Tired but can't sleep?
Your body has finished the day, but your mind hasn't been told. What helps is a buffer: twenty quiet minutes between the busy part of the evening and the pillow, ending on something slow enough to follow you into sleep.
Why exhausted and wide awake happen together
Some people call it tired but wired. You go straight from the last message, the last task, the last episode, into bed, and your mind is still running at daytime speed. Tiredness is in the body. Alertness is in the momentum, and momentum doesn't stop just because you lie down.
Build a buffer tonight
- Stop the day on purpose. Pick a time, and after it, no more replies, no more planning. Nothing done after that time is worth the sleep it costs.
- Get it out of your head. Two minutes writing down whatever is still circling. It doesn't need solving, only somewhere to go that isn't you.
- Slow your body first. A warm shower, or just sitting with the out-breath longer than the in-breath. The mind tends to follow the body down, rarely the other way round.
- Lower the stakes in bed. You don't have to sleep. You only have to rest. Lying still in the dark is already doing you good.
- Hand your attention to something slow. A mind going at daytime speed needs a slower thing to match, not silence.
A slow story to press play on
The Settle is a sleep story told twice, the second time slower, from a small village on the Spanish coast where nothing urgent happens. It's paced to bring a busy mind down gradually. You're not meant to hear the end. Here's how it sounds:
If you can't sleep most nights for weeks, talk to a doctor. A story is a way to wind down, not a treatment.