not evaluate these sensations, divert attention, or consciously eliminate them. If you feel uncomfortable here, you can stay here for 1-2 minutes and these areas will naturally relax.
The order of the body scan can be from head to feet or from feet to head. However, I usually start with the toes of the left foot, but of course there is no certain rule, and the purpose of the order is just to avoid missing, or you subconsciously avoiding local awareness of.
left toe -→ left instep -→ left ankle -→ left calf -→ left knee -→ left thigh -→ left hip -→Left side of the waist -→
Toes of the right foot -→ Back of the right foot -→ Ankle of the right foot -→ Calf of the right side -→ Knee of the right side -→ Thigh of the right side -→ Hip of the right side -→Right side of waist -→
Back waist -→ Lower abdomen -→ Upper abdomen -→ Chest -→ Whole back -→ Both shoulders -→ Neck -→ Head and face -→
Upper arms on both sides -→ Elbow joints on both sides -→ Forearms on both sides -→ Wrist joints on both sides -→ Back of hands on both sides -→ Palm of hands on both sides -→ Fingers on both sides.
If you are able to complete the entire body scan process, then congratulations! You are now in a very relaxed state. You can continue to relax your entire body even further by breathing smoothly in the abdominal position, encompassing the entire body in your awareness. If you wake up the next day and realize that you don’t seem to have completed the scan, again congratulations!!! Because you have actually fallen asleep.
Although they say that a good night’s sleep makes you feel good! But, in fact, the two are not necessarily related, and sometimes it’s more important to relax than to fall asleep!