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Episode 385: Training Your Mind to Sleep · The Growth Project

• 0:00
  the question to ask yourself is how do I stop trying to get to sleep? And how do I start preparing my mind to sleep right like and recognize?
• 0:08
  Okay, like, what does this look like for me to make that change there?
• 0:14
  Welcome back to another episode of the Grid Project podcast put out to you by AMP Los,
• 0:20
  today. And I'll be myself, doctor Gabby Corvinus and Anthony, a Libra,
• 0:26
  bringing you a great episode on training your mind to sleep.
• 0:30
  I think this is one that is very relevant to all of us.
• 0:35
  Sometimes we lay in bed and think it's as easy as closing our eyes and drifting away to sleep. But most of us,
• 0:43
  deal with a lot of things that get in the way. So Anthony kind of take us away here. And tell us a little bit about what to expect from this episode.
• 0:53
  you hit it pretty well.
• 0:54
  The idea that when our head hits the pillow, it would be an ideal world. We would just fall asleep. Right? It would be a snap of a finger and you would be out like a light. But usually that's not the case. It's hard to turn your mind off. It's hard to get yourself to ease into that. So as mental performance consultants, it's an interesting it's a bit of a play on things that usually a lot of our work is usually in athletic context and talking about how do we use this for sport?
• 1:19
  We're flipping that like, okay, how do we use it to ramp down? How do we use it to get ourselves to a place where we can ease ourselves to sleep? So it's, talking about the mental skills that we can incorporate in our bedtime routines to ease yourself to sleep a little bit more, faster.
• 1:34
  it's so interesting to me because when I was doing all of my research on mental rest, mental rest really breaks down into two main categories, right?
• 1:44
  And that's active and inactive and active mental rest with all of those, you know, wakeful resting experiences. But then the inactive is sleep. And it's so important for our recovery, for our functioning, cognitively and emotionally. So,
• 2:03
  and the why why is it that even when I've had the longest day, I'm exhausted and I just want to go to bed?
• 2:11
  Why, when I finally get in bed, do I still struggle?
• 2:15
  it's almost like you're trying so hard to not struggle, right? Like every ounce of your mind is like, I want to go to sleep. I want to go to sleep. But your brain just got through this full day, especially if you if you work or if you're in school or whatever you may be doing of problem solving.
• 2:31
  Right. You were in these daily interactions, these daily exchanges, these daily occurrences in which your mind has to be on, in which you are in a problem solving mode. There's something in front of you you have to figure out, you have to figure out the puzzle. So when we when our heads hit the pillow, our minds like, what are we doing right now?
• 2:48
  Like, we're still in problem solving mode. I'm ready to get after it. But obviously the energy levels don't match that. Right? You're feeling exhausted. You're feeling tired. You're feeling as though like everything's a little bit murky, everything's a little bit gray, or you're in a bit of a fog. And what this occurs in is you have this bit of wired energy and you see these racing thoughts, you see the worry, the planning.
• 3:10
  You're you're replaying the previous day, or you're thinking forward like, oh, I have to do this all again tomorrow. I have this massive presentation tomorrow, this huge thing that I have to prepare for tomorrow. So we're in this disconnect in which our mind, we know we need to sleep. We know this is good for us. We knew we had to get our eight hours, so to speak, our brains like, yeah, but what if I figured out everything I need to free both today and tomorrow?
• 3:34
  And it's always that that friction that we see and that we hear in between our ears.
• 3:38
  yeah. And for myself, what I've noticed, and I'm sure a lot of our listeners can relate to this, is you're experiencing that friction.
• 3:48
  Maybe you're like you said, planning your next day or reviewing everything that happened. That day. And then you realize, oh my gosh, I said I was going to be asleep by ten.
• 3:59
  I'm looking at the clock. It's 1030. And now I'm frustrated because I have to be up at 545. And now, my mind's going crazy because I'm like, I'm not going to even get seven hours of sleep now. And then. That interrupts myself being able to get to sleep. So, I mean, what is happening there?
• 4:18
  it's almost like the worry is feeding off of itself, right?
