I, like many friends my age, can have trouble sleeping at night, especially when I wake up in the middle of the night. This can be exacerbated by “nocturia,” or getting up to urinate one or more times a night, which is common in older people. This can lead to trouble getting back to sleep, especially if you have a “busy brain” that you don’t know how to turn off.
I got a tip on how to fix this from a dear friend years ago that worked well for me and I try to pass it on to friends who have this problem. It helps if you know how to meditate. You don’t have to be very good at it, you can be a beginner (I gave a beginner’s tip on meditation here). Most people with “busy brains” find that their mind does not want to cooperate in meditation, it wants to fly from thought to thought (or from worry to worry). Another problem with meditation is falling asleep. Here comes the advice of my friend, who was also a meditator. In the middle of the night, she said to think to yourself, “Great, this is the perfect time to meditate, because it won’t bother me to fall asleep.” Your mind, which does not want to meditate, will fall asleep as the lesser of two evils. Works like a champ for me.
