Beat insomnia with hypnogogic imagery

When you’re falling asleep, your brain does something you’re usually not aware of. It cycles rapidly through a bunch of random images and/or sounds called hypnogogic imagery. The most common version of it, at least among the people I’ve talked to, are “falling dreams” – the sensation of falling that wakes you up just after you’ve “fallen” asleep.

But sometimes, you become aware of the images as you’re drifting off. Mine are usually completely random things I’ve never seen before – the side of a barn, an arm, a cat near a gas pump. It’s totally off the wall stuff, and I never have any idea where they come from. But I stumbled onto an interesting discovery about a month ago: if I concentrate on the images, I fall asleep. That gave me an idea.

I’ve tested this technique since then on nights when racing thoughts or worries were keeping me from sleeping. My body was tired, but my brain just wouldn’t shut up. Sometimes I couldn’t even drift off enough to get to the hypnogogic images. So I imagined them. I just started picturing the most random stuff I could think of – usually stuff I actually have seen before, but that’s okay – one image after another, as quickly as I could come up with them. Before I knew it, I’d be seeing actual hypnogogic imagery, and then I’d be asleep.

I’ve also noticed I seem to sleep deeper on the nights when I do this than on nights when I don’t. I suppose it might even qualify as a form of meditation.

There are many types of insomnia and many possible solutions. If this one doesn’t work for you, we have some other insomia tips.

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Posted in Health and Beauty on August 6, 2009