Struggling to sleep at night because your brain starts racing? Want to find a way to banish your bedtime stresses? The answer may be simpler than you think. Here’s how to find happy things to think about before bed.
What to Think About for Better Sleep
Thinking positive thoughts before sleep sets you up for a good night and leaves you feeling ready for anything come morning. So why not try these six positive sleep thoughts next time stress is keeping you awake?
1. Think about your favorite part of your day
Cast your mind back to a feel-good moment from your day. Something that made you feel proud, something you did to help someone else or simply night-time stories and cuddles with your favorite little people.
Surrounding yourself in a warm glow of calming thoughts before bed will help calm your brain and help it to drift off. So snuggle up under your comforter, and think soothing thoughts… Shop Sleep Enhancing Bedding
2. Picture the most beautiful place you can
Hit up Instagram for some inspiration (earlier in the day of course – no screen time 30 minutes before bed (!)) and picture those calming blue waters lapping the edge of a white sand beach littered with conch shells. Feel the warm softness on your toes, smell the scent of tropical flowers, imagine sipping coconut milk direct from the fruit and enjoy the sun on your skin.
It doesn’t have to be a beach, the idea is to fill your mind with happy thoughts before sleep, if you long for a walk in the mountains, the desert or even on the moon, go there instead. Floating off into peaceful sleep with a lovely scene in your mind will surely lead to restful sleep.
Better sleep may start with better thoughts before bed like positive affirmations.
3. Try positive affirmations
Affirmations are great for interrupting those negative thought patterns. Repeating the same positive thought over and over to yourself will create a belief within you that you are allowed to release the stresses of your day and relax into sleep.
Choose whichever statement below feels most relevant to you and concentrate on repeating it either in your head or out loud as you close your eyes and settle ready for sleep:
-
“I choose calmness and peace”
-
“I give myself permission to close my eyes and fall asleep”
-
“I have done my best today and now deserve to rest”
-
“I am strong. I know that I can achieve anything I want to achieve.”
- “I am proud of myself and the person I am”
4. Think about nothing but your breathing
There is even a yoga technique that suggests that breathing through only your left nostril can help to lower your blood pressure and ease you into sleep. Try lying on your left-hand side with your right index finger closing your right nostril and breathe deeply.
5. Focus on one positive thing for tomorrow
We often get caught up lying awake worrying about all the things we have to do the following day and how we’re going to achieve them. These are not good thoughts before sleep. In fact, they can have a detrimental effect on not only your ability to drop off to sleep, but your quality of sleep too. Instead focus on just one thing that you’re particularly looking forward to, to banish the worries and fill your brain with positive thoughts before bed.
Sometimes we can be our own barrier to good sleep, other times it's outside our control.
6. Think: “I will stay awake and I’m OK with that.”
Sometimes, simply lying in bed unable to sleep can cause so much anxiety that it makes it impossible to fall asleep. Step forward one of the more surprising thoughts that help you sleep. Many psychologists claim this can work simply by tricking the brain using a form of reverse psychology.
By opening your eyes wide and repeating over and over, “I will not sleep and that’s OK”, your brain will take it as a signal to fall asleep – it’s called a sleep paradox.
Sound unlikely? Why not try it.
We hope we’ve given you some ideas, but feel free to come up with more of your own. You could try positive reading before bed to help think of other thoughts to help you sleep. Whatever you decide on, happy thoughts before bed are a powerful way to clear your brain of negativity, drift off to sleep calmly and enjoy a wonderful night’s rest.
Looking for more ideas about how to sleep better at night naturally? Visit our Learning Center.