• 4:21
  Like it's like, you know, and, you know, the right way would be like ideally, in a perfect world, I'd get eight hours every night. Right? But then you look at the clock, it's 1030. It's like, okay, that's 7.5 hours. And then there's 11. It's like we're down to seven and six and so on and so forth. Right. And you just you keep wiring yourself and you keep and then you, you go into okay, like, what am I going to do?
• 4:39
  Okay. Well now I'm going to have to have coffee in the morning or I'm going to have to grab my favorite energy drink in the morning. Right. Like to try to recuperate and find the edges that you need to succeed. So we find ourselves in this task mode, right? We find ourselves okay. This is what I have to do to continue to do this.
• 4:55
  What I have to do to be successful because of a lack of sleep, or to make sure I meet the demands of tomorrow. So we will. We have to try to do is find a way to have non goal directed thinking. We have to try to find a way to keep our mind busy, but in a more productive way, in a way that's allowing us to sort of land the the plane, so to speak.
• 5:20
  Right. There's a good analogy that I heard where when we talk about falling asleep, it's not as though you're you're flipping a switch, right? I wish it was that easy. I wish we were just like, okay, goodnight. And then just be done with it. But really there's like there's a very slow descent that falls asleep. And to to navigate that descent does require your brain to be on the right track.
• 5:41
  I'm excited to dig into that a little bit deeper.
• 5:43
  about that, that gradual line down,
• 5:46
  But, you know, I know that there's quite a few core problems, right. And we've, we've hit on a few of them here so far. But for our listeners, could you clearly outline like what is the literature showing us the core problems people face when it comes to trying to get to sleep?
• 6:06
  Well, I mean, as you said, right. It's the it's the racing thoughts. It's the, the worry. It's the anxiety building up.
• 6:12
  Right. And you a lot of people, when they feel the quote unquote stress, they feel it cognitively and they feel it semantically as well. So maybe you feel that hot on your chest a little bit more. Maybe you feel the this one of your palms a little bit more, hopefully not right before bed because then you have to re shower again.
• 6:27
  And then also you have those those the thoughts and the anticipation and the problem solving mode. So especially when we're talking about how we approach this from a mental performance standpoint, it's how do we relay back from the body to the brain. So to speak. I'm like, okay, well winding down now, like everything we're doing is going to get us and better prepare us for tomorrow to meet the demands of tomorrow.
• 6:50
  That's a great point.
• 6:51
  You know I've worked with a lot of athletes who struggle with it right. Like struggle with getting to sleep at night while they know that it's so crucial they are experiencing all of these core problems you just hit on. And, you know, one thing that is really helpful is having a set routine that you go through, right, to, to initiate that line down.
• 7:17
  But what I found in my client work is most of the time it's you get home, you eat dinner, you shower, brush your teeth, jump into bed and hope that you fall asleep as quickly as possible.
• 7:32
  yeah. And then as well, like you're almost a dude. It's like a almost like a luck component, right? Like you're hoping that, like, okay, like my head hit the pillow.
• 7:40
  I should be able to do this and then as well, like, we see this the a very common, tactic, if you will, to try to get to sleep is okay. Like you would just count sheep, right? Like kids as kids, we're told to count sheep. My mom used to tell me. Just like count. Like literally just count upward, right?
• 7:58
  So. Okay. Like one sheep. Two sheep. But what a lot of research actually shows is that that isn't an effective solution, right? Just like that mundane, simple repetition actually isn't enough to wind your brain down because essentially right it when we count, it keeps the brain organized and alert. But like it's not enough cognitive demand to keep other thoughts at bay.
• 8:23
  Right? So if you tried counting sheep on for size, or if you have one sheep, two sheep and they're like, oh yeah, I have the presentation tomorrow and you're while you're talking to yourself, I hear you do that presentation and then like, oh, I got to pick up the kids tomorrow and then I gotta, I gotta figure out my day there.
• 8:36
  And then all of a sudden you're done counting sheep and you're thinking about the day again, right? Yeah. So what the research actually shows, especially as a part of this worn down routine, especially when your head is on the pillow, so to speak, is we can use imagery or visualization. Some people call it as a more effective solution than counting sheep.
