I have never had problems with sleep. That is until my marriage was falling apart. It was a time of intense stress and I was hardly sleeping at night. Thoughts were racing through my mind night and day non-stop. I knew I had to do something with my mind to improve the situation I was in.
I was sleeping max four hours a night, with several interruptions. At the time I was going to therapy, and it was first when my therapist asked me if I was sleeping okay that I realised hard times could interfere with sleep.
I was determined to do whatever it would take to find peace. Somehow I had full belief in the power of the mind. This is probably the reason why I did not want to take any medicine to help relieve the stress I was experiencing. I knew I could fix my mind and that I was the one who needed to take charge.
This was at the same time as when I had started with meditation. I was meditating twice a day for about twenty minutes, once in the morning and once in the evening. As time went by I noticed it was becoming easier to fall asleep right after my evening meditation. My mind never got completely calm but the act of sitting down, closing my eyes and placing my attention on the breath was helping.
Many difficult events were taking place in my life. Meditating in the evening helped me fall asleep but I was still waking up several times during the night. In order to change this pattern I started doing the following; Whenever waking up at night, whether it was 2am or 4am, I would get to a seated position and meditate. I was desperate to get out of the situation I was in and so it had to be done. Meditating meant falling asleep again. The other option would be to lie in bed, in the dark, with an agitated mind, and stay restless until I had to get up and bring my children to school.
When I finally managed to come out of my dark times a good friend invited me to spend a few days with her in Bermuda. I was living in London at the time and going to Bermuda meant going into another time zone. With sleep in mind, this can be tricky. To my big surprise meditation helped me with jet lag too. The first morning I woke up too early. But instead of lying awake in bed waiting for the sun to come up I sat up, closed my eyes and gave my attention to my breath. After the meditation I fell asleep again until it was time to wake up to a new day.
If you have trouble falling asleep maybe you would find meditation helpful too?
Wishing you well! Annette X
