Why can’t I sleep? 

Now this is going to sound very obvious but if you’re not asleep it’s because you’re awake but to be more specific, it’s because you are consciously awake. There will be having words, often rumerating about something or other going around and around your mind.

How do we stop the inner monologue, the self talk?

The best way to look at this is to think of the brain as having two compartments, the left and a right hemespere that work together and control each other. This is known as contralateral control whereas both sides co-operate but also do different tasks.

By engaging the imagination and creating mental imagry you will force the brain to quieten the internal dialogue and this will help you fall asleep.

So, the 4 step solution to that little problem is to teach your brain to make pictures and this practice will be using the right hemisphere of your brain instead, and here’s how.

1 – Lay down, close your eyes and relax the corners of your eyes.
2 -Take a couple of slow deep breaths then look at what’s coming from your eyes.
3 – Allow your brain to focus on any shapes or contrasting colours coming from inside of your eyes, not the back of the eyelids but what will seem to appear inside of the eyes themselves. You may or may not be able to see a picture immediately, so be patient.
4 – Make the images into a movie and you will soon fall asleep.

If you’re still awake and hearing your internal chatter then you need to get tough!
Any words that you hear make them into writings, it can be fancy handwriting or block capitals, they can be coloured letters or even numbers but the thing is to concentrate on the shapes, if they’re close move them further away, if they’re blurry make them sharp.
With a bit of practice it will come to you but be quick because you are most likely to fall asleep really quickly once the chattering has stopped.
Once you can master this you have just hacked your brain by giving access to the right hemisphere by allowing it to take dominance.

Sleep well.