Posted by lulubelle on March 11, 2009 at 06:04:10:

In Reply to: Overactive Mind posted by M4rc on March 11, 2009 at 05:00:15:

Hi There,
I think you make a great point. Our minds, which are constantly whirring with activity, can be a real drawback when dealing with sleep problems. I agree-it hits us on two levels. The first being the inability to shut down random, neutral thoughts that keep us awake. The other, and for me the most important, was my obsession with solving the sleep problem. I always approached challenges in life as things to be overcome, through sheer willpower and reasoning it out. (obviously, control is a minor issue for me)
In sleep (or the lack thereof), I found something that was paradoxical. The more I tried to figure it out and will it away, the worse it got. As an example, both of my sisters are pretty terrible sleepers. When they experience sleepless nights, they don't try to figure them out, they just accept them as part of life and get on with it. Where I would be frantically searching the internet for answers and seeing God knows how many doctors, they just chalk it up to getting older and don't make a big deal of it. They just don't think about it that much.
I agree with your observations totally, and it has taken me awhile to tame my mind. And in spite of my newfound Zen approach, it still gets unruly at frequent intervals :-)

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