Learning to Relax Is the Best Cure for Insomnia
When we can’t sleep, we get worried, tense, and full of anxiety. Learning to relax our bodies, slowly and naturally, can help us slip into sleep. Relaxation techniques use the mind to help the body and have cured people with insomnia for decade.
The techniques teach you to relax your muscles group by group, in a systematic way. Two simple tools will help you greatly: a three minute egg timer (the hour-glass type, with falling grains of sand) and smoothing medication tapes of sand sounds, forest sounds, or whatever you find peaceful.
Begin by practicing during the day, out of bed and wide awake. Turn on the music, turn on over the egg timer, and start by breathing deeply and slowly. Focus first on your toes. Concentrate on testing, and then relaxing, the muscles in your toes. Do this until the egg-timer runs out.
Next, move to the feet. Follow the same instructions and use the egg timer to time yourself and focusing on the falling crystals can help you in a meditative mood. After the feet, continue the journey up your body, proceeding to the calves the things, and hands and moving to your forearms and upper arms. End with the head and neck muscle.
With a little practice, you’ll soon be able to control the tensing and relaxing of all your muscle groups at will. When you reach this point, it’s time to try the technique in bed with one important difference. Only do the relaxing half of the exercise. Lay in bed and, muscle by muscle, focus on relaxing. Eventually, you won’t need the egg timer but can gauge the time by experience and by how long it takes for the muscle to feel relaxed.
Learning relaxation techniques is not always easy. It takes time and discipline, especially in the early going. Usually, two weeks are needed before you see results. Meditation classes offer by many health clubs and adult education programs, can help supplement this technique. And if natural sound only annoy you and don’t help you relax, be creative about your background music.
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