• 8:58
  We can use vivid imagery to imagine calm scenes to familiar environments in which we navigate through, in order to help that descent of the plane, or to help land the plane and actually get yourself to sleep. So it's moving away from monotony, moving away from the counting and moving more towards, okay, we want something just cognitively demanding but peaceful to help us get to those eight hours.
• 9:24
  I even go back to night offers attentional control theory, right where that counting sheep principle is keeping your attentional focus very narrow and external. What do we know about a narrow external focus? It's great for focusing. It's great for directing your attention to something very specific. A goal, or a target. Right. And so counting you're doing just what you set, keeping your activation levels higher.
• 9:53
  Great for performance, right? Great for when you're up to bad and you want to hit a specific target on the field, but when you're trying to sleep, that's not the case. And then I love your imagery research coming in here. And what do we see with attentional control theory and imagery is that it's a internal broad most of the time, right.
• 10:17
  Where you're focusing on how does my body feel? What am I envisioning, sensation wise, at a broader level, which is much more calming and relaxing. So it's it's so fascinating to see how all of these different theories and principles come into play,
• 10:36
  for different performance areas, including sleep.
• 10:39
  yeah. And it all, it all comes to this perfect marriage in which, okay, like you have.
• 10:43
  Okay, where is my attention? And also like, what what am I seeing right now. Right. Like, especially because when you're going through your day, right, you're imagining yourself in very problem solving mode, right? Okay. Like we do this and we do this and do this. You're almost like building A to B to C to D versus trying to more envision a calm, serene environment.
• 11:03
  You're you're more of a observer. You're more taking it all in. Right. You're in like their attention. Focus like you said, is either broad internal what you're using it as like a regulation technique. You're you're winding down the body. But that's what it's like a broad external if you're taking in that external environment. Right. Like you're just in that environment.
• 11:20
  You're taking it all in. You're taking in the scenery. So like especially with with imagery, with visualization. So using the senses to create or recreate something very familiar to you is an incredibly effective way to do that. And we can go deeper into okay. Like what what can I actually implement tonight,
• 11:38
  Listen to this. That way I can actually wind down
• 11:40
  Yeah, I could probably do a better job with using mental imagery, but for myself. So this is a great reminder for me.
• 11:49
  when we're talking about mental imagery of the sleep tool, you've talked about kind of envisioning a serene environment. You've also talked about kind of the more physical sensation side of it. Right? So that relaxing physical sensation,
• 12:03
  you you also highlighted something else when we were,
• 12:08
  getting ready for this episode called a mental stroll.
• 12:11
  Can you explain what a mental stroll is? Yeah. The easiest way to think about it is especially if you go on walks in your neighborhood or, I go on a walk as a little corporate walking path. And Franklin here, and, I do it every morning. Right. And it's familiar. It's a great way to wake up. It's a lot of greenery.
• 12:29
  It's it's well paved. And it's like a very common commute that you walk yourself through where if you close your eyes and you imagine, okay, where am I right now, you can actually navigate that entire walk directionally. You can navigate, okay, I'm going to walk about 200ft. I'm going to take a left onto this pavement here. There's a bunch of trees around me.
• 12:50
  And it goes beyond just the the visual stance because you're taking in the you're taking in the sounds as well. Right. So obviously in Nashville a lot of birds going on here. Right. The smells, the fresh greenery, there's a smoothie place right around the corner. I get a little bit hungry sometimes when I smell the smoothie, but it's a fresh smoothie place.
• 13:07
  You can smell like all the fresh berries and like the nice, fresh, like fruit,
• 13:10
  So like when we talk about imagery, it goes beyond the visual sense, like incorporate all of those senses. And the biggest thing is especially moving away from the task focus. You're you're not you don't have a destination in mind. Right?
• 13:24
  You're just you're going on that walk. You're not solving a problem. You're not figuring out a task. You're not thinking about whatever you need to think about for that next day. You're in observation mode or you're in observation mode. You're taking in the scenery that you're familiar with, that you're comfortable with, and that familiarity lowers some of that alertness.
