Trouble Sleeping – It Might Be Your Bedroom

If you are tossing and turning and checking the clock to see how
many hours you have left to try to sleep before that alarm goes
off – Stop
I know, you want to know how do you Stop trying to sleep and
really get to sleep
In the cold light of day, bleary eyed and grouchy from lack of
sleep – take a good hard look at your bedroom The origin of
your trouble sleeping is probably right here
Is it clean and neat or are there piles of clothes and shoes on
the floor, books stacked up on a desk or a sewing machine
covered with the latest project? Is there an exercise device
staring you in the face?
No I have no idea where you are going to put this stuff but get
it out of your bedroom Your bedroom is supposed to be a safe
calm haven where you rest or engage in sex Everything you have
junked up in your room is a distraction to sleep It is a
reminder of what you didn’t get finished today, or last week, or
last year No wonder you have trouble sleeping or feeling
romantic
If the treadmill is covered with clothing, you suffer from
failed goals, and you wasted money Not good thoughts to put you
to sleep And certainly not conducive to a romantic evening or
morning
Ok – now you have a nice clean room dedicated to a bed Wait, do
you have a TV, DVD, clock, telephone or any other electrical
device? Is it blinking? Does it have a nice little blue, red or
white light? All those little lights can be “seen” by your brain
and they indicate day time – get rid of the little lights
Now I know you are not going to move all those gadgets out of
the room Put a little piece of tape over the lights I have an
electric toothbrush that the holder blinks a blue light whenever
it is charging And that is every night after we brush our teeth
before bedtime No one can sleep with a blinking light strobing
the room
Cover the display lighted time on your clock radio or alarm It
will ring when it should and you really don’t need to know what
time it is after you go to bed You can make a very simple cover
for the display by putting a piece of tape over the edge of a
large enough black paper Tape it to the top of the device and
you can turn it up during the day if you really need that light
Does the moon or the street light shine brightly into your
window? Invest in Venetian blinds or a dark heavy drape you can
close at night You won’t have any more trouble sleeping with
the light sources covered
Ok, now you have a clean, dark room Check the temperature
Studies all show that most people sleep much better at a lower
temperature So move that thermostat to between 65 and 70
degrees This may be too cool if you are a mouth breather
Your brain is going to signal sleep time because of the lower
temperature That is why you need a little time after an evening
bath before going to bed You need for your body temperature to
drop
If you are still having trouble sleeping, you may need to do a
simple brain dump to get all those swirling thoughts out of your
mind Just write down everything that is going through your mind
- what you need to do, who made you angry, what bills you can’t
figure out how to pay – everything Now you are finished
writing, you just simply tell your brain – out loud – “Ok I
wrote it all down, I won’t forget any of it and I expect you to
come up with the solutions by morning”
Now you can go into that clean, cool, dark room, snuggle into
bed and forget that you ever had any trouble sleeping

Tags | bedtime, clock, device, distraction, machine, reminder, romantic, sewing, staring, treadmill, trouble