Hello all ~
For some reasons, e.g. taking a little long nap during the day, we sometimes cannot sleep at ( or in) night. Especially difficult when you know there's something so especial on the next day, and you HAVE to sleep as early as possible.
What would you do in that case?
~ murad
This is what I do:
I say to myself "It's 4 am and I'm not at all sleepy. Seeing I'm wide awake, I may as well get up, make a cup of tea, and get ahead of myself - I'll do some reading to prepare for today's meeting."
Then I say "Well, I'll just lie here for another few minutes first"........ "Just another minute or two"....zzzz.
All I am going to say about this is, "it works for me."
I try to think of twenty-five women's names beginning, consecutively, with each letter of the alphabet. (If I used women's names last time, I'll use men's names).
My rules are that, if possible, I'll try to use a different one from the ones I remember using last time; if I get truly stuck, I shrug and just go on to the next; depending on my mood I may insist on commonly-used names or allow myself to use any name I've ever heard of. I don't even try for X (yes, I know "Xanthippe" but since it's the only one I know, I just don't bother; ditto "Xerxes" for a man). The object is to get to sleep, not to win a contest or get a good grade.
If a name pops instantly into my head I'll usually go with it, unless it's one I use too often--I want it to be an exercise in thinking of new names, I don't want it to gel into a personal list of exactly 25 names I say the same way every time.
I feel a little happier if I can come up with "real" names, i.e. names I know that people really use nowadays, and not one-of-a-kind celebrity names like "Oprah" or rarely-used Old Testament names like "Ezekiel" or "Hepsibah," but I'll settle for a "low-quality" name if I can't think of a "good" one. When I get desperate I will fall back on the idea that most surnames can and have been used as first names.
I will try to breathe slowly and come up with one name per breath, but, as I say, I'll allow myself time--maybe as much as ten or fifteen seconds to think of one.
I've tried varying the approach with other things--names of rocks and minerals (too hard), names of countries (too easy), but by and large first names works best for me.
The general idea, of course, is to find a mental task requiring steady concentration, that is unrelated to anything going on in your daily life.