• 13:44
  So we talk about those racing thoughts. We talk about the maybe the pre sleep anxiety right. The ability to like okay we have like I'm here like I know where I am I know this walking path I do it every day maybe every other day. So I get that sensory detail allows you to build that cognitive image in your head.
• 14:05
  And it's much more effective than just one sheep, two sheep, three sheep. Right. Because you're you're taking everything in. And that allows you to actually begin that day to actually begin to land the plane and, and wind down and actually catch some Z's and actually catch something. It's I love the the plane analogy, too. It's, a great visual for, for myself and for our listeners of how this actually happens.
• 14:31
  It's not a direct plummet, right? We're not plummeting from 10,000ft to to zero, right. Where hopefully gradually declining, losing that elevation.
• 14:43
  Now we're talking a lot about imagery, and we may be making it sound pretty easy, right. Where you just close your eyes and you imagine something you're very familiar with, and you talked about kind of evoking all of the all of the senses.
• 15:00
  But we, we want to definitely address that. It doesn't come naturally for some people. Right? Imagery is a mental skill. It takes practice. It takes repetition. And, you know, it's it's something that can be quite frustrating for people as they're learning this skill because maybe they're having a hard time letting go of the racing thoughts. Maybe they're having a hard time really bringing the picture to life.
• 15:26
  So if I'm someone who is struggling in these areas, what can I do?
• 15:33
  it's a a common question. We get from clients, right? Like if we use imagery as a mental performance tool to have athletes and have tactical athletes in the military as well walk through the tasks that they need to do to be successful, right?
• 15:47
  To get the rhythm, to get the timing, to get the feel, to get the extra mental repetitions of that. And in this context, it's the it's similar, right. Like we're walking through it until you learn the skill where you walk and take this mental stroll and you learn this as a way to wind down. So the number one thing is it's a rap game, right?
• 16:06
  The number one thing is, as with any other physical skill, like a mental skill such as imagery is going to take a lot of reps. So a lot of it is just taking the time to really imagine and almost try to recreate those senses in your head. So, if you want to look this up, there's something called a lemon script.
• 16:27
  And that's very common in our graduate studies. And you'll find that it hits all of the senses, and you can get to touch on the texture of the lemon. You can get them, you can bite into the lemon at one point. And you get that that sour bite at the end of it, too. And with that really is is it's training your mind to bridge the gap between a mental experience and a real experience, because the more vivid that you can make that experience, the more successful your use case of imagery is going to be.
• 16:55
  Right? So it is very much a a mental skill to be developed over time. And it requires all of the senses and it requires a lot of intentional, intentional effort is the word I'm looking for there to get better at it. Yeah. And there are so many great guided imagery videos online. The lemon script is a great one.
• 17:19
  Yeah, maybe stopping it right before you bite into the limit if you're using it before bed, because that might sound the system a little bit, but there's so many other ones that are great for, you know exactly what we're talking about. Calming down, slowing down and relaxing, easing yourself into a more parasympathetic state. Right?
• 17:39
  we have the technology now to create your own imagery script. Right. Like you can go to ChatGPT. You go to Claude Copilot, whatever, whatever one you're using nowadays and you can you can set the scene right, like you can tell your input to probably, hey, I want to create an imagery script that mimics Franklin, Tennessee.
• 17:56
  And it's a corporate environment with a lot of greenery. And there's some animals like birds and there's like insects. And then sometimes there's like people walking around with a little ping pong table outside, too. So like, you can set that scene, plug that all in and talk and talk to chat. Like, okay, success looks like a quick five minute imagery script that captures all of the sentence as well as sets a serene environment which makes it easier to sleep.
• 18:21
  Right. And that becomes a lot more tailored to you, right? Obviously, like a lemon script, it could be used to get better at imagery, but if you really want to use this for yourself, like read through that script like, oh, like, wow, this actually really captures what my mental stroll, what my daily stroll looks like on a daily basis.
