You can feel it coming, the train. Your eyes get heavier, your body is feeling relaxed. Your whole body is telling you that you are tired. What if the clock is only 21? You cannot to to bed so early, or can you?
In my experience when I get the it-is-time-for-sleep-feeling I need to act upon it, because if I wait that feeling will quickly go away. If I don’t and I am watching tv there is a big chance that I will fall asleep on the couch. Both have bad outcomes.
If I loose that tired feeling or if I go to bed later then I usually do(on weekdays) then when I finally go to bed I might have difficulties falling asleep because I am no longer tired. I missed the train to Sleep.
If I fall asleep on the couch, oh my good, that is the worst. You are completely gone when you wake and the effort to move and transfer yourself to your bed is craaazy hard. Maybe you had started a washing machine and you need to take care of the wet clothes before bed, or maybe you had something else that needs a bit of your time before you can tuck yourself in for the night. It is tough right?
When you are finally in bed you cannot fall asleep because now you are awake. So annoying. You missed the train to sleep.
So what is the trick here? What I have found that works for me is that I always go to bed early. Let’s say 21:00. That is the time I aim for every night on weekdays. I started doing this a couple of years back when I got ill and I was ill for a long time. I thought if I sleep more meaning I go to bed earlier then maybe I get well quicker. I got well pretty fast when I started this but I also noticed a lot of other positive changes.
I was less stressed about getting enough sleep. I knew that when I went to bed early I had lots of time to sleep even if I did not fall asleep at once. I also had time to take care of any emergency last minute without being stressed. Going to bed early just takes the stress out of the whole sleep thing. I can read in my book in peace. Often I am so tired when I go to bed and don’t read much before my eyes are so heavy that I put it away. I love to sleep, my body is craving it. Just the thought of going to bed makes me smile.
Forced sleep rarely happens. When you go to bed really late and you feel you have only 5 hours before you need to get up then it can be really stressful and there is not much room for a delayed train to Sleep.
If you have sleep anxiety or are stressed about the whole sleeping thing try going to bed earlier and see if it improves. Then when you have had your days with full sleep you will feel that you have more energy during the day, you have less cravings and you might even be waking up before the alarm goes off.
Decide on a time for bedtime and try to stick with it so you can plan around it. If you don’t set a time for bed go to bed when you feel the train to sleep is coming.
So don’t miss the train to Sleep – go to bed early.
