NIGHT WORRYING CAUSES INSOMNIA
By Olivene Godfrey
Scarlet O'Hara's philosophy of thinking about some things tomorrow has its merits--especially when we are sort of overwhelmed with a lot of projects or problems that must be faced "tomorrow." For years, I couldn't relax at night for thinking of all the things I had to do tomorrow whether or not they were pleasant or unpleasant things. Logic would remind me that worrying about tomorrow, losing sleep, was a waste of time. But, habits are hard to break. Once formed and rigidly set, it requires a great deal of strength to break them.
One day, I decided I'd at least try to break that aggravating habit. It hasn't been easy. There are still times when "tomorrow" worries me. Still, I am making some progress in adopting Scarlett's practice. Sometimes I have to give myself a lecture, like, "come on,relax, soon enough tomorrow will come and chances are everything will work out fine." It's true there are times when we have genuine reasons for worrying and we'd be heartless zombies if we didn't worry. Often our insomnia is due to worrying about things we can't do anything about late at night.
I never had insomnia until a few years ago. And, I've experimented with everything I've ever heard of and tried a few methods on my own. One thing I have discovered is that a person can only go without sleep for a certain period of time and, then, you're going to sleep, no matter how many things are awaiting you tomorrow. I don't recommend driving yourself until you almost collapse from fatigue, even if I occasionally did before I stopped driving. According to a 2000 study published in the British Medical Journal, researchers in Australia and New Zealand reported that sleep deprivation can have the same hazardous effect as being drunk. People who drove after being awake for 17-19 hours performed worse than those with an alcoholic blood level of .05, which is the legal limit for drunk driving in most western European countries. (Canada, the U.S. and U.K. set their blood alcoholic limits at .08 percent.)
Perhaps the best method for relaxing nights and eventually curing insomnia is to develop somehow the method of erasing everything from your mind-- letting everything go until tomorrow. And television or a good book can help to take your mind off of your own thoughts and help you unwind before bedtime.
See you next time.
By Olivene Godfrey
Scarlet O'Hara's philosophy of thinking about some things tomorrow has its merits--especially when we are sort of overwhelmed with a lot of projects or problems that must be faced "tomorrow." For years, I couldn't relax at night for thinking of all the things I had to do tomorrow whether or not they were pleasant or unpleasant things. Logic would remind me that worrying about tomorrow, losing sleep, was a waste of time. But, habits are hard to break. Once formed and rigidly set, it requires a great deal of strength to break them.
One day, I decided I'd at least try to break that aggravating habit. It hasn't been easy. There are still times when "tomorrow" worries me. Still, I am making some progress in adopting Scarlett's practice. Sometimes I have to give myself a lecture, like, "come on,relax, soon enough tomorrow will come and chances are everything will work out fine." It's true there are times when we have genuine reasons for worrying and we'd be heartless zombies if we didn't worry. Often our insomnia is due to worrying about things we can't do anything about late at night.
I never had insomnia until a few years ago. And, I've experimented with everything I've ever heard of and tried a few methods on my own. One thing I have discovered is that a person can only go without sleep for a certain period of time and, then, you're going to sleep, no matter how many things are awaiting you tomorrow. I don't recommend driving yourself until you almost collapse from fatigue, even if I occasionally did before I stopped driving. According to a 2000 study published in the British Medical Journal, researchers in Australia and New Zealand reported that sleep deprivation can have the same hazardous effect as being drunk. People who drove after being awake for 17-19 hours performed worse than those with an alcoholic blood level of .05, which is the legal limit for drunk driving in most western European countries. (Canada, the U.S. and U.K. set their blood alcoholic limits at .08 percent.)
Perhaps the best method for relaxing nights and eventually curing insomnia is to develop somehow the method of erasing everything from your mind-- letting everything go until tomorrow. And television or a good book can help to take your mind off of your own thoughts and help you unwind before bedtime.
See you next time.
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