• 18:36
  And now I can just keep recreating and working on getting better at this.
• 18:39
  imagery from my understanding and how we're, we're talking about it. And just to clarify for our listeners, we're talking about using this as you're laying down in bed. Right. Like it's kind of that, that right before sleep step, finally calming down.
• 18:57
  But let's back up even further, like an hour prior to laying down in bed. Like, what are some of the things I can do to start priming myself for sleep?
• 19:11
  As you talked about earlier, like the, the idea of a routine is is massive, right? The idea of a routine that's like, if you're a nighttime shower, if you're someone who likes to put a face mask on at night, if you, you know, brush your teeth,
• 19:24
  wash your face, all the little things that you do.
• 19:27
  If you can do that in almost like a ritualized order, that's massively beneficial, because what you're doing essentially is you're communicating to your brain, again, this level of familiarity like, okay, we're trying to begin the descent here, right when the pilot says, okay, we're beginning our initial descent, that's effectively the cue that you're sending to your brain when you're engaging in that nighttime routine now as well, if you're someone who's prone to the racing thoughts, if you're someone who's prone to a lot of the the pre nighttime worries and the pre nighttime problem solving, and especially when you're, you know your brain's not ready for that.
• 20:01
  Right. Because every every single issue that your brain runs across when it's like 10:30 p.m. and it's like I don't know how to solve this. It's just going to create more and more anxiety. So one of the skills as well, if you wanted to incorporate this in your routine is called word journaling. Right? And it's very simple. You can either do this on a notes app.
• 20:18
  You can do this on a piece of paper and you write your concerns down before bed okay. So like very simply like okay. The idea of it is I have these concerns, but I'm not going to deal with them right now. I'm going to deal with them with a fresh mind in the morning. Right. And they can be anything right.
• 20:32
  It can be really to work really to family, related to hobbies related to sport, whatever it may be. You write those down and the problems are on that piece of paper for tomorrow. And the idea of it is, is like, okay, you got your thoughts on paper now? Like you're going to deal with this with a fresh mind tomorrow morning where you hopefully are able to get you're able to solve these issues with a lot more effectiveness, with a lot more clarity as well, and hopefully reduces some of that rumination reduces some of that worry and then waking up the next morning.
• 21:05
  You look at this like a lot of times when I do this, I'm like, this is what I was worried about. Like, like this is going to take all of 30 minutes. So I, you know, I don't understand why I worried about this so much. So a lot of times it is just creating some of that distance between what's going on in your head versus what the reality of it's going to look like tomorrow.
• 21:21
  That's so great. I, I'm someone and I, I really think that there are people who, like you said, have all of these racing thoughts before bed.
• 21:33
  And something like worry journaling could really benefit them. I'm thinking a few people in my life I know who had that tendency on the flip. I'm someone who maybe because my background in researching mental rest when it comes to detaching and kind of shutting off that, that switch in your brain, I've gotten really good at it.
• 21:59
  So my, my problem is I can easily flip the switch. But my partner, he can't. Right? So he's up worrying and I'm over here like fully detached, ready to just go to bed. And so having tools like when you're having people who are different than you that you can promote and help, that is so valuable. And I think the worry journaling is a great example of just getting the thoughts out.
• 22:25
  And when we go back to detachment, that's a key principle for that is writing something down. We then got the principle of writing it down.
• 22:34
  And then if it's a negative thought that really has no action correlated to it, nothing that you need to do the next day in relation to it, just crumble it up and throw it away again.
• 22:45
  It does not matter.
• 22:46
  Those. Yeah. Just irrational negative thoughts being able to just write them down and get rid of them.
• 22:52
  And that's a another big factor for eliminating rumination. So I love that one.
• 22:58
  One thing we've talked about on the podcast in the past as well is diaphragmatic breathing. And also could be something that you integrate into that great bedtime routine.
• 23:10
  talk to us a little bit about diaphragmatic breathing. Anthony, I know I've talked about it in the past, but just as a reminder for, our listeners,
• 23:18
  honestly, we I used to teach this to people preparing for special operations as a wind down tool, right? As a way to, like, especially when you're so ramped up and you're so go, go, go after like a long day of just going at it and being at 110%.
