Relaxation techniques could help you sleep!

A lot of people do face sleep problems. They find it difficult to fall asleep and also to stay asleep. It could be due to variety of reasons: tension, worry or anxiety. Mind is so occupied thinking about day to day matters that it does not let them sleep.

A set of behavior modifications called sleep hygiene are very useful in setting up the sleep-wake up cycle. In addition, here are 3techniques to help you relax and in turn help you sleep.

These are to be practiced while lying down on your bed in the most comfortable position, with your eyes closed.

Floating:

Floating is one of the most beneficial relaxation techniques. It’s about imagining yourself floating.

Imagine an escalator flowing you down.

Imagine flying light like a leaf, moving with the cool breeze. The higher the breeze, the higher you are, the lower the breeze, the lower you are. With a falling breeze you are falling down, slowly, gradually, another breeze could just take you high, imagine this several times.  The lower you are while flying, the more relaxed you are.

Guiding thoughts:

Let’s try bringing the mind from worries and diverting it to something better, something soothing. Something that you love doing will relax your body and mind and will let you sleep.

Concentrate on a picture of yours where you looked really great or may be an award winning moment of yours or a soothing vacation. Everyone has different priorities and different things interest them. Whatever is most soothing to you is the ideal thing to meditate on.  Get into the finer details. If you enjoy beach time, imagine you are on a beach again. Feel every aspect, the sun on your face, the breeze passing through you, your toes in sand…It is sure to calm you down.

Breathing exercise:



        
- Focus on your breathing process, inhale and exhale. Take a deep breath, breath into your lower belly, feel the breath coming in, your abdomen bulging with the incoming air, hold this for a few seconds and then release your breath slowly, feel the exit of breath through your airways, throat and nostrils. Repeat this for a few times.

-          Next, focus on your body, feel the bed on which you are lying, and feel the junction between the bed and your body.

-          Then, focus on all the parts of your body, top to toe while breathing. Visualize the pure oxygen entering each of your body parts, hold the breath for few seconds and exhale. Continue doing this till you are through with all the body parts.  If you feel there is tension anywhere, in any muscle of your body, channel your breath there, deep breath in and slowly breathe out, till you feel the tension is released.

-          Continue breathing into your belly and breathing out for a few more minutes.

Here are few tips:

-          While practicing the above mentioned relaxation techniques and trying to focus your mind on something which you want to, your mind may wander here and there, it may go back to the thought which you wanted to avoid. It’s ok, that is the nature of mind. Once you notice that mind is going somewhere else, gently bring it back to your focus.

-          Your concentration will improve day by day with regular practice.

-          Practice one of these techniques every day for a total of 20 minutes, if you haven’t slept yet and are not sleepy either, move out of bed. Do something boring so as to induce sleep like reading an uninteresting book and get back to bed once you are sleepy.

-          You may use a diary to track the progress. A sleep diary may track the sleeping time (an approximate time when you might have fallen asleep), wake up time, how many times you woke up in between and how much time you took to sleep back.

 These techniques will bring in gradual improvements. Seeing us progress in our goals is motivating for all of us and a sleep diary will help in that. You could keep your family physician updated on the techniques you are trying. After trying sleep hygiene and relaxation techniques for about three to four weeks if you doubt any progress, your physician may sought a personalized approach.