Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for January 25, 2022

The process is the journey.

I think I would just watch a good show on TV. Always puts me to sleep.

My lie awake time is the morning. I rethink what is undone from yesterday.

Stupidly, I will sometimes lie awake at night obsessing over some ultimately inconsequential social faux pas I committed 1-4 decades ago.

And the really stupid thing is that I couldn’t tell you what any of them were: I don’t even remember them until I’m on the edge of sleep, whereupon they’re as fresh in my mind like they were yesterday.

Just watch Elementary. Jonny Lee Miller’s voice puts my wife asleep every time.

Well Arlo you’ll need to have your batteries fully charged to implement the chosen Course of Action anyway you go.

Ouch. Terrible advice. I don’t know whether this works for anyone, but it doesn’t for me, and I really don’t recommend it. Thinking the details of problems through is what keeps me awake at three in the morning. It’s when I distract my brain into forgetting the problems that I get to sleep.

I once tried to count to infinity. Slept really well.

With all that, it SHOULD put him to sleep!

I’d be out by the time I got to a couple of possible solutions.

Just reading Arlo’s explanation is making me sleepy.

I wake up worrying about things outside my ability to resolve. Usually they resolve themselves but I can’t help but worry.

Hubby had been through four bank mergers. He told me he put all of his problems into a “box”, closes the flaps and then mentally throws in up in the air. “God can handle it. He’s up all night anyway, and I figure He can work better if I take my hands off of it.”

The trick is to bore yourself to sleep. Describe, in words but silently, what you see with your eyes closed. It’s like watching clouds. It doesn’t take long before your mind has enough and chucks it.

I use Douglas Adams’ approach, and I am always calm.

Nearly everything about which I could worry is actually an SEP (somebody else’s problem).

I have read several times that it was normal, back some time ago, to have first sleep and second sleep, where you get up and do things in the middle of the night. It was even mentioned by Shakespeare.

Pandemania.

I’ve mentioned before my method: I close my eyes and breathe slowly and deeply. While inhaling I think of a color. While exhaling I imagine a field of flowers in that color. Red, roses. Orange, poppies. Purple, pansies. Yellow, sunflowers. Green, some sort of green flowers (not much detail in the field). I don’t last long.

Most or all of the above methods are a form of self-hypnosis. How I started was to pick a word, like “Omm”, then, “chanting” the word and when breathing in, try to relax. Then, when breathing out, try to sink deeper. Later, I found that thinking about something enjoyable from my life would have the same effect. In my case, it was going over the games I played in one of the Chess Tournaments I won or finished highly in. I rarely get to the last game before I’m asleep.

Does anyone else listen to audio books to go to sleep by? It’s not that I don’t like audio books, I love them! It’s kind of like going to sleep in front of the TV.

I don’t really have problems that keep me awake. It’s reviewing all the past screwups that do it.

I watch an episode of Big Bang theory and then i roll over and I go right to sleep. don’t know why it works but it does. then I sleep for 9 hours with one quick trip around 5 am.

Sounds like a FMEA meeting. Failure Mode and Effects Analysis meeting here at General Motors. Fifteen minutes into one most of the participants were sound asleep.

I just listen to a podcast or two and resolve to deal with it in the morning.

Sleeping comes naturally to me. I could do it with my eyes closed.

My husband and Arlo know each other!

Trust Arlo to come up with the right solution.

I fell asleep reading Arlo’s explanation. Guess that was the point.

Falls asleep every time by boring himself.

Nearly put me to sleep just listening.

I have found that God really does answer prayer: every night I say “Now I lay me down to sleep; I pray the Lord my soul to keep…” and I have yet—over many years of effort—to finish my prayers for the night. Also, it used to drive my wife nuts when my Dad would say, “I don’t have any trouble sleeping; I sleep the sleep of the innocents”

“… works like a knockout drug.”

Stop worrying, if you can’t change it then why worry? Wasting time and sleep for worrying is a wonderful way of doing nothing.

Beats counting sheep….

My Mother use to tell me Never tell a man your problems, then youll have more. Sorry Gentlemen but she was right. All the ones I’ve dealt with gave me more problems.

Sounds to me like a good way to lie awake with your brain spinning circles. No thanks.

Put TV on so low that can hear talking, but not who or what is being said. I recite the times tables in my head and then do so backwards. Then onto the the monarchs of England/Great Britain. Then the US Presidents. Then the US President’s wives (which is not the same as the US First ladies as some First Ladies were not President’s wives and some President’s wives were not First Ladies. Then US states and their capitals alphabetically. if still awake – by geography from NE to Hawaii. If still awake do each category in reverse order. If still awake – I give up as it will soon be time to wake up anyway.