Busy Brain? Tips To Quiet The Active Mind For Sleep

It’s a well-known fact that we all are too busy in our lives and thus truly busy bees, in fact in a day of 24 hrs, almost more than half of the time, our brain is actively involved in some or the other task, and thousands of thoughts wander in our brain.

On the other hand, every working individual will have a schedule of 9-5 or 9-9 at a few offices, and mostly reach home by the night, after a hectic work, they feel like falling asleep, however, at times, their brain remains active, because of the stress about the presentations, projects to be submitted the next day.

In addition to this, the daytime discussions with their boss will be displayed in front of their eyes, which keeps their brain active not allowing to fall asleep, also the work stress during the day time can further lower the production of the hormone melatonin, which in turn leads to insomnia.

Apart from work-related worry, during the day, one may have disturbed sleep, due to their worry about their future as well. So, in such cases, better to assure yourself that the future is not in your control and that focusing on the present will lead to the best results.

While having racing thoughts can contribute to staying up late, they can also signal other problems, such as anxiety, and maybe bipolar disorders.

Tips To Quiet The Active Mind For Sleep

Understanding the reason behind your racing thoughts and insomnia will help you in having better sleep, for example, if you can't sleep, you might assume you're overthinking things, but note that sometimes, it could actually be a symptom of a medical condition.

Heart disease, neurological disturbances, hormonal imbalance (hyperthyroidism), joint pains, sleep disorders, etc can be the possible reasons for your sleeplessness and thus lower the quality of your sleep.

Empty Your Thoughts Onto The Piece Of Paper

• While we feed our brain with many thoughts and information during the day time, it’s highly important that we write down the thoughts that keep wandering in our mind, before we go to bed because unless you empty your brain, you can’t relax your brain, so as to sleep.
• In this way, whatever thoughts are bothering you, or preventing you from sleep, start writing one by one, no matter if it is your work-related or any family fights, friends fights, or any embarrassing moments, that you faced that day or any past issue is still making you feel guilty, just write them.
• Once you make a list of all those thoughts, then you make two separate columns where the first column lists the problems that can be solved and the second column is for the thoughts that cannot be controlled or things that cannot be changed.
• Secondly, after you draw two columns and add the listed thoughts as per the section, now the first section involves the problems or thoughts that can be controlled, so the next step is to make a section of the Plan/Action, where try writing a single step or action, that can be taken to solve each problem mentioned in the first section.
• Finally, the second section involves the thoughts that cannot be controlled or anything about the past that cannot be changed, which tells you that thinking about something that cannot be changed will only harm your health, by putting you under pressure and anxiety, leaving no peace and it’s all waste of time investing yourself in something that you cannot change.
• Above all the actions or steps that are mentioned have to be initiated soon, you should start working on them, the next morning.

Notice Your Habits Before You Go To Bed

• Activities such as watching television or being on social media just before you go to bed or 1-2 hours before bedtime can stimulate the brain and keep it active, preventing you from having a sound sleep, and thus you keep tossing and turning on your bed.
• The idea of keeping yourself from those smartphones or any other blue light emitting devices is to ensure that your melatonin hormone, a sleep hormone production is not disturbed due to the harmful blue light because this decreased production of sleep hormone can in turn lead to reduced sleep quality.
• Perhaps you assume that smoking before you go to bed, actually makes you fall asleep, however the nicotine a substance in the cigarette will actually stimulate your nervous system and you would find it difficult in falling asleep.
• Also drinking coffee, just an hour before you go to bed can keep you awake and stimulate your nervous system thus preventing you from falling asleep.

Drug Abuse And Its Impact On Your Brian

• Certain drugs such as cocaine and marijuana, and ecstasy when taken by individuals, for whatever reason, can disturb their sleep cycle.
• A systematic review of cocaine drug use and its impact on sleep established the fact that people taking this medication reported difficulty in falling asleep and could only sleep for shorter periods of time. Additionally, cocaine prevented the patients from entering REM sleep, the portion of the sleep cycle where dreams occur.
• Secondly, although marijuana is frequently thought of as a relaxing drug, this is not entirely true, since it is demonstrated by researchers that it does affect the REM cycle and sleep patterns.
• However, the concentration of these drugs or otherwise called hallucinogens (drugs that alter your thoughts and perception) has a significant impact on the sleep problems they experience.
• Notably, the presence of these hallucinogenic molecules in your body as a result of your drug abuse behaviour is one of the causes of your racing thoughts at night that keep you awake.
• Furthermore, a particularly well-liked drug in nightclubs is ecstasy, sometimes referred to as methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA). But two weeks after consumption, it alters serotonin levels in the brain and raises the risk of obstructive sleep apnea.

Try Relieving Yourself From Stress

• When you are stressed, your mind cannot be relaxed, and you will not have a sound sleep for sure, so try to unwind your stress by listening to some pleasant music.
• For example, some people experience an enjoyable tingling sensation in reaction to particular stimuli, known as the Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR).
• Several people create ASMR audios and upload them on YouTube, so as to improve sleep in subjects experiencing insomnia, therefore, you may find a tone of free ASMR videos, that could have calming noises, and quiet reading.
• Wherefore, wear comfortable Bluetooth earphones whenever possible and try listening to them.

Try Breathing Exercises

• Practicing breathing exercises can calm your body and mind, thereby improving your sleep.
• During this, close your eyes and breathe in for four counts, hold for seven, and then exhale for eight.
• To lower your heart rate, repeat this at least five to seven times, at times, closing your eyes may take you back to your thoughts, however, distract yourself by deeply concentrating on the inhalation and exhalation process while you breathe.

Try Talking To Someone Close To You

• When you feel difficulty falling asleep, if it’s not too late try calling your friend or sending a text message, nevertheless don’t continue to speak about those same disturbing thoughts, instead have some deviating conversation to feel relaxed, and to calm your mind from those stressful thoughts.

Watching The Fish Tank In Your Room

• Well, have you ever felt that this small act of observing those fishes in the fish tank can calm down and relax your mind?
• Yes, it does help you to have a sound sleep, as the researchers discovered that individuals’ blood pressure and heart rates significantly decreased after viewing aquarium displays and that having more fish in an aquarium helped people stay focused and feel better.

Conclusion

To sum up, insomnia is quite obvious in most of our lives, where our brain remains active due to various reasons, therefore ruling out the actual cause and following the above-mentioned tips can help you to calm your brain and improves your sleep.