Friday, May 21, 2010

A, B, C, Zzzzzz!

Are you bothered by the occasional bout of insomnia?  Do you wake up after only a few hours, your mind suddenly shifting into into overdrive while your body lies exhausted, desperately yearning for sleep?  I have just the thing for you.  A brand new, untried and unproven method, guaranteed only to make you wonder if I've gone nuts from lack of sleep.

I came up with this on one of those nights.  Here's how it works.  You pick a letter of the alphabet, and start naming words that start with that letter.  Except maybe X and Z.  I mean after "zebra" and "xylophone" there's not much for your foggy, over-stressed 3 a.m. brain to work with. 

Catnip, canaries...Zzzzzz
This mental exercise will redirect your thoughts, and release your frazzled mind back to dreamland.  Just beware of the letter P.  I used that one night, when I was a little bit hungry.  I never realized how much food starts with "P" - potatoes, pancakes, pie, peanuts, pork - you get the idea.

But does it work?  I don't know, I fell asleep (coincidence?). You try it and let me know.

13 comments:

  1. I'm totally using this tonight to see if it helps. Only I'm worried I'll think of nothing but food starting with "A". And "B". And "C", ... etc.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That's a problem in those wee hours. It can lead to snacking. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great suggestion! Except for the food part. Yeah, that's bad. I sometimes try to do subtraction and division problems in my head when I can't sleep. My brain is smart enough to know it'd rather be asleep than do math.

    ReplyDelete
  4. OK, so how would this work for me? Um, try "C" - copper, oh, and conductors. Coiled copper conductors, that's the ticket! After a while, I end up cheerfully conformally coating concealed convection cooled carefree coiled copper conductors. Hmm, how do I work in current carrying capacity? Maybe I'll just lie here quietly, take a few deep breaths and try to sleep. What's that sound? Listen carefully and she's just barely audible over Rose's snoring - pumpkin, parsley, pistachios, pimentos, pumpernickel, parmesan, pickles, prosciutto...
    Goodnight, dear.

    ReplyDelete
  5. An interesting tip. Thankfully, I don't have too many of those nights and usually I just give up and stay up and read. But I'll try this next time for sure!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ha, math in the middle of the night? My brain would just short circuit.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi Talon, sorry my responses are out of order. I don't have too many nights like that either. Mostly disturbances to my sleep are caused by my cat!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I haven't had insomnia in years, I'm just too exhausted to worry about anything anymore. However, I used to recite the alphabet to my children as I rocked them and rubbed their backs so they would go to sleep. On the occasion when I have had trouble falling asleep I have found that slowly and calmly reciting the alphabet actually makes me tire. You just have to remember not to sing the song because that could get you pumped up.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I'll have to try it! Or maybe I'll try the math like Kathy said. I HATE math. It's so boring.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hmmm.... pickles, popcorn balls, puff pastry, pasta, pine nuts, pumpkin pie, PIZZAAAAA... nom nom nom!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Jen- I have tried counting forward, and backward (not sheep, just numbers), but that didn't do much for me.

    NJM- Hi thanks for visiting, all the way from New Jersey. Math is boring so maybe it would work, and hey, it's not food! ;)

    To my DH- Cute, but you know I never would have said "pickles". It is likely that this technique won't work for you. You'd lie there for hours frantically formulating fantastically funny fodder from fresh fast food.

    Katherine- Aren't there an amazing number of "P" foods?

    ReplyDelete
  12. I will definitely have to try that. I often wake up and start thinking about all the things I have to do but am too tired to get up and do them. Something to distract myself may be just the thing.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hi Anne,

    That happens to us all now and then. Let me know if it works for you.

    ReplyDelete

Hi, thanks for visiting my humble abode. All comments are read and appreciated.