Tossing and turning is an annoying habit. There are nights when we just can’t get comfortable in bed and keep tossing and turning all through the night. Why is our bed more comfortable some nights than others?

Tossing and turning is not necessarily due to a feeling of bodily discomfort, it’s probably more related to out mind not being comfortable. In other words stress and worry. We are not relaxed in our mind and the body follows suit. What we have to do then is to change out thought patterns (easier said than done) or to practice some form of mental relaxation technique. Relaxation has to come from within you and is related to your thought process.

The most common cause of stress is worry. Worry is probably the most useless emotion on the planet. Worry is thinking about some future event that may turn out badly. Worry doesn’t supply any answers, it just makes us miserable and tense.

Why do we worry at night? Simple! During the day our minds are taken up with other things like our daily routines, conversations with friend, work etc… When we lie down at night, our minds are free to roam and think over things that happened during the day. That’s when worrying thoughts can arise and we start tossing and turning.

The best way to combat worry is don’t let it start. Don’t even let the first worrying thought come in. Say to yourself, “I’ll think about this tomorrow, tonight is for sleep.” Some people find writing down any worries before going to bed is useful. This can get them out of your mind and down on paper where they can be dealt with at a later time

Have a “grab bag” of thoughts to replace any worrying ones. Think of relaxing scenes or happy memories. One of my favorites is “gratitudes” Think of everything you’re grateful for, a nice dinner, a thoughtful spouse, a phone call from a friend – it’s hard to worry when you’re feeling grateful!

The progressive muscle relaxation technique is also very useful as it involves concentrating on contracting and relaxing all the muscle groups in the body. This will take the mind away from worrying thoughts. More information can be found on relaxation techniques at the site below.

When you feel the urge to toss and turn on the bed, give it time, wait. It will gradually go away. Eventually the habit will wear off completely. Lie still and think about re focusing your mind elsewhere and the urge to toss and turn will be out of your system in a few moments. Otherwise if you start tossing and turning it becomes a never ending process for most of the night.

At times when you feel that the urge to toss or turn is very high and you really have to move, try doing it very slowly. This won’t wake you up as much.

Tossing and turning keeps us awake because we tend to do it quickly and impulsively, the more quickly we do it, the more agitated we get. Try it in the way said above, you will feel the difference and probably get out of the habit very quickly.

Wendy Owen
http://www.insomnia-connection.com