When you can't sleep at night - 3 Planner Tips

 

 

[VIDEO TRANSCRIPT]

Have you ever had trouble falling asleep? Unfortunately, that's a common problem. People know they need to get sleep at night, but just cannot seem to get the rest they need. In this video I'm going to talk about when I have trouble sleeping, and how I use my planner to help with that and give you some other tips. If you're new here, hello, my name is Tonya, and I make videos on practical and functional planning. If being organized and productive is something that interests you, please be sure to hit the like and subscribe button. 

 

So, when I can't sleep at night a lot of times it is because my mind is racing. I'm thinking about something. And normally the same thing like over and over again, goes on in my mind, like in a cycle. So, a lot of times when I can't sleep at night, it is because I'm thinking about something that happened during the day. Did I make the right choices? And what choices will I make tomorrow? A lot of people can't sleep because they're thinking about the things that happened during the day. So, worry and anxiety can keep you up at night, problems can keep you up at night. If you have work problems. If you have relationship problems or finance problems, any type of problem can keep you up at night. I feel like in order to fall asleep, I have to get my mind ready to fall asleep. 

 

So here are my three tips on how to do that; some of these you may have heard before. 

TIP 1

Tip number one is to grab your planner or journal and write down whatever it is that you're thinking about. You'll be amazed at how that eases your mind. Because that way you're getting those thoughts out of your head. And on paper. You don't have to remember anything because sometimes we think things over and over again in our mind, because we don't want to forget to do something. So, by getting all those thoughts out and put on paper can be really helpful. I've talked about this in a previous video where I recommend doing a brain dump. So, if it's late at night and you just can't sleep you got a lot of things on your mind, right your problems on paper, right whatever it is on your mind on paper. So let me show you an example of one of my brain dumps. 

 

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So let me flip through to get to my brain job. So, here's an example of a brain dump wherever everything in my head out on paper. I do this sometimes, and it really helps clear my mind. So, when you can't sleep at night, this might be a great thing to do. And to get any worries or problems that you have out of your head. And on paper. Notice I say write down your problems. That's right, I will write down my problems. Now this does something when you write down your problems, let's say I have a problem at work and I write it down, when you write it down and just leave it for a minute, you will be surprised when you come back later and find that that problem has been resolved. I find that a lot of times the problems that I have ended up being worked out, they may not be worked out immediately or right away. But writing them down on paper does something where it gives it time to designate in my mind, and it helps me think of ideas on how I can solve that problem. 

 

Some problems I can't solve by myself. And I am amazed sometimes when I come back to my brain dump and I see a problem that I wrote down, where over time that problem is resolved. So, I do it. I will write down my problems. And it's something that I really encourage. 

 

You can also use your planner to plan a time to get to bed at a reasonable time. Maybe you're a night owl, maybe you're someone that just naturally likes to stay up late. Some people are like that, and it's hard for their biological clock to calm down at a certain time. You can use your planner pages to plan to be in bed by a certain time. So, if your planner is like mine where you have a place where you have time and you can plan out your day, actually right at the time that you plan to be in bed. So, if you write down a time that you want to be in bed, what this does is it forces you to think about how you are going to spend your time prior to that, so that you can be in bed by a certain time. So, it automatically makes you think about how you are going to plan and spend your day so that you can try to start to calm down for the day at a certain time. 

 

I even encourage you to use a tracker. So, when you do meet your target and you get to bed by a certain time, mark it off on your habit tracker, I did a video on ideas on how to track habits. And I'll place that on a pink screen at the end of this video. 

 

So, when you set goals to try to be in bed by a certain time, maybe you can set a goal where if 80% of the time you get to bed by your target time, you can reward yourself. 

 

An advantage to get into bed at a decent amount of time is appetite control. In the evening, after we eat dinner, I try to get the kitchen cleaned up as soon as possible and get the heck out of there. You want to be nowhere near the kitchen at nighttime. Do you know if you eat sweets and certain types of foods at night, it can stimulate you and keep you up later at night. So, I try my best to get the kitchen cleaned up as soon as possible and put all the food away. So, I'm not tempted when I walk by to grab something to eat. 

