An insomnia problem does not appear overnight. What does appear that way is a sleepless night, without sleeping a wink. The reason? The nerves. In most cases, the cause of not being able to sleep is nervousness caused by an event that will take place the next day. The remedy, logically, is to leave the nerves out of the bedroom. But it is not an easy task.
Nerves that don’t let you sleep
- Nervousness, worries and anxiety are closely related to sleep disorders. When we are faced with an insomnia problem whose cause is anxiety, it is clear that we will not be able to sleep well again until we learn to manage anxiety. But there is another type of nerves that prevent us from sleeping and that has nothing to do with an anxiety disorder.
- They are the specific nerves for something that has happened and, more frequently, for something that is going to happen. If tomorrow we have an exam, a job interview, we expect an important visit, we have to move, we start a trip, we have an appointment, it’s our wedding day, we have a medical examination… very varied reasons, which can be both positive and negative, but they don’t let us sleep.
- And we know well that we must face the next day with all the energy possible, with the best of spirits and with the best of our smiles. We know well that tonight we should sleep well in order to rest. It’s that pressure of having to respond 100% the next day that makes us more nervous. “I will not be able to sleep”. And we sure didn’t sleep.
Sleep without nerves
- The remedy to sleep well in this case of nervousness would be to go to bed without nerves. But can we avoid taking the nerves of the next day to bed? Sleep specialists assure that it can be done, although to mere mortals it seems an impossible mission. Although, we lose nothing by trying and maybe we will gain a few hours of rest.
- To leave the nerves out of the bedroom, it is necessary to reduce the activity as the day progresses. If we have something important the next day, it is best to focus on relaxing activities such as reading, doing yoga, breathing exercises, lowering the intensity of the light, surrounding ourselves with a soft aroma like lavender and, if we have the opportunity, having a pleasant chat. That makes us forget the nerves we have.
- So far it is not too difficult, especially if we have become familiar with good sleep hygiene. The complicated thing is to get into bed, close your eyes and not get nervous thinking about the next day. One trick that takes practice, but does work, is to change the channel. We imagine that we have a remote control in our hand. When our mind begins to think about tomorrow’s exam, the doctor, the appointment or the interview, we quickly change the channel until we find a more pleasant channel in our head, like our last vacation, the snack at the tea shop or the English class.
- In any case, if you still have any questions about how to combat insomnia, don’t miss Hector Galvan’s advice in this video. The clinical director of the Madrid Psychology Institute told us everything we need to know about a most harmful sleep disorder.
