Sleep Junkie

Self distraction involves taking your mind off a worrisome subject by thinking of something completely different that is pleasant or boring. If you are trying to get to sleep and you’re constantly thinking about the world’s economy, global warming, or whether Brad and Brandi on Terminal Hospital will get their heads unglued in time for the twin’s graduation from underwater dentistry school, then you can try thinking of being on a hillside with flowers as far as the eye can see, or at a seashore, watching the waves lap up on the shore.

Any pleasant image will do, or you can slowly count backward from one hundred (go back to one hundred if you reach zero), seeing each number float by, or count sheep, or do multiplication tables.

Anything pleasant or boring will work for self-distraction as long as it’s not something that will get you worked up, like sex. Yah, it’s great to think about rattling their cage, but not when you’re trying to get to sleep.