This Relaxation to Deal with Insomnia exercise, in two parts, is about dealing with sleeplessness caused by a very specific problem–worry, which keeps both the body and mind awake at night. It consists of two things–physical anxiety and mental worry. This insomnia relief script in part one will focus on visualization. This script was written by Diana.
Anxiety is the fear response without something in your physical surroundings to be afraid of. That response can be at a low level and be tiredness and yawning throughout the day and muscle tension that won’t go away at night…or can be at a high level with heartbeat very fast and difficulty breathing.
Worry is the mental activity that causes you to remember dangers that you were in and to picture future disasters, and those pictures and stories are formed with the memories of situations you were in that were physically uncomfortable and emotionally unhappy, and you can’t sleep because of nightmares about them or endless replays of them. The physical stress response keeps all that going so that you can’t sleep because you can’t get into a comfortable position when you are lying in bed, and the mental response that plays stories with unhappy endings keeps you awake because your mind can’t be rid of it long enough to sleep. Both of these things together are what I am calling “worry”.
This worry state is not normal. You might have learned that this worry response was normal because it was the one that your mind and body went into every night…until tonight, when you begin to learn a new response for sleep using this Relaxation to Deal with Insomnia exercise. You may have lived a very long time continually in the worry frame of mind, through the day and continuing into the night, but there is a normal response that lets you sleep. It is called relaxation. It is about memories of peaceful places yesterday, happy stories about tomorrow, and pleasant bodily sensations tonight, because your muscles are relaxed and your mind is able to imagine peaceful places and happy words. The Relaxation to Deal with Insomnia exercise will teach you about the relaxation response. Use this Relaxation to Deal with Insomnia.
Relaxation is normal for sleep. Just as your mind may find it easy to have you use your memory and imagination for worrying, you can easily learn to use your memory and imagination to cause you to relax. You can sleep without worrying. This exercise shows you how to rehearse the relaxation response for sleep, to bring you the words to help you relax to deal with insomnia. Deal with worry to deal with insomnia. Get rid of worry to deal with insomnia.
To deal with insomnia, you need to take a mental vacation from your worries, and nighttime is when you can take a long vacation from them…with visualization…and every night you return to taking a mental vacation from your worries using your imagination. You can deal with insomnia. You can deal with insomnia and get to sleep, by using your imagination because there is where your struggle is won or lost, and you can overcome the same worry every night by use of visualization so that you get the relief from your worry enough so that you can sleep. This exercise is especially helpful to deal with insomnia when you cannot change the external events around you that make you worry. You can take the nightly mental vacation, which is necessary for you, in this case, to deal with insomnia and to sleep. To begin this relaxation to deal with insomnia, get comfortable…lying down is best…and start to relax.
To deal with insomnia, first let your mind become quiet…turning your attention inward as you focus on relaxing your body…allow your muscles to relax…from your head to your feet…
Imagine what relaxation feels like. It might feel warm…heavy or light…tingly…loose…relaxation is a pleasant, calm feeling…it feels very comfortable.
Let your muscles relax. Notice any areas where your muscles are tense, and let a feeling of relaxation begin there.
The gentle rise and fall of your chest with each breath is so calming…so relaxing…each time you breathe out…and your chest lowers gently…you feel even more relaxed…
As if all the tension leaves your body when you exhale…and you relax even more when you breathe in…becoming so deeply relaxed… Notice how relaxed you are starting to feel…drifting in relaxation…
Any remaining tension can continue to leave your body as you breathe…becoming more and more relaxed…as time passes, you relax even more…
Any sleep is good…if this sleep, even if it is short, can be worthwhile, that’s great. Even a short, shallow sleep is helpful.
Nighttime is time for you to relax, rest, and sleep.
Even just relaxing can help you feel refreshed…and can restore your mind and your body… It doesn’t matter if you sleep right now…or how long you sleep…just the act of using relaxation is enough.
When you awaken, you will feel refreshed…rested…and alert. You will wake up when you need to…so right now…for the time that you do have to sleep, just rest…just relax…taking the time you can to sleep…to relax…
It’s okay if you don’t sleep right now…and it’s okay if you do…in this moment, just relax…you can wake up quickly if you need to…and you will be alert when you have things to do…right now you can pleasantly drift…relaxed…serene…
Let’s use visualization to focus the mind and provide a mental vacation from your worries.
When worry thoughts about your day or the next morning come back, and they will, recall the feeling you had in your body when you heard the words, “Breathe….the rise and fall of your chest…relax.” Then know that this visualization continues with 3 things.