• 23:32
  This is such an effective tool to really communicate and the body to the brain,
• 23:39
  I'm like, okay, like we're we're no longer in this threat environment. We're no longer in this go, go, go environment. Now we're in arrest and digest kind of environment, right. And especially when you can do diaphragmatic breathing effectively, it slows and it activates the parasympathetic system.
• 23:54
  So you're basically when we're in this fight or flight system, the brain is sending signals down to the body like, hey, we got a threat we got to deal with right now, right? We're either going to run from it or we're going to fight it. Versus on the flip side, this rest and digest is the opposite, where it's like diaphragmatic breathing activates the vagus nerve.
• 24:11
  It goes send signals up to the brain, and it's like, okay, no more threat anymore, right? We're going to we're winding down now. We're able to rest, we're able to actually digest, we're able to relax a bit more. So especially and there's there's so many, as you said, like guided breathing videos in terms of how to do this effectively.
• 24:28
  And I encourage you to look this up. But a simple one is box breathing where it's that for a second, inhale for second hold for a second exhale. That really places an emphasis on your breathing and narrows your attention to just that breathing. And you can layer that on to that mental stroll as well. Right. Especially just being able to play with it, keep the mind occupied, as well as coupling that with resting the body in the brain.
• 24:53
  I know one thing too. Some people struggle to like, get the diaphragm out of breath. So like when we'd say like, okay, put one hand on your chest, put weight on your stomach, and then take like three deep breaths. And oftentimes we'll see is people's hand on their chest tend to move more than their stomach. And it's because it's so well learned to just use that and to breathe more shallowly because it's just we're used to it, right?
• 25:13
  We're used to being go, go, go. So being able to get that belly breath, you get that really big diaphragmatic breath. One of the cues we used to teach is imagine there's a balloon in your stomach. And every time you draw that inhale, the balloon expands. And that way you're actually making sure, okay, I'm getting this diaphragmatic activation.
• 25:31
  I'm beginning to engage in this rest and digest system, and ultimately I'm beginning to wind down. It's signaling that safety to the rest of the nervous system. So that's one of the the most effective and powerful ways to bring yourself down.
• 25:47
  And and a final thing to add would be, technique, I guess you could say here would be gratitude, right.
• 25:54
  Like we've talked about worry journaling. We've talked about diaphragmatic breathing. But another thing our listeners could add into their routines would be practicing some gratitude. There is so much research on positive psychology and gratitude practices.
• 26:11
  And really highlighting that it shifts you out of a threat state and to a safety state. Right. That parasympathetic state that you were talking about, being able to rest, relax, and gratitude is a great tool for that.
• 26:27
  It allows you to think positively, to reflect on the good things that have happened, maybe throughout the day or throughout the week.
• 26:37
  You know, I've had days where it feels like nothing good happened, right? We all have, right? We've had this stressful day, so gratitude at the end of the day may look very different from a day where everything goes well.
• 26:52
  And just allowing yourself to, again, detach from the negative and focus on the positive.
• 26:57
  gratitude is one of those skills that is so learned. Right. And in fact, like the when the Army taught gratitude, they called it hunt the good stuff. Right? Because it literally you have to hunt it sometimes, as you said, like there are days where you're going through your day and I'm like, wow, nothing good happened to me today.
• 27:14
  Another awful day, right? And if you really take the time to zoom out and like, okay, like, what was one good thing that happened to me today? Okay. My morning cup of coffee was absolutely phenomenal, right? Like it was great. Perfect amount of milk in my cappuccino. Maybe a little bit of honey at the bottom if we're feeling crazy, like and like just something as simple as that, right?
• 27:33
  Like it's like it's small. It's relative to the rest of your day, probably. But it is something positive and it fights against that negativity bias. It fights against some of those racing thoughts, the worrying, the constant problem solving because you're going out of your way to to sift through and find, okay, something good happened today. What was it?
• 27:53
  What did it mean to me?
