Do you often feel ready to fall asleep on the sofa and then by the time you sleepily trudge upstairs and get yourself ready for bed, you’re lying in the dark wide awake? Well, perhaps it’s about time you started keeping a diary. Here I’ll share how allowing your thoughts to escape from your mind and onto paper can help you sleep.
Relax Instead of Obsess
If your mind goes into overdrive as soon as you get into bed, it’ll take you ages to drift off to sleep. I’ve experienced it myself – tossing and turning until the early hours, worrying and overthinking – and those thoughts have nowhere to go. By simply jotting things down, you can empty your mind of whatever is whirring around and start to relax instead of obsess. Brain dump your thoughts onto paper and you’ll soon start to feel like a weight has been lifted; it’s far better to write it down than bottle it up.
Help Yourself Face Your Worries
In addition to writing down your thoughts, you should write down a solution that may help you. If you’re worrying about something incessantly, the only way you’ll be able stop worrying about it is to come up with a way of dealing with it. So, rather than just putting your thoughts on paper, write down what your ideal outcome would be. I can honestly say that when I do this, I go to bed feeling relieved; it’s as if there’s a light at the end of the tunnel because I’ve found a coping mechanism. Help yourself face your worries by implementing contingency plans and you’ll have no trouble falling asleep.
Clear Your Mind
Once you’ve written your thoughts down, you’ll trust that that you won’t forget them. Your mind will be able let go off these feelings as it will know they won’t get overlooked; whereas if you try and store all your woes in your head, you’ll have mental clutter. Through keeping a diary, you’re almost telling your mind that it doesn’t have to cling onto the thoughts that are constantly looming; the diary will hold them all for you instead. I go to bed with a clear mind every night after I’ve made a note of anything and everything that’s bothering me.
Feel More Positive
Not only should you list the worries that are eating away at you, you should write down the things that you are grateful for too. Whether it’s having good health, supportive family and friends or a roof over your head, you’ll start to feel safer after you’ve acknowledged what you’re grateful for. When we feel safe, we sleep better. Therefore it’s important to spend time filling in your diary with all the positives in your life.
So, can keeping a diary help you to sleep? I believe so, as long as you fill it with constructive entries. Why not give it a go and see how you get on? There’s no harm in trying.
About the Author
Joy Richards is the sleep specialist Happy Beds, the UK’s leading bed and mattress store. Joy runs The Comfort Zone – the company’s news hub that’s dedicated to helping customers find the comfiest bed, be it a comfortable and practical divan bed or a children’s cabin bed. You can get in touch with Joy by tweeting @HappyBedsUK.
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