Unsurprisingly, Wellness articles tend to focus on providing a brief insight into how you can improve your lifestyle and become ‘healthier’. The tips and tricks found in your typical wellness articles are incredibly useful, but sometimes they can be difficult to implement consistently.
We already have so much going on in our lives, and major changes like these take time, especially when they are as fundamentally important as sleep. So the last thing I want to do is bore you with another listicle like “7 ways to sleep better” or “5 things to do to get a better night’s sleep”. I’m also not going to profess to be any sort of ‘snoozeologist’, or similar. But I was having some issues and I really did try everything. Then I tried nothing, and it worked!
Alright you caught me, we’re not really talking about nothing. We’re actually revisiting a great topic that, for the most part, requires you to do…nothing. And no, not the meditative approach to clearing your mind and actively practicing a mental ‘void’ of sorts, but merely closing your eyes and resting well!
This all started a few weeks ago when I found myself in a common and frustrating situation – being unable to sleep, staring at my ceiling. I decided to read through a few of the aforementioned articles and digested what felt like every piece of advice on the internet, from; keeping your bedroom dark and cool to exercise, exercise, exercise…all of which seem quite obvious yet ineffective (in my case). It’s not like I’m trying to sleep under the floodlights of a football stadium!
Needless to say, weeks flew by and I used every trick in the book I could, even dimming my lights an hour before I would head to bed. No matter what I did, no matter how hard I tried, I still couldn’t get a decent night’s sleep.
Funnily enough, around 6 weeks ago, I made a passing comment about my lack of sleep to a friend, who told me to do nothing. I was a little taken aback so he went on to explain: “don’t focus on anything, separate yourself from your devices and jump in bed when you’re ready”. He also added: “when you have a passing thought simply let it go rather than trying to focus on it”.
I mean, it makes sense that just letting your thoughts go is much more relaxing than focusing on something like counting sheep! The last time I tried that, I gave up long before I got close to dozing off.
I guess I was just trying too hard. Who knew? So the next time you’re struggling to sleep, have a go of doing nothing and see if it helps!
As always, please let me know if there are any particular topics you would love us to look into or you have any queries or concerns.
You can call me on 03 9963 4804 or email me directly.
Oliver Szklarz
