There’s a saying in the sleep community “the only people who try to sleep are insomniacs, everyone else just sleeps.”
Unfortunately, sleep can be one of those things that becomes more difficult the harder you try. Sometimes patients share that when it starts getting dark, they begin worrying whether they’ll be able to sleep well at bedtime. Other thoughts that can disrupt sleep include comparing your sleep to others, canceling fun activities due to your sleep, attributing your mood to your sleep.
So if you find yourself having negative sleep thoughts during the day: pause, and question “is this true, or is there another way of seeing this?” There may not be, but purposefully switching into sleep promoting thoughts when you can will help your sleep in the long run.
More about natural sleep medicine can be found at www.naturalsleepmedicine.net.