• 27:54
  yeah. The morning coffee piece I really resonate with sometimes in my day, that is the only good thing, right? And is the thing I look forward to. So even remind yourself. Wow, I had a great cup of coffee this morning. Maybe I get to wake up tomorrow morning and have another great cup of coffee.
• 28:10
  Okay, so it's a it's a great motivator for sleep.
• 28:13
  So I know we're coming up on time and I want to package all of this for our listeners into how do we create a routine, how do we create a sleep routine that really primes this? So Anthony, what what are the steps for creating a routine? How do we put all of this together.
• 28:32
  And it looks different with every person. Right. And I would say the number one thing that's going to matter is the consistency aspect of it. It's basically how do you build a certain level of familiarity with your brain and body that, okay, we're beginning this winding down process now, and it probably is going to start probably 45 minutes to an hour before bedtime where you have your shower, where you're engaging in this nighttime routine, whatever it might be, whether that face mask looks like whatever the stretching might look like, and when your head hits the pillow, that's where a lot of the mental skills that we're talking about can really have a lot of
• 29:04
  value here. Right. So we talked about some of the mental imagery, the mental struggle,
• 29:09
  We talked about the diaphragmatic breathing, the worry journaling, the gratitude practice. If you try all of those things all at once, you're probably going to be overwhelmed. Be like, oh my God, I have a whole nother hour before bed. So the the number one thing would be, okay, what do you think is going to work best for you and try that on for size?
• 29:24
  Right. A lot of when we talk about effective sports psychology, we talk about effective mental performance practices. A lot of these are individualized. So try them on for size like if if gratitude practice. If you're just sitting there just stewing and like I can't think of anything good to think about the maybe don't try that on for that one.
• 29:41
  Right. Try to pivot towards that gratitude to die from breathing. Try to pivot maybe towards the worry journaling aspect. Right. It's it's finding what's going to work for you. And then once you do find it, make it consistent, make it day in and day out. So routine that your brain makes that association day after day, night after night and goes, okay, we'll wind it down here like this is now it's time to land the plane, so to speak.
• 30:06
  Yeah.
• 30:06
  that's training your circadian rhythm right there. Right. And like the consistency piece, having the discipline to go to bed at the same time. More nights than not. Right? I'm not going to sit here and say it's feasible to star to your night routine at the same exact time every night. Because life is unpredictable. Things get in the way.
• 30:26
  But more often than not, having this routine that you go through, whether it starts at 8 p.m. or 830, going through those same steps primes you for sleep. And the more consistent you are with it, more your circadian rhythm will align to it and allow you to more naturally drift into sleep. So it does become easier with time.
• 30:49
  But we recognize that this is difficult. Like it is hard to fall asleep sometimes. We wish we could be like bears and just hibernate. Right? But it's not that simple.
• 31:02
  So just, really make our listeners feel a little bit better. This is something you struggle with. You are not alone in this. It is a very common,
• 31:11
  difficulty.
• 31:12
  And the good news is that there are strategies to help you. And our hope is that through this episode, we provided you with some practical tools to start trying implementing.
• 31:24
  We really encourage you to start developing your pre sleep routine. And like Anthony said, if something's not working, try something else and figure out what works for you rather than what works against you.
• 31:40
  Any closing thoughts from you, Anthony, on on this or any final tips for our listeners? I think the biggest thing, no matter what skill you decide to to plug and play with or whatever you decide to take away from this episode, like
• 31:52
  the question to ask yourself is how do I stop trying to get to sleep? And how do I start preparing my mind to sleep right like and recognize?
• 32:00
  Okay, like, what does this look like for me to make that change there?
• 32:03
  So it's a it's a reflection question for you to begin. Okay. Like what's working. What's not working. Where do I go from here?
• 32:11
  I love that the the reframe of how you're thinking about it preemptively.
• 32:16
  I found this really helpful, a good refresher for for me as I navigate the stressful times and hopefully our listeners find it valuable as well.
• 32:26
  We thank you all for tuning in and remember to like, subscribe, leave comments and we will see you all on the next episode. Thanks everyone! Hi Ariel.