Imagine that worry is like dark and peace is like light. Worry has a message. It is full of darkness and feels like muscle tension even if you are lying in bed. It says, “Stay awake because of me.” This is what worry does to you. It wants you to stay awake for hours. If you are afraid to go to bed because bedtime means a time to worry in the dark, put words about light and peace in your mind and relaxation in your body with calm breathing and the awareness of warmth and heaviness. Now peace of mind is like light and sleepy words. The sleepy words call you and say, “Come with us. We bring you to a cozy place, a nice bed, and we say that only good things are in the place where we lead you. You can relax when lying in bed. Be aware of what it feels like…arms and legs are heavy and warm…” Imagine a peaceful place. This may be one you have never been to, one that you remember, or one that may even be in the movies or a story. Imagine that you are there…a peaceful place…
Bringing peaceful words or music to yourself. IF you wake up and can’t get back to sleep or if the worry thought takes you away from the peaceful place, say to yourself, “I can do something about this by putting peaceful words in my mind. I listen to calming phrases…or calming music…until I can imagine the peaceful place again. I am in my bed, surrounded by pillows. My sleep becomes deeper, here in the quiet of the night. I can picture happy things with my imagination. I recall peaceful words I have heard or read today. I listen to new peaceful, sleepy words that take me to dreamy places.
Relaxation to Deal with Insomnia Part 2 – Affirmations
This is part two of the “Relaxation to Deal with Insomnia” insomnia relief script. This part consists of affirmations.
To begin, get comfortable…lying down is best…and start to relax.
Let your mind become quiet…turning your attention inward as you focus on relaxing your body…allow your muscles to relax…from your head to your feet…
Imagine what relaxation feels like. It might feel warm…heavy or light…tingly…loose…relaxation is a pleasant, calm feeling…it feels very comfortable.
Let your muscles relax. Notice any areas where your muscles are tense, and let a feeling of relaxation begin there.
The gentle rise and fall of your chest with each breath is so calming…so relaxing…each time you breathe out…and your chest lowers gently…you feel even more relaxed… As if all the tension leaves your body when you exhale…and you relax even more when you breathe in…becoming so deeply relaxed…
Notice how relaxed you are starting to feel…drifting in relaxation…
Any remaining tension can continue to leave your body as you breathe…becoming more and more relaxed…as time passes, you relax even more…
Any sleep is good…if this sleep, even if it is short, can be worthwhile, that’s great. Even a short, shallow sleep is helpful.
Nighttime is time for you to relax, rest, and sleep.
Even just relaxing can help you feel refreshed…and can restore your mind and your body…
It doesn’t matter if you sleep right now…or how long you sleep…just the act of using relaxation is enough. When you awaken, you will feel refreshed…rested…and alert. You will wake up when you need to…so right now…for the time that you do have to sleep, just rest…just relax…taking the time you can to sleep…to relax…
It’s okay if you don’t sleep right now…and it’s okay if you do…in this moment, just relax…you can wake up quickly if you need to…and you will be alert when you have things to do…right now you can pleasantly drift…relaxed…serene…
Let relaxation and sleep happen naturally, this is how they work; the unconscious part of the brain takes over.
Let the words carry you from wakefulness into sleep.
The words do this all by themselves. Imagine the words you hear in the exercise you are listening to to come to life and lead you by the hand to a place called Sleepy Place, or whatever name you wish to call it. Better yet, imagine that they carry you away into sleep as if you were floating on a cloud or if the words themselves were like soft, cozy beds.
You know that worrying tells your brain to stay awake because it causes tight sensations in your body and thoughts that repeat over and over in your mind. Visualize the worry sending you the same thoughts over and over like paper messages. This is what it is doing to you. It sends you the message, “Stay awake because of me.” When you worry, you reach for relaxing words that tell you to focus on different thoughts in your mind and different sensations in your body that are friendly to sleep.
Go ahead now and allow yourself to drift toward sleep as you repeat the following sleep affirmations to become more and more sleepy…
My sleep comes in cycles, not a solid 8 hours, so it’s okay if I wake briefly during the night, sleep coming in stages 1, 2, 3, 4 and then 4, 3, 2, 1, and then awake.
If I try too hard to relax, it won’t happen, but if I let relaxing words guide me they cause my mind and body to relax.
My body knows how to breathe. It does this naturally.
If I wake up and have trouble falling asleep, then my next step is to relax.
When I am aware that I’ve woken up, this is a cue to begin a relaxing routine.
It is normal to wake briefly during the night.
When I am aware that I can’t get to sleep, I tell myself to put relaxing words in my head.
Relaxation is my goal, not sleep.
Rest and relaxation help my body rejuvenate.
May these help you get a good night’s sleep tonight.
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