 

Have you ever noticed that the later you stay up at night, the more you eat? One way to help control your weight is to get to bed earlier. I am a member of Weight Watchers and one of their tips is to make sure you get an adequate amount of sleep at night because it affects your weight. One time I was really good at it. I was going to sleep early. I was getting hours asleep. Sometimes I'll fall asleep in like nine hours at night. And I'm going to tell you, I did lose weight during that time. So, it really helped. When you're sleep you can't eat because you don't know you're hungry because you're asleep. So, when I try not to eat late at night it is because I'm trying to reduce stimulation. So that leads me to tip number two.  

TIP 2

Tip number two is to reduce stimulation, you're going to stay awake. So, the key to going to sleep is to calm your mind and get bored. Calm and bored people can go to sleep. So, you probably have heard this tip before. But it is recommended that you avoid electronics. Before going to bed. I heard something about some blue light and the blue light makes your mind think it's daylight and it keeps you up. I don't know about all that. But I do know that electronics stimulate you. When you're on social media and you're reading comments and you're looking at something, finding out or looking at pictures or looking at video or you're shopping late at night your mind is stimulated. So, it's going to keep you up. 

 

The good thing about a planner is that it's distraction free. There's nothing else making your attention go somewhere else. There are no notification sounds and pop ups and all these things to make your mind go all over the place and take you to all these different things.

 

Do you know how many times I've gone on my cell phone to check my bank balance. But I ended up not checking my bank balance because I end up somewhere else because there's something on my cell phone that distracts me and makes me go and look at something else. And then later on when I get off my phone, I realized wow, I didn't even check my bank balance which is what I went up there in the first place to do so electronics can be a big distraction to the end. That's why people recommend paper when you're trying to calm your mind and get your body ready for slumber. Some people like reading the Bible at night. If you're worried, reading the Bible can help calm your mind. Maybe you like to read books like I do, I love to read. But there have been a few cases where I'm reading a really good book and I've stayed up really late to read it. So, reading can be helpful at night as long as the book isn't too stimulating. Another thing that can keep you up at night is pain. I've been in pain before for example a toothache and it is difficult to sleep when you're in pain. Some of you watching this video may be in pain and that could be causing you to stay up at night with my husband. He's had a lot of health challenges and a lot of times he's not able to get a good night's sleep because he's in pain. 

 

Now obviously hopefully you can get to the root of what's causing the pain so that you can get a good night's sleep but did you know that your bed could keep you from getting a good night's sleep as well sometimes your bed is just an uncomfortable you might need to invest in a new mattress you might need to get new Lennon new pillows all of that feeds into getting a good night's sleep. This tip is to reduce stimulation. I had fallen asleep before and would erase and mind watching a calming television show. There was a time when I lived alone and I felt unsettled I felt insecure so I didn't sleep deeply because I felt like I had to sleep light and in case I heard a noise in the house sometimes not feeling secure or safe can keep you from getting a good night's sleep and those cases I did watch TV but I turned it down really low. And I found that helped me go to sleep. 

TIP 3

Tip number three and the last tip is to do activities because guess what tired people go to sleep with all those things I just mentioned, you can have all those things going on. A lot of times if you're tired, you can go ahead and go to sleep. So that leads to the question, are you doing enough during the day so that you're tired at night? Maybe if you want to exercise more you can use your planner to think about the times that you are available to exercise so you can plan to go to the gym for example ahead of time, some people don't like to go to the gym. Some people prefer to go for walks or go for bike rides or do other activities. But it's helpful if you use your planner to plan those activities. So, you can make sure that you can squeeze it into your day so that you're tired at night. Some people watching this video may have an impairment where they can't work out like that. Well. You don't have to necessarily tire yourself out doing cardio exercise. Do you know weightlifting can be tiresome, too. So, if you're unable to do certain workout activities, perhaps you can lift weights or come up with other creative ways to tire yourself out. 

 

So, I hope you found my tips helpful for when you can't go to sleep at night. What tips do you have when you can't go to sleep at night? Please be sure to write them in the comments. I love talking to you guys. Please don't forget to like this video. This is Tonya helping you feel more organized, so this can be your best year yet.