Getting a good night's sleep
If you are a dog owner you would do well to observe how he goes to sleep. Usually he will jump to onto the bed (if allowed) then commence his 'circle dance'. This consists of him going round and round in circles for an unspecified time. Then he will abruptly plonk himself down with a thud and not wake up again until the morning.
If only humans could get a good night's sleep like dogs do. Or any animal come to think of it. How many people think of their bed as their nest? Yet in the animal kingdom the nest rules. The main difference between animals and humans is knowing what the bed or 'nest' is for. We use it to eat, read, watch TV and make more babies. Animals only use it to sleep. There lies the difference. We have conditioned ourselves into using the bed for multiple functions when it should really only have one. If you are having to suffer nights of sleeplessness take a minute or two to contemplate your bed. What do you associate this space for? If it is anything other than sleeping the problem might lay there.
Now there are many actions we can take in order to 'get back to the mammal' inside us. The first of these is re-teaching our brains. The trick here is to only use the bed for sleeping. The second is to create some kind of 'ritual' that our brain recognizes to mean bedtime. For example, while you are brushing or flossing your teeth last thing at night keep telling your brain 'time for bed, time for bed'. Most of us heard this when we were children and soon got into the routine of going to sleep with these words. The problem is as adults we can do pretty much what the hell we like, though this doesn't always (practically never) bring beneficial results.
The bed should be crisply clean and fresh, and have an inviting 'sleep in me!' quality. There should definitely not be anything bothersome about the bed or bedroom, and this includes the temperature. If it is too cold you'll be rolled up into a ball and if too hot throwing the covers off. Neither is beneficial for a good night's sleep. Another great idea is to start writing a diary of everything that happens to you in bed. If you wake up in the middle of the night, take your diary and write. You may not know exactly what you are writing but you will certainly have something interesting to read the morning after. You might even discover something about your inner-self you hadn't previously known, like the real reason for your sleeplessness in the first place.
So, you have your bed as a nest and nothing else, you have your mental routine for going to bed and now you have your diary. Other beneficial ideas to get a good night's sleep are relaxing music, and soothing smells from incense and the like, but probably the best is being tired! Try to exercise in the day at least until you sweat. This gives you a great release for anxiety and you are telling your body 'look, I'm geting you tired so later we can sleep all night'.
