what do you think about when you're trying to sleep?

[BabyLlamaZen]

I only spoke to dh about this recently as feels so personal. Is there something you always get drawn back to?

Dh is him playing his favourite sport in really slow motion, mine is reimagining scenes from my favorite film, TV show or book. So detailed sometimes but really relaxes me!

I try to do that army trick of thinking of a ball of light moving slowly from my head to my neck, down each arm, into each finger, back up and down my body. It does actually work, I’ve never got as far as my legs.

The only thing is though, when my mind is racing, I forget to do it!

If I'm alone - which I am most of the time (especially now!) I usually MN or something until I can't keep my eyes open. If I can't fall straight asleep I put on something on YouTube (John Campbell is good)

I can't bear to be alone with my thoughts as they're always too upsetting.

And if I think about what I need to do I get too wide awake!!

If DP is here, I sleep more quickly (once we decide we really should try to sleep!) & I sleep deeper. I think on some level I feel safer. (Not that I consciously feel unsafe when he's not)

Either pick someone's house and redesign it or think if I was homeless where I'd sleep in the pissing rain and freezing cold.

I do my best to think about nothing or else I don't get to sleep. I keep my kindle by my bed and read an undemanding book.

If I let my thoughts just drift, they go to worrying things (sometimes reliving something I did or said wrong many years ago!) so I always have a word or number puzzle in my head to work on - difficult enough there's no room for worrying thoughts to creep in, but not so easy it doesn't need working at a bit.

I fantasise I’m staying with Joey Maynard from the Chalet School in her enormous house in Switzerland. I’m staying there whilst my own chalet is being built.

What?! I had no idea this is what people did! I've always taken hours to fall asleep. I can legally be falling asleep doing something on my phone, watching tv etc and as soon as I stop and actually try going to sleep my mind starts going. But not with anything like the rest of you. Brain admin from the day, checking off I've done everything I needed to. Going over situations from the day and trying to decide other ways I could have handled them, how they would have turned out etc and then planning the days ahead. What shopping to buy, what to cook, remembering jobs to do etc.

Honestly I’m astounded at those PP who list names, count etc. That all takes up too much concentration and would keep me awake.

I don’t deliberately think of anything. Sometimes things drift through my mind. Stuff from the day. Things I need to do. All random thoughts. But then my minds goes floaty and that’s just a few seconds before sleep.

Falling asleep fast is a bit of a superpower of mine though.

I sing Bohemian Rhapsody in my head. The rules dictate that I have to start again at the beginning if I get the lyrics in the wrong order. It can take a long time, and it's quite disappointing if I get to the end.

I spent too much time thinking about things I fucked up that day and how much I dreaded the next day, which wasn't really conducive to sleep, so I now list as many words as I can beginning with a letter of the alphabet, or do a categories game in my head of going through the alphabet thinking up a boys' name/ girls' name/ fruit or veg/ animal/ country beginning with each letter. These kind of things crowd out the negative thoughts and are usually boring enough to lead to sleep.

@missyB1

I fantasise I’m staying with Joey Maynard from the Chalet School in her enormous house in Switzerland. I’m staying there whilst my own chalet is being built.

Really, @missyB1? Joey banging on about how pathetically tiny your family (of four) is, and making you play paper games while you are meant to appear interested in stuff that happened to her at school when she was fourteen in another country?

You’ve got a masochistic imagination.

My thoughts always end up drifting to my country of birth, even though I haven't lived there since I was 12.
It's always really mundane details...for example I like to imagine the sound of crickets or the smell of acacia and lilac, or picking grapes from the vine on my aunt's balcony.
I also walk to places in my head...so I'll start off from our old apartment and will do the route to school/a friend's house/my favourite park in my head, remembering all the little details along the way. Usually I fall asleep before I manage to get to my destination. It's actually quite soothing.

Other times I get unwelcome thoughts about death, and how we're born alone and die alone, which terrifies me, yikes.

I pretend that it's actually 11 am and the kids are down stairs with DH and I get to secretly snuggle in bed when I should be up and about!

Or I list everything I am going to do tomorrow in perfect order.

Moments or events in history I'd like to witness. The secrets and facts that could be unlocked with a time machine that would render the user incapable of interfering or being detected. But yeah, I'm weird

I think about whether I'm normal or not. I worry about my health. I think about my day and how I wish I'd acted in a different way. I reflect on my perception of things and whether that's different to other people's.

@1AngelicFruitCake me too! Usually a squirrel, didn't know anyone else did this 🤣

I imagine I have somehow been rescued or plucked out of a dire situation of being absolutely exhausted, freezing cold, starving and having to keep moving. Instead I’ve been fed and tucked into a warm, clean bed. It helps me get into a state of deep relaxation and almost relief.

I feel so strongly that in a past life I was part of a painful exodus from somewhere war-torn. In reality I have always had a warm bed and enough food. It’s weird.

I used to do a desert island-but like swiss family robinson with all sorts of amazing inventions and a very comfortable life.

My current fav is that I cannot move but have endless money to do anything I want to my house.
I am currently making over the kitchen...

I think of a piece of carpet, I get to sleep really fast.

I imagine I'm in a beautiful outdoor swimming pool, in the grounds of an old country house, lined with ornate tiles and decorated with ancient fishes, trailing vines, etc. Halfway down one wall is an opening that will lead me, if I swim through it, to a deep and gorgeous aquatic world of sleep where I can breathe underwater. All I have to do is swim lazily up and down the pool, and eventually dive down and slip through that opening to my sleepy paradise.

This is, I realised eventually, Lara Croft's underwater training pool from TombRaider 2 in the grounds of Croft Manor.

Usually figuring out what my superpower would be, designing an outfit and backstory etc. Change it up most of the time but it eventually makes me nod off - sometimes with exciting dreams.

Zombie apocalypse on the rare day when I don't conk out within seconds of lying down. I could sleep for England.

I'm normally cursing going through the fucking menopause and the damned insomnia it causes.

I daydream about being an additional character in one of my favoured books or TV shows. There is an ongoing storyline.

@cactusdog 😂
Phew! Thought I was the only one! Love the idea of being a cosy little animal 🐿