Sleep Tip and a Parable

1:00 AM. Ugh.

Why couldn’t it be 6:00?

Funny to find myself wishing it was morning when in my younger days, I would have been thrilled to see I had so many more hours of sleep ahead of me.

Ever feel like that?

Well, since I know I am not the only one that has those nights where the mind just won’t quit, I wanted to share something I learned that actually helps.

First, I want to send a thank you to my friend, fellow writer, and life coach, Linda, who shared this technique from cognitive therapy. It is a game changer.

Here’s how it works.

1. Pick a word: If you wake up and are having trouble going back to sleep (or are having trouble going to sleep in the first place), pick a word – any word. We’ll use “rest” for the purpose of this example.

2. Start with the first letter: Begin with the “r” from rest and think of all the words that you can which start with “r.” For example, root, red, regular, run. You get the idea.

3. Do the same thing with the second letter. So, using our example, move on to “e” and again list all the words that you can think of that start with “e.”

4. Follow the same pattern for the rest of the letters in the word.

Still not asleep? Then pick another word and keep going.

Why does this help?

One of the tricks of the mind is to give it something to do. There is a wonderful parable about this idea. I can’t remember the exact story, but here is my version.

Once upon a time there was a man who was down on his luck. Destitute and depressed, he wanders into the forest where he comes across a hermit with long white hair, leaning against a tree. The man shares his troubles with the hermit. The hermit listens to the man’s woes and when he finishes, he offers him a solution. He shares that he has a demon who can build anything. He offers the demon to the man but cautions that he must never let the demon be bored. It must always have something to do. Elated, the man gratefully accepts the gift and goes back home. Once there, he puts the demon to work tearing down his old shack and building a mansion in its place. When that is done, the demon begins to grow larger, but the man remembers what the hermit says and sets the demon to plowing his field for his garden. But again, the demon returns growing menacing and large, and the man frantically tries to think of something else for it to do.

You can see where this is going.

Eventually, the man runs out of tasks for the demon and terrified for his life, he returns to the hermit and begs him to take the demon back. Instead, the hermit plucks a curly hair from his head and hands it to the man. “Tell the demon to straighten it.”

The man does as he says, and the demon dutifully complies, but as soon as he hands the hair back, it curls up again. The demon takes it back, straightens it again and again and again – thus the demon is kept busy until the man needs him for something else.

So, this technique that Linda shared is the hair to be straightened in the parable. Instead of needlessly worrying or obsessing about things you can’t really address in the middle of the night (oh, darn, I forgot to shift that load of laundry to the dryer or I need to call so and so), you can give it an endless task until it gives up and goes to sleep.

If you too have a mind that loves to keep thinking, maybe give this a try. Let me know how it works for you!