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wallythacker - 2006-03-23 8:32 PM
There's only one cure. Get out in enjoyable weather and start interacting with the world again. I can't wait.
I never suffer these weird sleep cycles in the summer. I'm with the sun usually and off to bed an after after twilight.
It's beginning to sound like a case of Seasonal Affective Disorder, the Nrothern territories will do that to you. In Scandenavia I have seen special Sun Cafe's, it's like a web cafe, but where you go to bask in artificially produced sun light - this isn't a tanning salon, it's proper light.
They also have a scheme to use giant reflectors to cast sunlight onto a town, I forget the name of it, because the terrain and low sun mean the town is in constant shadow. It's interesting how people are affected
(afflicted?
) by such conditions.
For
me, the crucial thing when trying to get to sleep is:
Don't think forward, force yourself to think back if you cannot clear your mind. Usually go further back than the previous day, otherwise you get hung up on recent events. Event analysis is what you do during sleep anyway, where as thinking forward activates the imagination centres.
If you can't get off, get up. Do a few hundred star jumps, run on the spot, do something energetic. Plonking yourself infront of the PC/TV is just going from one restless monotony to another, and will do nothing for the anxiety.
Do some stretches or exercises immediately before you get into bed. I've always found it easier to get to sleep if I get into bed huffing and puffing. It seems to centre the mind, and provides focus.
If you know you're going to get into bed with something on your mind, don't let yourself get into bed and try and clear your mind. I always find that in doing so the subconcious always sparks off a reminder and then you're stuck. Force yourself to think about anything else.
Never clock watch - EVER. If you have to get up and stomp around, avoid looking at the clock. If you have LED clocks or anything that can be seen in the dark, remove it. In seeing the time you become anxious, and crave getting to sleep. Avoid this at all costs, you just get your blood pressure up and worry / try too hard to fall asleep.
If you take a "kay sarar sarar" attitude, if it happens, it'll happen sooner.
Interestingly, cmonex's method doesn't work for me, never has. Meditative thought always prompts my subconcious into drawing things that it wants analysing, immediately sparking me to come too again.